Fokine instrument. Fokin flat cutter - a convenient tool for the garden

home

Fire safety

A Fokin flat cutter is a tool with which a gardener manually processes the soil and spends a minimal amount of energy. This tool allows you to maintain health and increase the fertility of the land. The creator of the weapon and the holder of the official patent is the Russian inventor V.V. Fokin.

Information about the inventor

V.V. Fokin is a versatile personality. His intellect combines the talents of a journalist, engineer and gardener. He lost the ability to work normally in the garden after he suffered a heart attack. Disability forced the designer think about making physical labor easier in the garden.

V.V. Fokin studied the behavior of existing soil cultivation tools and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages. By experimenting with different variations, he managed to create a universal tool, which was dubbed a flat cutter. The tests were carried out by the author himself on his own large plot.

Tool characteristics

The flat cutter includes several garden tools(small shovel, rake, scythe and others). This versatile equipment allows you to perform a significant number of different gardening tasks. Working with a hoe saves physical effort and time.

Product types

There are six original types of Fokine instrument:

Advantages and disadvantages of a flat cutter

A simple and unpretentious tool has certain advantages.

The disadvantages of a flat cutter are as follows:

This multipurpose tool is not capable of digging planting holes or cutting hay. It will not cope with large areas of land densely overgrown with weeds.
It is problematic to replace a hoe with a flat cutter. Specific tools are better suited for this.

On a note! The cutting part, which is often directed toward the surface of the earth, should be sharpened; burrs should only be removed from the opposite edge. When using electric emery, minimal pressure is required, since hardness and reliability decrease as the temperature of the metal increases.

How to use a flat cutter

This chopper reduces the load to the necessary minimum, if the gardener bends over a little and keeps his back straight. At rational use the metal blade moves parallel to the ground level.

For most gardeners, the video “How to properly use a Fokin flat cutter” will be useful.

The difference between an original product and a fake

Pirated copies are sold at low prices, but their quality is disgusting. Illegal companies strive to reduce manufacturing costs and make greater profits; they do not care about the reliability and durability of the tool. Original flat cutter by inventor Fokin determined by the following features:

A fake is distinguished by the following characteristics:

The fake flat cutter is made of thin, soft and light metal.
The product is painted and does not have anti-corrosion.
The box and label are handcrafted.
The fastening system is missing or does not meet the stated standards.
The certificate was printed on a regular printer.

Making a flat cutter with your own hands

Manufacturing is not a complicated process. First you need to select the material for the plate and handle. It must have increased wear resistance. The inventor used 65 G steel, which is difficult to process but lasts a long time.

For cuttings, use pine, birch or ash. You will need a hammer, electric drill, pliers, grinder, sharpening stones, vice and blowtorch. When manufacturing, you must adhere to the drawings and explanations , which will preserve the properties of the equipment.

An original device created by inventor V.V. Fokin facilitates work on garden plots and allows you to save health and time. There are six varieties flat cutters, which are intended for a specific type of activity on the site. When purchasing products, you need to know the signs of the original and counterfeit versions.

The Fokina flat cutter is a universal device that is suitable for most work in the garden and summer cottage. In operation, the device requires minimum costs strength With the help of a Fokin flat cutter, you can significantly reduce labor costs and improve soil fertility.

This tool allows you to spend the time spent on the site with benefit and pleasure. Using a flat cutter you can perform 20 types earthworks while staying in good physical shape. In addition to the main advantages, the device has an acceptable at the cost.

Interesting! The flat cutter was invented by Vladimir Fokin after he suffered a heart attack and was no longer able to do heavy physical work. The man created a light and strong tool that became his reliable assistant in his summer cottage.

What kind of instrument is this

The disassembled device consists of a curved bracket with a blade and two bolts (the handle, as a rule, must be purchased separately). Before assembling the tool, please read carefully instructions and look at the drawings and photo presented in the article.

The tool is easy to assemble. The flat cutter itself is mounted on a flat handle with a rectangular cross-section with rounded edges, making it convenient to hold in any position. The handle should be long so that you don’t have to bend too low. Its most suitable length is 110-130 cm; for a tall person you can use up to 160 cm.

