Want to know the difference between a muck rake and manure
drag? Or what
the "lift" of your shovel is and why having the wrong lift causes
backache? Do you know the differences between a garden trowel, transplant
trowel, rockery trowel and potting trowel and do you need one of each?
At the November 15 Chapter Meeting Bob Denman will answer those
queries and tell you what do you need to know about ergonomics
before you buy a hand pruner, what the best tools are for grabbing out blackberries,
turning a compost heap, removing weeds from the seams between bricks, stripping
thorns from the stems of roses and root pruning. He can tell you how
long your rake or hoe handle should be. The answer: Too short and you're
courting a backache; Too long and you'll whack yourself in the head.
When you attend Bob Denman's Tool Talk on November 15 you will hear those answers
and more. You will enjoy playing "Name That Tool" wherein Denman
tests the tool acumen of the audience using strange and wonderful gadgets from
his collection of horticultural implementia.
As far as he knows our speaker is the only blacksmith in the United States
specializing in garden hand tools. He crafts more than 75 different garden
tools and accessories at his recently established smithy and is also
a tool designer, inventor, writer and purveyor of fine implements and recent
immigrant from California.
He and his wife, Rita, are the proprietors of Red Pig Garden Tools in
Boring, Oregon, a "toy store for gardeners" offering hundreds of
familiar and uncommon tools for horticulture, agriculture and silviculture.
Previously located in Orange, California, where it was also known as Denman & Company,
their store is the only one of its kind in the entire United States which produces
hand forged implements for home gardeners, nurserymen, landscapers and farmers. He
crafts more than 75 different garden tools and accessories at his recently
established smithy in Oregon. They sharpen non‑power pruning and other
edged tools, and offer re‑handing, restoration, repair and custom tool
making.
Among the more than 1000 items offered by Red Pig are some 20 different patterns
of hoes; steel rakes ranging from 6 to 24 tines; cultivators with 1 to 5 tines;
ball weeders; hand ploughs; rock picking forks; root hooks; cradle forks for
overhead pitching; mangle cutters; weed spuds; wood tine rakes; hot bed weeders
and hundreds of other unique or rare implements.
Among inventions by Denman are: garden pants with built-in knee pads; forged,
solid socket trench clean out shovels with flat bottoms and turned up sides;
a combination diamond file, screw driver and multi wrench for tool maintenance;
pruning tools maintenance oil; an improved ball weeder; a pruning tool bolster
with pockets for a file and bottle of maintenance oil; a heavy duty watering
wand and a line of hand tools with screw on handles. Several of his inventions
have been awarded U.S. patents.
In addition to being a blacksmith and tool monger, he also served as a product
development consultant to Corona Clipper Company, America's leading manufacturer
of professional pruning tools. He provided specifications, conceptual designs,
field testing and evaluation for Corona's new generation of hand shears, loppers
and hedge shears. He played a critical role in developing Corona's complete
range of garden, landscape, agricultural and construction hand tools when the
company expanded its offerings in the early 2000's.
A former journalist and copywriter, Denman is a regular contributor to Fine
Gardening and Garden Compass magazines. His articles have appeared
in Small Farm Today and Gardener's Companion. He provided
the text basis for the tools section of the most recent edition of the Sunset Western
Garden Book.
Bob and Rita Denman have been the subject of many articles in national and
regional magazines including Horticulture, Sunset; Garden Design, Los Angeles and The
Los Angeles Times Magazine. In 2005 they were the subjects of a segment
on PAX television’s People Places and Plants program.
While living in Southern California, Bob Denman served on the advisory board
and long range planning committee of The Fullerton Arboretum and as Executive
Vice president of the Orange County Horticultural Society. He is a frequent
and popular lecturer at botanical gardens, arboreta, garden clubs, plant societies
and garden shows.
The Denmans started their business as a mail order operation called Denman & Company
in 1986. They founded Red Pig Tools in 1989 and opened their California
store in 1994, then relocated to Oregon in late 2004. The past two years have
been spent tearing down two old barns near Eagle Creek and using the lumber
to build the barn which houses their store in Boring.
Prior to 1989, Bob and Rita operated an advertising and graphic design studio.
A former journalist, college football linebacker and motocross rider, Bob now
confines his physical activities to the smithy and the garden, feeling that
there is danger and excitement enough at home.
In addition to Red Pig’s uniquely exhaustive inventory of tools, the
store offers dozens of tools hand forged on the premises, custom handcrafting
of garden tools and accessories and modification of off-the- shelf tools to
suit the intended user.
You will want to be sure to listen to Toolish Talks then buy
some plants at the species auction following this Chapter
meeting and program on November 15.
This meeting WILL feature the annual RHODODENDRON SPECIES AUCTION,
the one that was posponed from October's meeting
Portland Chapter, American Rhododendron Society Monthly Meeting
for
November 15, 2007, 7:30 pm,
All Saints Episcopal Church, 4033 S.E. Woodstock