Tools of the Trade: Copper Garden Tools from Grafa

We’re coveting a new collection of sturdy copper gardening tools that are becoming staples in many of our favorite garden shops (as well as at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show).

Here’s the story behind the Melbourne-based Grafa collection, via The Garden Edit, which sent photographer Marnie Hawson to the home studio of company founder Travis Blandford:

Above: Photograph by Marnie Hawson via The Garden Edit.

Toolmaker Travis Blandford experimented with recycled lengths of copper plumbing to create prototypes for the Grafa line of hand tools, which includes a hand hoe, scoop, fork, bulb planter, trowel, and tube trowel.

“The reason why the tools look the way they do is because I had to find a way to design without the use of expensive machinery,” Blandford told The Garden Edit. “The single piece copper tube tools were there from the beginning, while the timber handled range came later, as the processes became more sophisticated.”

Above: A handmade Forca Garden Fork has a bronze head, attached to the wooden handle with a copper ring; $89 AU from Grafa and in the UK the Forca Garden Fork is £34.50 from The Garden Edit.

For US shoppers, the Copper Garden Fork is available from Rodale’s, where it is currently on sale (marked down 25 percent from $85) for $63.75.

Above: Photograph by Marnie Hawson via The Garden Edit

The Grafa collection includes an all-metal tube trowel as well as hardwood-handled copper tools.

Above: A Grafa Copper Hand Hoe is £37.50 at The Garden Edit and for US shoppers a Copper Garden Hoe is on sale for $60 from Rodale’s.

Above: Photograph via The Big Design Market.

Above: Photograph via The Garden Edit.

For UK shoppers, a Grafa Hand Hoe is £37.50 and a Grafa Reclaim Trowel is £37.50 at The Garden Edit.

Above: Photograph via The Design Files.

Harriet Devlin and Travis Blandford at home in their garden in Melbourne.

“There are two of us now. My partner Harriet has become more involved over the last year, she has a background in interior design,” says Blandford.

Shopping for garden tools? Browse some of our favorite shops:

• Shopper’s Diary: The Garden Edit.
• Shopper’s Diary: Garden Apothecary in Half Moon Bay, CA.
• Shopper’s Diary: Garden Objects in New Zealand.