King of Spades (W.W. Manufacturing)

Walter Lesche came to southern New Jersey from Germany in 1952 to weld at Seabrook Farms, then the world’s first frozen-food plant. He repaired farmers’ tools in his garage, and in 1964 he moved the business to Rosenhayn Avenue in Bridgeton. Farmers kept bringing him spades with broken handles, so he built an all-steel one and, at his first trade show, called it the King of Spades. He died in 2002. His children Ingrid Hawk and Peter Lesche run the company, which sells under two names, King of Spades and Lesche.

The tools are cut, welded, finished and assembled in the Bridgeton plant from steel bought from American mills. The Press of Atlantic City reported that from inside the factory in 2014, and a dealer profile a decade later quoting Ingrid Hawk says the same. The only imports either source names are three fork heads, for the mulch fork, digging fork and pitchfork, bought from Austria. Those three forks are the exception to this listing. The spades, shovels, rakes and digging tools are made in Bridgeton.

The company’s own website has not changed since 2008 and it sells only through dealers, so the tools are bought from nurseries, garden-tool shops and online retailers. The founding and the factory are well documented. What rests on the dealer’s word is that production is unchanged today, and it is consistent with everything else found.