Hand hoes
Manila clam hand hoes
Manila clams are spread from intertidal region to shallow sea. Neither the ultra-fine grained mud tidal flat nor the tidal flats with high sand content are fitting habitats for them. They usually thrive in on sandy or pebbly tidal flats with high mud contents. Therefore, there are multitudes of hand hoe types to be matched with varying characteristics of getbatang. Rock hand hoes are used on tidal flats with a lot of rocks pebbles, for they are convenient for rooting about the rocks (Fig. 5-1). They are strong and narrow as a whole, and the blade and the neck are in an almost identical width and thickness. On the other hand, hand hoes used on sandy tidal flats with high water content have small and narrow blade, so that it would require less amount of strength to use (Fig. 5-2). Even the regular field hand hoes are divided into two different types: ones with blade on only one side, and the ones with blade on both sides. It seems that they reflect the regional characteristics.