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Tips for Choosing Tools
To find tools and equipment that are ergonomically correct for you – and therefore safest, most comfortable and easiest to use -- look for products that:
Allow your joints to remain in a neutral (non-twisted) position – for example, “pistol grips” at the end of hoes that allow your wrist to remain straight |
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Have grips or handles that comfortably fit your hands
- without requiring too much constriction of the fingers (grip too small) or stretching (grip too big) |
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Allow your back to remain as straight as possible – for example, wheel hoes, extra-long-handled hoes that allow you to hoe without bending over, long-handled versions of hand tools like the Korean hand plow or Cobrahead weeder, or auxiliary handles for shovels, rakes etc. that provide added lifting leverage and minimize bending |
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Adjustability – for example, wheel hoes whose handle height can be easily adjusted between users. |
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Come in various sizes – for example, the shovel-spade hybrid HERS™ that we recently introduced at Green Heron Tools. Everything about HERS™, from the shape and diameter of the handle to the angle and enlarged step on the blade, was scientifically designed based on women’s bodies and how women shovel. It comes in three sizes, determined by height. |
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Are as light as possible without compromising function
- for example, the ARS folding saw available through Green Heron Tools weighs only 6 ounces but is tough enough to easily cut through thick tree limbs, and our shovel, HERS™, weighs less than 4½ pounds, making it possibly the lightest tough shovel on the market. |
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Minimize strain, lifting etc. - a good tractor quick-hitch that allows the driver to stay in the tractor seat while connecting and disconnecting implements, for example, is in a sense ergonomic for everyone. |
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