The story behind this particular hoe is that we met Eliot Coleman at the Virginia Association of Biological Farming Conference in February where he was the keynote speaker.  He came to our booth and critiqued all the different tools.  He told us he had an old dutch hoe that was the perfect hoe and challenged us to recreate it.  When he returned home he sent us his original with his manufacturing specs.  We sent it to the toolmakers at Dewit, and that is the story.  His specs were "the perfect blade to handle angle is 70 degrees, and the edge of the blade should be in line with the center of the handle."  The result is what you see.  Only 50 of these tools were made, so hurry fast to add one of these indispensible tools to your collection!