A spade for life

About 5 years ago, I was tempted by a long-handled De Wit spade when visiting Gardener's World Live at the NEC in Birmingham.  Having dug for years with a standard length (but beautifully sharp) spade inherited from my grandma, my eyes lit up at the sight of a border spade whose handle just seemed to go on forever.  The price, though more than a bog-standard spade, seemed reasonable to preserve my lumbar region as I'm nearly 6 feet tall. The chance to work with a tool suited to my height, seemed delightful - tools are a bit like trousers in my experience, never quite long enough. But pragmatically, you just get used to the Monsieur Hulot look.

I excitedly introduced my new purchase to my equally tall father, who grunted suspiciously and said it would never last as the greater leverage forces would make the shaft snap in no time.  Several years later, it was still going strong but a couple of weeks ago, when prising superfluous cherry laurel bushes out of the bottom hedge, there was a horrible cracking sound and his fateful prophecy came true.

I lost my grandma's venerable spade last year when it snapped in two after being used used, axe-fashion, by a person unnamed, to remove a huge rambling rose bush from the border. I was therefore devastated to have lost my other favourite. As I glumly rubbed mud off the De Wit logo on the cracked and split handle, I dimly recalled something about a lifetime guarantee.  In this age of the internet, it didn't take long to find the Dutch company's facebook page, to post them a message and indeed, to get a reply enquiring which model of spade I possessed.  The whole process took about 20 minutes from sitting down at the computer to sending them a photo of my damaged spade. Three days ago  a long cardboard parcel arrived, containing my new handle for no charge whatsoever.

Now all that remains is for me to get the old shaft out and replace it with the new one.  Looks like that's something I can be getting on with while it continues to chuck it down with snow outside.

Thumbs up for De Wit though - very impressed with their product and their customer service. It looks like their spades really are for life.

Disclosure:  The views expressed in this post are based purely on my personal experience and are not solicited, sponsored or paid for in any way by the company concerned.