The Broadfork Guide: History, the Fork Fit workout and two shop-ready build plans · Alt Ordo Systems Guide
A broadfork is a steel crossbar with a row of long tines and two tall handles. You step on the bar to sink the tines, then lean back on the handles. The soil cracks open and lifts a little, but the layers stay where they were. It loosens beds 8–12 in deep without an engine, without fuel and without scrambling the soil life near the surface (NRCS). This guide covers where the tool came from, how and when to use it, the Fork Fit workout, and two designs a local welder can build to your height: the AO-5 with straight round-bar tines and the AO-5C with curved plate tines cut from our DXF file. There is also a bolted version for anyone without a welder.
This guide helps you loosen deep beds without a tiller, train your whole body while you do it, and have a broadfork built to your height from our drawings and CAD files, or bolt one together with hand tools.
What's inside. 19 pages in 10 chapters (At a glance, Where it works, How it works, Size it, Parts and cost, Build it, Run it, The Fork Fit workout, Rules and permits, How it connects), then the sources and a notes page. 9 numbered figures drawn for this guide. You also get a worked example with a fill-in worksheet, 12 numbered steps, a year-round calendar, and a troubleshooting table.
Three builds, costed line by line (typical US prices, October 2026):
- Bare-bones: ≈$165–$345
- Standard: ≈$215–$700
- Comfortable: ≈$285–$720
Sourced and fact-checked. Facts and figures are cited to the 29 sources listed at the back, and the whole guide was fact-checked before release. General guidance, not engineering advice: your county and a qualified pro have the last word on your site.
Pairs with other Alt Ordo Systems Guides: The off-grid vegetable garden; Composting; DIY Worm Tower Plans; Hoop greenhouses; Food forests; The Pumpkin Loop. For your county's permits and rules, see our county and state guides.
Instant PDF download. After checkout you get a download link by email. Letter-size pages, made to read on screen or print at home. Also in your download: AO-5C_gusset.dxf, AO-5C_tine.dxf, AO-5C_tine_fullsize.svg, README.txt.