My leisure knife, on the job

I decided to tackle the removal of a massive old mat of ferns in a client's garden first thing in the morning, before sweat and bugs and dehydration got the best of me. Within five minutes, my shovel was in two pieces. Useless. I moved to task number two - weeding mint out of ivy, oh joy - and immediately stuck my (gloved) hand in a pile of stinking cat poop. So I moved back to task number one, enlisting my pitchfork, which totally didn't work at all. Deflated at the idea of driving back across the tracks to retrieve the other shovel, I wondered what on earth I could do...

And then I remembered my leisure knife! Was it in the truck? It was! Would it work? Let's try!

I have pretty much never used my leisure knife, but have been carting it around in my little purple tub of tools. It was a gift from Matt's mom and stepdad a couple of Christmases ago. We all had a good laugh when I opened it: it's called a leisure knife, but it looks like a one-slash death shiv. To take out a rhinoceros. Does anyone do that in their leisure?


Not me, but at work I occasionally come up against something that needs out but can't be outed with leverage. My leisure knife cut through that miserable, woody old fern like it was nothin'. Impressive!

Further research shows that my leisure knife is really a Japanese hori-hori. Wikipedia says to be careful with it, because it's sharp. What they mean to say is: "Use it to saw leisurely, without force or frustration. Else you will very cleanly sever whichever hand is not holding your leisure knife."