This super-tough garden spade by Burgon & Ball has been tested to a breaking strain of 100kg – that’s 82% stronger than the British standard. To save your back, it has a longer handle than most spades, crafted in FSC certified hardwood. The handle has a comfortable 'Y' grip, double riveted at the base for strength. An extra-long, double-riveted strapped socket introduces strength and an element of flex at this key joint.
This spade has a large blade for efficient digging, in mirror-polished stainless steel head for rust resistance and clean movement through the soil. Wide comfort treads at the top of the blade prevent any discomfort for feet, allowing you to really dig deep, in even the most challenging soil.
This stainless steel digging spade is endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society, perhaps the ultimate accolade in the gardening world. Like all Burgon & Ball’s RHS-endorsed stainless steel tools, this spade is covered by their lifetime guarantee.
Key Information:
RHS Endorsed
Lifetime Guarantee
Overall Length: 111cm (44in)
Head Dimensions: 29cm Long x 18cm Wide (11.5in Long x 7in Wide)
Handle: FSC certified hardwood
Head: Stainless steel
Weight: 2.01kg
Why Choose this Spade?
Your looking for a good quality tool that will stand the test of time.
Your Looking for a full size spade for larger gardening tasks.
You have reasonable body strength and technique, and can make the most of a full size spade.
Your not going to be using the spade for heavy duty applications like building work, or turning over highly compressed uncultivated ground.
Alternatives?
If you have a small area to work or struggle with strength to use a full size spade, or are looking for a smaller spade to aid planting consider a border spade.
If you are looking for a spade to use when creating a new garden or renovate an old one that may involve some building work or digging hard ground? Consider a carbon steel spade.
Burgon and Ball
Burgon and Ball started out making shears in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1730, in 1873 they built ‘La Plata Works’ at Malin Bridge, also in Sheffield, where they continue to manufacture Burgon and Ball tools to this day. In 1865, when most shears were made of iron, James Ball patented a new process to allow the manufacturing of solid steel sheers. They have produced somewhere in the region of 25,000,000 sheep shears in the 280+ years since they were established and have developed a world class expertise in steel working and tool production.
RHS Endorsed Garden Tools
Burgon & Ball tools are the only garden tools to be endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society, one of the world’s foremost horticultural organisations and the UK's leading gardening charity. You can be confident of the quality of Burgon & Ball’s tools: all our RHS-endorsed gardening tools carry a ten year guarantee (for cutting tools) or a lifetime guarantee (for stainless steel tools) against manufacturing defects.
Burgon and Ball have been making tools since 1730, and their expertise with steel is packed into this collection. These tools combine high quality materials with ergonomic design, taking the hard work out of gardening and making them a pleasure to use, for many years to come.
This collection encompasses hand, mid-handled and large tools, as well as our full range of cutting tools. From a trowel to a high-performance spade, and from a mini snip to super-powerful loppers. The RHS collection can be found here: RHS Collection
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is an iron alloy that allows the tool to be both strong and durable, whilst resisting rust which prolongs the life of the tool and makes them much easier to use, whether that be a spade cutting through the soil or the blades of a set of shears that slide effortlessly against each other.
Despite the durability of Burgon and Ball’s tools, stainless steel is not as strong as other steels. To create stainless steel, the carbon content must be reduced, and the chromium content increased. This creates a softer but rust resistant material. Burgon and Ball utilise different grades of stainless steel in their tools carefully chosen to maintain strong and durable tools. Their hand fork for example utilises three different grades: in the Ferrule, Tang and Tines to balance the needs of strength against rust resistance.
When should you choose stainless steel tools?
Stainless steel tools are best chosen for every day gardening tasks, digging over, raking, and weeding borders, regular pruning tasks for example. For these tasks stainless steel is more than strong enough, and the rust resistance will mean that tools are easier to clean, push through the ground, and stay in good mechanical condition for longer whilst increasing the life of the tool. If, however you are undertaking more heavy duty tasks like building work, digging over heavily compacted soil, and heavy pruning work to overgrown gardens, you may be better of with carbon steel variants that are stronger but have less rust resistance than their stainless steel counterparts. When choosing between stainless and carbon steel, it’s not as simple as one is better than the other, it’s what are you going to do with it?