Hori Hori knives have become popular over the past few years in the gardening world, and I always wondered if they’re worth the hype. I’ve now had my knife for a couple years now and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I got the hang of it. It’s my favourite tool, I bring it everywhere with me, and I’m annoyed when I don’t have it with me. Let me tell you why!
A Hori Hori knife is a multi-use garden tool that originates from Japan, often referred to as “the swiss army knife of the garden”. These knives can cut, prune, dig and weed making them useful for multiple tasks around the garden.
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My hori hori knife is from Sproutbox Garden so I can only speak to the quality of their knife. According to SproutBox Garden‘s website, the knife has a walnut handle, and the blade is made from rust-resistant steel.
Based on my research on quality knives, it’s important that the blade goes all the way through the handle, and you can see from the photo above that this knife does! It also has a good weight to it and the handle feels comfortable in my hand.
As is typical of all Hori Hori knives, this one comes with the serrated blade, the smooth blade, a hook and the curved shape of a trowel. In addition to those features, this one also includes measurements on it if you’re looking to use it as a trowel for planting things that require measuring depth, such as bulbs.
The knife does come in a sheath which is important for storing it safely. My one issue with the sheath is that it has a loop on the back of it so you can carry it with you, but the loop is permanently closed which means you can only wear it if you have some kind of belt on, which I never do. It would be better if the back loop had a snap on it so that I could hook it to the belt loop on my pants or somewhere else. Because the loop is closed it makes it cumbersome to carry it around everywhere when the option does exist for attaching it to a belt.
Finally, although Hori Hori knives originated from Japan, this knife was produced in China, which I thought was important if you’re looking for an authentic Japanese knife made in Japan.
If you plan to buy a Hori Hori knife and wish to save 10%, you can do so using my code UGC10.
I took the Hori Hori knife out for a spin in this video if you wanted to check it out and watch the knife in use, otherwise read below for my experience using the different features!
From my experience, this blade is most useful for cutting soft plants such as lettuce. I used it to cut my romaine lettuce when I harvested the entire heads and it worked quite well. I later tried to use it to cut the thicker, more dense stems of my comfrey and it didn’t cut them at all.
Based on this, I recommend this side of the blade for cutting anything that is softer and less dense.
This is the most useful feature of the hori hori knife apart from it’s digging capabilities. The serrated edge does a really good job of cutting stems, branches and thicker plant material. It cuts quickly and easily, and it surprised me how well it worked. It also works well to cut twine too, which is a neat feature when you’re in the garden and need to get support set up.
Based on some videos I watched on using the trowel itself, the benefit of this blade to other trowels is how narrow it is, since it can fit into smaller places than a normal hand trowel.
I find this tool really helpful for loosening soil around weed roots. It doesn’t disrupt the soil too much which means I can stick it in the soil, move it a touch and loosen the roots to pull out the weeds. It makes hand weeding a lot more efficient.
In terms of using it to plant seedlings or bulbs, I would say that it works fine. For bulbs there are much better tools on the market that are efficient and effective such as a bulb augers. I would imagine those are still the most beneficial tool for burying bulbs. For small plants it works well to plant the seedlings if the soil is loose, otherwise a hand trowel or hi-mi digger is much better.
I have yet to figure out what this feature is for. If you look in the photo above, beside the 6 inch mark there is a hook in the blade. I don’t know what this feature is for or why it’s there, but if I do figure it out I will come back and update this review! Some people have suggested it’s used to open soil bags so this could be what it’s for – but I haven’t tested that theory.
Although the blade is rust-resistant, I highly recommend wiping it down after every use. Also, it IS a knife, with two sharp blades on it, so storing it in its sheath is important. Keeping your knife clean, and stored properly in its sheath, away from the rain will help keep your knife in good condition for a long time.
At the time of this writing, the cost of the knife is around $65. It does cost more than your basic trio set of hand tools (trowels and claws), however, the Hori Hori knife also does the function of pruners as well (but without all the parts that can break and rust).
The burning question is, is it worth it? At first I was on the fence about it, and now it’s my go-to tool and I wouldn’t want to go without it. I love it’s pruning abilities and lack of moving parts that can rust. Also, as a left handed person, this is far more useful than pruners that never seem to work properly for us left-handed people. Plus it also is helpful for weeding too. A pruner and weeder in one – what more do you need?
My biggest problem right now is that because I am trying to take good care of it, I often leave it inside the house and forget to bring it out with me. But that’s a me problem, not the knifes problem.
If you decide that the hori hori knife is exactly what you need in the garden, you can save 10% using my code UGC10, and I hope you enjoy the tool!