Advantages of the Fokin flat cutter:

constant use of the tool significantly improves soil fertility, leaving the soil sufficiently moist, allowing air and nutrients it is better to saturate it;
use the tool on plot of land it’s very convenient, it’s easy to work with, there’s no back pain or discomfort when working with a flat cutter;
The flat cutter is universal; it can be used to perform up to 20 different operations by changing the angle of inclination;
with a small tool you can process the most difficult to reach areas;
required for the tool minimal care, you need to periodically sharpen its sharp edges.

What types of work does the Fokina flat cutter help you perform?

hoe;
cultivator;
plow;
hoe;
hiller.

This device partially replaces a scythe, rake, shovel and fork. Suitable tool for implementation next works Location on:

Advice! With the help of a Fokin flat cutter, you can remove weeds and grass, collect them in a heap, cut off the mustache of strawberries, break up clods of earth, collect droppings in a chicken coop, and trim green manure.

Are clearly demonstrated country work in the garden using a flat cutter in video at the end of the article.

Watch the video! Fokina flat cutter, techniques for working with a flat cutter

Types of flat cutters and their application

Today, six types of Fokin flat cutters are produced:

Large flat cutter - used to prepare beds for planting. The tool helps to loosen the soil to a depth of 15 cm, weed, hill up the bed, and also process around tree trunks;
The small flat cutter is used for quickly processing beds on “light” soils. Great for weeding weed between rows, and similar crops;
The fortress is used for processing clay soils and virgin soil. The blade of the device is short and wide, unlike a “standard” tool, so working with such a flat cutter is much easier;
The Moguschnik flat cutter is a tool with a wide blade that allows you to hill up plants, including;
The Big Polotnik differs from other types of tools in its long and narrow blade, which is used for weeding in large sown areas;
The Small Polotnik differs from the Small Flat Cutter in that the width of the tip of its blade is already 2 times. Suitable for weeding between rows.

How to use a Fokin flat cutter correctly

Main principle working with a flat cutter - it must be directed parallel to the surface of the earth, often this rule not complied with.

When working with the device invented by Fokin, the following conditions must be met:

The back should be kept straight, the body should be slightly inclined;
When the handle is in your hands, your thumbs should “look” up;
The instrument must be configured correctly. The holes located on the handle of the Large device are used to adjust it to the height of the user. If the setting is carried out correctly, the working person does not have to bend specially, and the device does not get stuck in the ground;
An ordinary, round handle is not suitable for the blade of this device. A special, flat handle is required, on which a specific place is provided for attaching the blade, offset by 45 degrees;
It is important to place the beds correctly. They should not be wide; the rows should be separated by paths.

Rules for sharpening a flat cutter

For some jobs, a perfectly sharpened blade of a flat cutter is not required. Weeds that do not grow very densely can be cut with a dull blade, which will pry up and pull out the weeds. The effectiveness of the work depends on the level of neglect of the site.

A well-sharpened device is used for the bulk of work in the garden. You can check the readiness of the tool by checking the cutting edge with your finger to find out if it is sharp enough.

In the original tool, the surface of the blade is sharpened at a specially calculated angle. If you sharpen at an acute angle, as when sharpening a scythe, then the edge of the Fokin flat cutter will be sharper, but will become dull faster. If the sharpening angle is made obtuse, then everything will happen the other way around. It is best to choose a slope of 40-45 degrees. It should be maintained continuously throughout the entire period of use of the tool.

Healthy! Before sharpening, you should carefully inspect the cutting edge. During operation, it most often faces the surface of the bed, so it is the edge that should be sharpened. There is no need to sharpen the flat top surface; just remove the burrs from it. To do this, you need to process it with a sharpening stone or file.

Sharpen a tool electric emery should be done with minimal pressure. Otherwise, the steel from which the device is made will lose its hardness and wear resistance will decrease.

To protect the blade from rust, it should be treated with an anti-corrosion compound for the winter.

