The Shovel Discussion Thread!

The Leonard is very similar to my Zenbori, but I prefer mine. The serrations are easier to touch up, and it doesn't have that awkward twine cutter thingy on it. Both are great digging tools, though!

Got a big workout with the digging tools today digging a garden plot on the side of the house. Thick clay soil full of big rocks and a deep root mass of grass and miscellaneous plants about 4 inches deep. Used my Predator "Big Red" shovel to cut and lift the border, then used my W.W. Manufacturing digging fork to penetrate and loosen large sections of the vegetable mass on the surface. Any rocks I encountered I dug out with my pick mattock. After loosening the root mass I used my Imacasa "colima" machete's partial back edge to chop up the root mass and nice and fine (yes I was chopping straight into dirt! I ground the top edge deliberately obtuse just for the purpose) and then used my potato hook (imagine a 4-tined cultivator but with tines about 1.5 times as long) to mix everything around. It's still not quite where I want it (I'm going to do one more pass with the machete) but soon I can amend it with composted manure and get planting! A bit later than I had hoped to get started on it, but life has been crazy! :D
 
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I've only got a few things in my garden so far. It's just been to wet. Finally got it tilled, though.
 
The machete was the model shown below. The top of the swell is sharpened, as is traditional, and I set it to about a 70 degree included angle (35 per side) and brought to full sharpness. Had to touch it up 3 times during the work.

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Didn't need to use the slack belt on the Big Red because Predator Tools shovels come already sharpened. It cut plenty of roots , but it's a narrow blade compared to the width of the machete, and the machete was much lighter to repeatedly swing. The root mass I was cutting was composed of grasses and other fine-rooted plants with a few carrot-like wild tubers thrown in. Nothing large or woody. I just needed to chop it all up nice and fine so I could actually spread it, as well as destroying the plants so all the nutrients from the dead vegetable matter would stay in the soil.
 
On the McLeod topic, I guess the bottom line is that I just find them uncomfortable to use. They also are heavier than my rhino, and the perfect right angle formed by the blade and the handle is not quite as ergonomic to me. Having that curve of the shovel seems to help it pull dirt. I like McLeods for raking, and if you don't want to carry a rake and a rhino they're a nice compromise. So you can usually tell the new guy on the fireline because the great majority of people who have tried a McLeod for building fire line swap it out at the first chance.
 
VintageAxe said:
I like McLeods for raking, and if you don't want to carry a rake and a rhino they're a nice compromise. So you can usually tell the new guy on the fireline because the great majority of people who have tried a McLeod for building fire line swap it out at the first chance.
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That's a pretty accurate description. A McLeod is a compromise. They're better for trail building than they are for clearing a line. The wide hoe is nice for final grading. The corners will chip down hard soil. The rake is inefficient, but much better than no rake at all. It does many things and none of them excellently. Compromise, yes, that's it.
 
allout said:
To work a wildfire must take a Superman (and women).
Maybe the S on Superman's chest stands for shovel and the Superman logo is a shovel head.;)
My Thanks to anyone and everyone who has performed this Service.
Texas is my Home
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The Shoveler is a a Superhero in his own right! :D

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I try to get the side edges to the point of being able to cut a curl off a piece of pine, and set the nose at around the same angle as factory, and leave the nose right around the factory angle since it'll be the part entering dirt. But yeah they come with a pretty coarse edge on them and sections of it often don't even have a burr on them because the rough grind didn't thin the edge all the way.
 
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[/url] DSCN3869 by piccini9, on Flickr[/IMG]

Found this on the side of the road, badly abused, bent blade, handle dry and broken beyond hope, but I see potential.
gonna cut the blade to a small pointed shape and cut the handle, maybe leaving a little knob, will post pics as I go along.
 
Personally I'd go ahead and do it, but only because it's in such thrashed condition. It's not a collector's item and you can still buy them like that, though you have to look around.
 
I'd use a cutoff wheel and just take my time to make sure I didn't overheat the blade. Then after rough-cutting it I'd use either a belt sander or files to finish out the shape.
 
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