Let's talk about.......shovels!

[freemotion]

You can get a, I don't know really what it's called, but it's like a big metal digging bar with a flat end maybe 4" wide. Loosens dirt and rocks pretty well. Then you remove the loose dirt with the shovel, which is really what shovels are FOR after all

A San Angelo bar! I got mine at Home Depot some years ago and it is one of my favorite tools, having put many fence posts in along the treeline. You can sharpen that flat end on the grinder and chop roots in a hole like you are using an ax! Love it! It has a pointy end, too, great for getting a hole started before using the post hole digger or a shovel.

I used it to lift up my small coop and put cinder blocks under it so I could line the bottom with hardware cloth. By myself. Scrawny little arms and all.

I love that tool.

 

[kcsunshine]

My DH has broken 3 (count 'em 3!) potato forks. This year I bought him a new one ($30) that I knew he couldn't break. What's he do? No he didn't break it. He took one of the old ones and somehow put a long pipe in it. Gives him more leverage but I can't pick it up, it's so heavy. Bet you he bends the tines backward. He's worse than a kid.

 

[hqueen13]

Fiskars does make good stuff. We've got a pair of loppers from them in the barn. The barn manager said she once broke the handle off the loppers. Called Fiskars and they sent her a brand new pair, no questions asked.
I like those loppers a lot!
Good luck with the shovel.

 

[Toulle]

I've spent quite a few hours with shovels, sort of an old friend to me....

I just had to look in my shed. I have two good shovels out there right now, having recently got rid of several. They are both a brand called "hardware house". I bought them at the local hardware store that went out of business a couple years ago. One is a general digging spade, the other is a square transplanting, small dig shovel. I don't know where they were made, but both have what appears to be hickory handles with grain running the full length.

That is what I look for: no grain run-out. This makes a tough, slightly flexible handle.

I also think that these are a somewhat unheard of brand from a small hardware store has something to do with it as well.

I've also had good luck with a brand named "truper" - I have had shovels and machetes at least by them. I can't find much on it, but I understand it is a Mexican manufacturer. (Better than a Chinese one!)


<edited to correct a spelling>

 

[Denim Deb]

I have the Fiskars axe. Love that thing. My hubby gets mad at me cuz I'll hit it w/a sledge instead of using a wedge. But, I've been doing it for years, and it hasn't hurt it so far as I can tell.

SKR8PN, did you get that shovel, and how do you like it?

 

[Toulle]

I once ruined a tomohawk beating on it with a mallet trying to split some firewood. Beating an axe with a hammer deforms the eye, making it impossibel to keep a good handle in it.

Aren't all the fiskars stuff molded in plastic handles or some such? My personal preference, I prefer a wood handle I can replace. Call me old fashioned, or maybe a traditionalist.

 

[Denim Deb]

I've been beating on this for several years now. The Fiskar axes are not made the same as others. You don't have the axe head at the end of the handle. Instead, the handle is some type of plastic, and it's molded around the axe head itself. And the handle is guaranteed unbreakable. Plus, it's lighter than other axes I've used.

 

[StupidBird]

I have a forlorn pile of broken handled tools. DH can't stop using them as pry bars, even though we have the king of pry-bars/breaker bars. Is there any chance of finding decent replacement handles? What do I look for?

 

[kcsunshine]

Our local flea market carries wooden handles for every tool made - I'll swear. Hubby loves trying to replace or repair tools he breaks.