How to distinguish a Fokin flat cutter from a fake

Currently, the instruments market offers a large number of various types Fokin flat cutters, which are fakes. The tools are made independently, hastily. Products differ poor quality, unevenly screwed elements made of soft species metal

To distinguish an original from a fake, the following features must be taken into account:

The original device is not painted, including the blade, which remains black. The real blade is well sharpened and has a little “spring”;
The presence of the letter “F”, which is stamped on the original models between the mounting holes, or a sticker - a large flat cutter “from Fokin” or a small flat cutter “from Fokin”;
The difference between the two instruments is most visible when they are held in the hands. The blade of the fake device is made of soft metal and can be bent in your hands.

Distinctive features of a fake flat cutter are minimal equipment, low cost, and a dull blade.

Watch the video! How does a Fokina flat cutter work?

The Fokina flat cutter is an original tool that allows you to cultivate the soil manually with minimal physical effort. It was created by the Russian inventor Vladimir Vasilyevich Fokin and received a patent for it. The official name under which this invention is registered in the Bulletin of Inventions and Discoveries of Russia is “Fokin’s manual soil-cultivating implement.” And now the details

Description of the Fokin flat cutter

The Fokina flat cutter combines several tools at once - a shovel, rake, hoe, scythe and smaller ones. This unique tool can perform more than two dozen types of work on a plot of land. Its main purpose is that the blade, passing at a depth of 2-5 cm, cuts or pulls out weeds.

The soil is loosened without turning over the soil and weeds are destroyed, leaving the roots in the soil to rot. Tillage performed with a flat cutter does not disturb the soil structure and preserves the microorganisms necessary for the soil. In addition, working with a flat cutter requires less physical effort and time spent.

Externally, Fokina's hand-held flat cutter looks like a plate bent in a certain way with three sharpened cutting edges. The sharper the cutting edges are sharpened, the less effort you need to apply when working with the tool.

Trade often offers a set of two tools, which includes a large and small flat cutter. A large flat cutter is convenient for forming, preparing and hilling beds, weeding, mowing grass and performing other operations. With a small flat cutter you can quickly and accurately weed the beds, thin out dense shoots, mark and form a furrow for sowing seeds.

A large flat cutter has an additional hole in order to change the angle of the cutting edges, securing the tool to the handle. In addition, it can be adapted to work with both the left and right hands.

To assemble the tool, you need to tighten two mounting bolts to the flat wooden handle.

When sharpening a tool, you need to avoid overheating, which deteriorates the quality of the cutting part.

When starting to work with a new tool, you need to get used to it, adjust it to your height and work style, understand its capabilities and the range of actions performed.

about the author

The inventor of the flat cutter, Vladimir Vasilyevich Fokin, is a very versatile person. He combined the talent of a journalist and the mindset of an inventor, and all this coexisted with a love of the earth.

While working at the Krasny Khimik plant in hazardous production that produced fiberglass, Vladimir Vasilyevich suffered a heart attack and became disabled. It became impossible to do what I love, cultivating the land. Forced inaction forced the inventor to think about how to make it easier physical work for cultivating the land.

While doing another favorite thing - inventing, Fokin studied and analyzed existing soil cultivation tools, analyzed their advantages and disadvantages. As a result of trial and error, an unusual tool for those times was created, which was later called the Fokin flat cutter. With this tool, Vladimir Vasilyevich cultivated his plot of land with an area of about 40 acres.

And today, the flat cutter invented by Fokin makes the work of summer residents and gardeners easier, saving physical strength, and at the same time returns them to cultivating the land according to the laws of nature and increases soil fertility.

The appearance of Fokin's flat cutter did not go unnoticed. At international exhibitions, this invention was awarded silver medals; in Russia, the author received Patents for this tool.

Types of Fokina flat cutters

Currently, the Fokina flat cutter is available in six varieties:

The blanket is big. The main purpose is to process large areas. The large and small strips are longer and narrower than those of a conventional flat cutter.
Small cloth;
Mighty. This tool is convenient for hilling plantings and seedlings. The blade of this tool is wider than that of a flat cutter.
Sturdy. Designed for aluminous soils. Compared to flat cutters, it has a shortened blade with the same width.
A small flat cutter is ideal for processing row-spacings of root crop beds.
Large flat cutter. The tool can be used to cut furrows for sowing seeds, weeding wide rows, cutting turf, loosening the soil and removing grass, and hilling plantings.

