The Shovel Discussion Thread!

garry3 said:
You guys are coming up with some strange ones. I have just used the old fashion conventional type. The last time I purchased them I dug through quite a few until I found a pair with warped handles(warped out). They thought I was crazy at the hardware store but I don't think they had dug many post holes.
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You've dug some holes, and slammed your fingers together once or twice, I see :). The pair I have now is some upscale version with carbon fiber looking handles, works well, better than wood handles I think. I usually hold both handles in one fist to prevent getting smashed, but attention does wonder at times!
 
While we're talking post holes, anyone else have a favorite digging bar? I used to make do with some import POS but last year found a nice old US made bar. Pictures later when on my home computer.
 
My favorite bar has been lost to time some place. It was a regular post hole bar with a spade like point on one end and a round tamper on the other, probably home made. What I have now is a Woodings Verona with a spade
and round point. It is too short at 5ft and it leaves me wanting for a tamping bar. The steel is good enough though.
 
The one I use has chisel on one end and button tamper on other, six feet long I think. Something like the Seymour dg19 or the bully bar, though not sure what it is. It is used for all sorts of things when I need a big stick, aside from digging. Breaks rock well, but light enough to switch arms.
 
BG_Farmer said:
You've dug some holes, and slammed your fingers together once or twice, I see :). The pair I have now is some upscale version with carbon fiber looking handles, works well, better than wood handles I think. I usually hold both handles in one fist to prevent getting smashed, but attention does wonder at times!
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Yes, when you pull them out of the hole and you empty them.
 
garry3 said:
My favorite bar has been lost to time some place. It was a regular post hole bar with a spade like point on one end and a round tamper on the other, probably home made. What I have now is a Woodings Verona with a spade
and round point. It is too short at 5ft and it leaves me wanting for a tamping bar. The steel is good enough though.
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BG_Farmer said:
The one I use has chisel on one end and button tamper on other, six feet long I think. Something like the Seymour dg19 or the bully bar, though not sure what it is. It is used for all sorts of things when I need a big stick, aside from digging. Breaks rock well, but light enough to switch arms.
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Woodings Verona made some great digging bars and rock bars. Sad to see them go.

I like the type of bar that BG_Farmer is describing. That and a PhD (post hole digger)!
 
Square_peg said:
Woodings Verona made some great digging bars and rock bars. Sad to see them go.

I like the type of bar that BG_Farmer is describing. That and a PhD (post hole digger)!
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LOL! PHD huh? Your making us all sound smarter than we are.

BG's is what a guy needs for planting a post, that button end. The end of a shovel handle just doesn't get it to tamp the post in with, besides being hard on a shovel handle.
 
Tampers- my favorite is a utility pole tamper. It is cast, cresent shaped, and has a handle socket welded in the middle on the flat side of the cresent. They came with very long wood handles to tamp around the poles. I cut my handle to 6'. If you used one of these tampers you would never again tamp with the button tamper. The cresent shape fits right around the pole, or post.
 
I just found one still being made by Oshkosh tools, they call it a curved head tamp bar. I just could not leave it behind when I moved off the ranch 4 years ago. The wife does not know that I did not sell it, and that I shipped it!
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Everything I'm seeing turn up regarding Boston/Erie diggers speaks very highly of them. If I ever find myself in need of digging a fair number of post holes I'll probably invest in one of them--they look like quality tools.
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They are hard to find since very few places stock them and then they're always back ordered! The newer versions (I bought 2 new ones in 2010) continually come apart because of the nut and bolt arrangements they came up with in lieu of proper rivets.
 
Couldn't you just pop some rivets in there instead of bolts? Or use lock nuts?
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Couldn't you just pop some rivets in there instead of bolts? Or use lock nuts?
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These weren't your dime store rivets; probably fasteners for truck chassis, ship or bridge building. Tough/hard steel. Current store bought diggers use ordinary nuts and bolts without lock washers. These perpetually work loose and then bend or break before you know or realize they've loosened. I fitted slightly oversize and used higher grade nuts and bolts.. and installed lockwashers. After my frustrating experience with the 'new' diggers, and repairing them, I bartered them off to a pool installer and resurrected my two older (1980s) diggers.
 
Yeah, what I'm asking is if that was the only problem you experienced with it? 'Cause that seems like something easily fixed with some better off-the-shelf hardware.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Yeah, what I'm asking is if that was the only problem you experienced with it? 'Cause that seems like something easily fixed with some better off-the-shelf hardware.
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The castings are not as durable in the newer ones. Reason I know that is the strapping young lads using them broke two of them in the space of a month and yet I never broke one of the older ones in 30 years. Seems to me the blade temper or quality of steel is also not as good; blade tips seem to wear faster and/or go soft much sooner from continual pounding.
 
Old Axeman said:
Tampers- my favorite is a utility pole tamper. It is cast, cresent shaped, and has a handle socket welded in the middle on the flat side of the cresent. They came with very long wood handles to tamp around the poles. I cut my handle to 6'. If you used one of these tampers you would never again tamp with the button tamper. The cresent shape fits right around the pole, or post.
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Ya, I can see its a no brainer. I can't tell you the number of times I had to make a hole wider to accommodate the tamping bar.
 
These followed me home today. 2 spades, one is an A.M. Leonard full strapped nursery spade, and the other has no name but vintage and of the highest quality. The Leonard spade is a $100 spade. I paid $20 for both.

 
Steve Tall said:
Here's a shovel head made of aeronautical aluminum, which weighs just under 1 pound.

falcitools.com-6313dc4b-f4de-4886-8fa2-ab358c18af51-Fix330x800.jpg

http://falcitools.com/En/News/News_Detail.aspx?NewsIDMaster=3998

Peter Vido told me that he loaned a similar Falci shovel to a guy he knew in Austria who was the town's gravedigger (done by hand not machine). The guy had nothing but praise for it and he refused to give it back.
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Seeing this shovel thread reminds me that these aluminum alloy shovels from Falci are now available in North America from at least one importer. Search terms (with quote marks):
"ultralight yet tough shovel"

If I had to move material with a shovel all day, I'd probably want to get one.
 
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