Small Plow

Ttabi, or small plow, is a farming tool on which the user stamps with one foot on the cross bar and rams the blade into the ground to till back and cultivate the soil. As evident from the common expression to cultivate land, “tilling with the ttabi,” the small plow is a farming tool boasting a very long history. The small plow is an evolution of the digging stick once used by hunters and gatherers before the emergence of agriculture, and later developed into a plow or a manual furrower. Small plows can be divided into a ladle type, a horseshoe type, and an elephant tusk type according to the blade’s shape. A double-bladed small plow is also called ssang ttabi, or double small plow, which is also called elephant-tusk-type small plow, as the pair of sharp triangular steel blades resemble an elephant’s tusks. The double-bladed small plow has a long body that is bent downwards up to the cross bar, which made it easy to scoop up the soil as the user rams the blade into the ground and pushes down the handle, a particularly useful function for gravel fields.