The handle for flat cutters is not round, but has a flat cross-section with rounded edges. This shape of the handle makes it easier to work with the tool, hold it in any convenient position, and it does not rub calluses when used.

How to use a flat cutter correctly

At correct use The flat cutter tool moves parallel to the soil level.

If, when moving, the plane of the blade deviates upward, and to return it to its normal position you need to tilt, this means that the angle of inclination of the mount relative to the handle must be reduced using an additional hole. When the cutting part deviates downward, the angle is increased.

Working with a flat cutter will reduce physical exercise to a minimum if you keep your back straight, slightly leaning forward, and your thumbs point down.

Technology of work performed by a flat cutter:

loosening the soil and weeding the beds. Performed with the wide part of the blade. The tool is inserted into the soil at a distance of no more than 1 m and pulled closer to the worker. If weeding is carried out at the very beginning of grass growth, then it will be easier to deal with them.
formation of beds. The soil from the rows is spread onto the loosened, marked bed using an inverted flat cutter. The short edge of the tool is directed downwards, the plane of the tool is set perpendicular to the soil level. By pulling the flat cutter towards you, the mass of soil moves to the desired place. By performing this operation, a bed is formed on both sides.
leveling the surface of the bed. The operation is performed by moving the flat cutter without applying force with the cutting edge down. The sown seeds are sprinkled with soil in the same way.
deep loosening. By striking the surface with a narrow cutting edge, the soil is loosened to the length of the blade.
creating furrows for sowing seeds or seedlings. By inserting the narrow edge of the flat cutter into the loosened soil on desired depth and by running the tool along the bed they form a planting furrow. A small flat cutter is suitable for seeds; for planting seedlings it is better to use a large one.
crushing large clods of earth. By hitting unbroken clods of earth with the rounded heel of a flat cutter or the pointed end, you can bring them to the desired size.
removal of mature and tough weeds. By hitting the weed stem with the curved part of a flat cutter, you can cut down a fairly thick stem, including the root shoots. You can remove the roots by placing the end of the tool under the weed and, using a flat cutter as a lever, pull out the unnecessary vegetation.
mow down the weeds. The cutting edge mows the grass at soil level.
hilling. This is done in the same way as creating beds. The earth is raked to the plantings from both sides.
thin out crops. Crops sown with small seeds, such as carrots, dill or parsley, can be thinned with a small flat cutter, running the tool across the row, removing excess seedlings.
trim weeds from tap roots, mowing them on the ground next to cultivated plants, very jewelry.
destroy soil crust in tree trunk circles trees and bushes, while weeding, at a distance the length of a cutting blade, without the risk of injury or damaging the branches of the plantings.
distribute organic fertilizers over the surface of the bed.
With this tool you can collect mowed grass, trim the mustache on strawberries, and stir up hay.

Vladimir Vasilyevich Fokin tested his brainchild for performance and ease of use for more than seven years.

The company producing flat cutters was awarded diplomas at the All-Russian and International Agricultural Exhibitions held in Moscow.

Advantages of the tool:

in the area treated with a flat cutter, the layers of soil do not move, all microorganisms inhabiting it remain at their depth and remain viable. Soil insects are not damaged either. The humus layer increases.
using a flat cutter reduces the required physical effort compared to using a shovel.
By destroying annual weeds and preserving the remains of their roots in the soil, we increase the organic content in the soil.

Disadvantages of the tool

Even such a unique tool must be used wisely. Dig planting pits or cutting hay with a flat cutter will not work. No need to weed large plots overgrown with weeds.

Using it instead of a hoe over large areas is also problematic. Where using a hoe they make one or two movements, when using a flat cutter it will take a little more time and movements. For this it is better to use specialized tools.

What is the difference between an original and a fake?

A real, branded flat cutter will not be cheap. On the Internet, the tool is offered at a lower price, but is it worth the temptation?

