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Badly bent border fork

B3B3 Posts: 27,505
in Problem solving
The middle tines on my stainless steel border fork are badly bent . It wasn't me!
Is there any way that I can straighten them - even just a bit?
In London. Keen but lazy.

Posts

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    I bend the ones on mine rather too often. Flat piece of paving slab and a big hammer puts it right.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I have both !
    I assume I turn it face down @Palustris
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    I would try bending them rather than hammering them personally.  Press the sticking out prong against a paving slab and add bodyweight.

    If using a hammer Id but it on a work bench in a vice.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Bench vice holding fork head and a metre of steel pipe to bend each prong back as needed.  I appreciate not everyone may have those at hand though.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I have bodyweight😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    There's clever @BobTheGardener.  Been wondering about how to fix OH's composting fork that he managed to bend.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Had to do it to a few before I discovered the wonders of mattocks @Obelixx
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    @BobTheGardener This is just an 8 pronged fork he uses for shifting and turning compost.  I have no idea how he got a bent tine.  My own border fork is small (ladies' size) and stainless steel and so far, remains unbent despite a lot of "quarrying" going on when we make some of the new beds and planting holes.   

    We're trying to go No Dig for new beds now but that doesn't stop surprises.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    I assumed like most folks the OP had no bench vice which would be the first choice tool. I have one here, but in the past gentle hammering straightened tines  quite easily.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Well we tried the bodyweight thing. The tines are flexible. It was like bouncing on a trampoline.
    I'm going to buy a new one for my own exclusive use. Woe betide him if he touches it. He can have the old one.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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