Hori Hori Japanese Gardening Knife Guide

The Garden Ninja, Lee Burkhill, shows you how to use a Hori Hori Japanese gardening knife.

Presented by Garden Ninja, Manchesters Garden Designer and blogger Lee Burkhill. He's an RHS Award winning garden designer and expert panellist on BBC Radio Manchester's Saturday morning garden phone in.

Welcome back to Garden Ninja! Today I'm gonna be showing you one of my new tools and how to use it it's this a Hori Hori blade so a Hori Hori is an ancient Japanese gardening tool that was the garden ninja I thought to only write that I give you a quick video on how to use one of these bad boys so come on let's get cracking!

So the Hori Hori is great for getting rid of perennial weeds like this dock here you just literally - pull pull pull - root intact! So another use for the Hori Hori is to dig little rows or trenches when you're sowing seeds you use the sharp edge and you just score it along I mean you can pop in to use all day long super easy super neat!

So what you can also use the Hori Hori for is to clean out around roots especially if you're gonna be digging them out cutting through a root so you use the sharp end of the blade you literally scrape away the soil clean underneath and then you can get a roots or in or a hacksaw to cut through that root so it's really good for sort of fine excavations!

So the Hori Hori is also really good for putting in bedding plants and plug plants, plants that aren't too big it's what you can do using the Hori Hori is literally dig out a hole like this scrape it away that soil you can left for plants this one's a fuchsia the literally back fill with the Hori Hori then leave any debris then there you go.

Now the blade on the Hori Hori is concave so it bends in slightly when you hold it flat what this means is that you can dig out drills really easily and also use it as a quasi trowel to lift and shift small amounts of soil now this version has a clean sharp edge here and a pointed blade or the Hori Hori may have a serrated edge but mine doesn't so use the sharp edge for cutting through things and the thicker edge for working
through soil and when you're done using it you can give it a quick clean off with some water like so maybe a damp cloth but if it just get dirty you can use a cleaning block just to clean off those edges

The other cool thing with the Hori Hori is that mines come with this handy pouch and clip on to about so when you're done with it and clean it off pop it in and carry on gardening and then as soon as you see any pesky weeds you can whip it back out get rid of them and then put it back in safely what's not to love!

So there we have it by quick and easy guide to this the Japanese Hori Hori gardening knife if you've liked this video why not subscribe to my youtube channel with this plenty more garden design tips and hints! Happy Gardening!

[seabassmastermatt]

Never heard of these and I love knives. Really cool and useful tool. Nice one GN, every day’s a school day!!

[gtrfreak]

Fantastic, my sister got me one for Christmas. Really smooth handle and well made tool

[sevfregoso]

What I like about the Hori hori is that it is so sharp. I find this very important when working on hard dry ground. With most weeding tools are very difficult to penetrate the ground. Hori Hori makes it easy

[coreygolphenee]

I work in the cannabis industry and these things are invaluable,

[p_eople]

Should I look at a different tool if I want to de-weed a more rocky/gravelly surface? I may just rely on a good old hand-spade for detailed work (not a lot of flower planting, just tomatoes). Not sure if a hori hori would be damaged easily or it can be used in rocky/pebbly surfaces.

[seriouslyreally]

Barebones makes the ultimate version of the hori hori knife! My son gave me one for christmas😜 Besides the regular edge on one side the other edge is outfitted with a deeply serrated edge for sawing vines roots other small woody stems and branches and near the heel of the blade is a razor sharp hook to cut twine. The flared hilt on the sturdy handle has a flattened side with slight concavity to match the concavity of the blade so when you set the knife down with the concave side down the knife handle rests securely on a flat side and will not roll around. The final feature is that the concave side has measuring gauge lines in 1 inch increments cut into the blade so they won't wear off, so you can use it for depth measuring for planting bulbs and digging holes for transplants or whatever else you need a quick measurement. The scabbard has a snap collar to lock it in its sheath so it is secure when you need it to be on your belt clip. They thought of everything!

[elizabethclaiborne]

Sold! The Kill Bill reference nailed it. 🤣

[lindahugheshughes]

Hi Lee what’s the length of this knife, please.

[terrysmith]

Thank you for the explanation of what it is, and how to use it - beginner gardener, so any tool that makes things quick and easy is going to be useful.

That... and threatening certain plants what will happen to them if they don't stay in their own space... 😄

[darrellpaulogutierrez]

As a garden ninja I bet you know that the hori-hori is the kunai a multi-purposed tool used by the ninja.

[crossbow]

do you know if i can cover weeds to prevent sunlight from getting through like on a big bunch of weeds clumped will that kill em ?

[csamby]

Cool I have I see a friend with and the girl love and got me 1 I love it to good video

[sharonmitchel]

How does one carry these if they don’t wear a belt? Mine didn’t come with a sheath!

[FrankEdavidson]

In many undeveloped parts of the world gardeners and farmers only use one tool, some areas it's a knife, others a mattock.

[susanh]

Where is the best place to buy the Hori Hori knife I couldn’t find it on Amazon?

[_wormlet]

Would love a video showing how you sharpen it

[soupspoon]

While they are great for gardening, they're also good for making lunchtime sandwiches!!

[morganlumer]

My only advice is be careful with these. The amount of times I’ve slipped off of the handle when digging and cut my fingers really makes me wish for a hilt or hand protection of some sort.

[berndtherrenvolk]

The blade is longer than a pinky finger. Is it even legal in the UK?

[stewiepantsoutdooradventui]

It's a Kunai..the shinobi used it as a weapon in ancient Japan