Pirated counterfeits are cheap, but the quality of the goods is even lower. It is not profitable for such illegal companies to produce high-quality goods; it is important for them to reduce the costs of producing a flat cutter and gain additional profit.

You can recognize a real, high-quality instrument by the following signs:

Package. The box should be triangular with the Club logo organic farming»
The tool kit includes two flat cutters of different sizes, a brochure with a color photo of the author, in a glossy cover “To the Earth with Science.”
Anti-corrosion coated fasteners (four bolts and four nuts and four lock washers)
Flat cutters must be the same shape, but different sizes. Large and small with the Organic Farming Club logos printed on them. It is important to pay attention to the coating. Original tools must have an anti-corrosion coating. Pirate copies are painted.
An honest company will issue a certificate confirming the quality of the product.

Signs of a fake:

thin, lightweight, easily bendable metal;
product coloring;
a makeshift box with a label pasted on;
black and white instructions;
fasteners are either missing or of poor quality;
printed or missing certificate.

If you want to save money on purchasing a flat cutter, make it yourself. For quality instrument You will need structural spring steel grade 65G, which has been annealed, hardened, tempered and sharpened.

Video “How to use a Fokin flat cutter”

Use the Fokina flat cutter correctly when working in your summer cottage and enjoy the ease of work.
Sincerely, Sofya Guseva.

Even at the dawn of mankind, farmers sought to make their work in the field easier. This is how our ancestors began to use homemade tools, which made it possible to cope with the task of caring for plants faster and better. Millennia have passed, but the approach has not changed. Gardening tools are still actively used, which greatly facilitates exhausting work. Anyone can make a Fokin flat cutter with their own hands, and the advantage of this tool will become obvious immediately.

Pictured is a Fokina flat cutter

Farming is a challenging but rewarding activity. The summer season is in full swing, there is a lot of work. However, connoisseurs of natural food are not stopped by any difficulties. First of all, farmers are driven by the desire to get a rich harvest of tasty and healthy vegetables.

When performing work on the site, everyone strives to make their work easier. That is why many summer residents use a variety of devices and devices. The Fokina flat cutter is one of them. Comfortable and significantly reduces stress on your arms and back. It is very convenient and easy for them to cultivate the land, and the speed of work and its quality increase significantly.

Anyone can make a Fokin flat cutter with their own hands, and the advantage of this tool will become obvious immediately

What are the main advantages of the Fokin flat cutter? We invite you to familiarize yourself with the main areas of its application:

High-quality weed control thanks to deep penetration blades into the soil layer.
Deep or superficial loosening of the soil, which contributes to its better saturation with oxygen.
The flat cutter is very convenient to operate when processing an area. It allows you to process hard-to-reach places, row spacing, without damaging root system noble cultures.
The tool allows you to quickly and most importantly, without additional effort, hill up bushes.

Video on how to use a Fokin flat cutter:

The Fokina flat cutter has a special shape and a sharp blade, thanks to which it gently penetrates the soil. By changing the direction of movement of the blade, you can hill up potato bushes or loosen the soil by changing the angle of inclination of the tool. The depth of penetration of the blade ranges from 3-5 cm to 15-20, depending on the shape and size of the flat cutter. Typically, when working in greenhouses or densely planted areas, small flat cutters are used. IN open ground more convenient to work with the tool bigger size, making it possible to process large areas faster.

Drawings of Fokin's flat cutter

Anyone can make a Fokin flat cutter and no special expensive equipment is needed for this. You need to find a strip of metal about 40-45 mm wide and 40 cm long. It is worth giving preference to high-quality metal. Mild steel will be unreliable, quickly dull and bend, which is unacceptable in this case. A rectangular handle is suitable as a handle. Thanks to this shape, it will be convenient to work and the tool will not rub calluses.

Video about the Fokin flat cutter with your own hands:

Make a Fokin flat cutter with your own hands to make it easier manual labor- This worthwhile idea. Every gardener will enjoy cultivating the soil quickly and efficiently using a flat cutter. Now loosening the soil and exterminating weeds will be simple matter, and the yield of noble crops is much higher.

Sections