S-H you have so many talents to share and welding is a special skill and takes many years to develop tools and techniques that you have designed and shown . I’m sure your tools are a great resource for your gardening capabilities, skills and useful for your needs. In today manufacturing markets everything is plastic from appliances to garden tools. They are not sustainable. Consequently, each time your steel product is made it can be recycled into a new product, the properties of the metals are retained. As a result, this cycle can take place an infinite amount of time with little to no change to the inherent properties of the metal.
I fully agree with you. And you know why I keep doing such things? It's because I'm a sworn enemy of Planned Obsolescence. So I do whatever I can to make things last. I even drive a vintage 4x4 that I first restored myself. And later upgraded to such a level, that all new equivalent vehicles can't match it. This video below is almost an hour long, (and 15 years old), but once you see it - You also will understand everything...
This is exactly why I still have my 1970’s washer and dryer that are made to last and a refrigerator from the 1980’s and an auto-corvette 1979 , 1989 truck and a 1989 RAV4 vehicle. They have zero electronics are made with strong metals steel and no plastics. Note : strong fiberglass corvette body and steel frame. No plastics. In fact there is a class action law suit across the US against a major appliance corporation due to this exact issue. Link reference below to - planned obsolescence . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
Decided to add some extra strength to the whole thing. As I realized that where the spade and fork met the connecting pipe, was a potential weak-point, (where metal fatigue might start to develop after maybe a 100 years of use) - Yes it's an overkill, but why not!? Will ne tidying up with a grinder and file later. But for now this is how it is. All of it in 1095 carbon steel, (except for the galvanized steel pipe that is connecting the fork and spade. There is some solid steel of about 3 inches on the side of the fork inside the pipe, (welded). As that's how I achieved the perfect balance.
