My sharp shooter drain spade...

[D2Cat]

...now has a life time guarantee.

I've had this thing for years. When digging for the burnt electrical wires I broke the handle. The shovel head is made in the USA and is good metal.

I stopped by my favorite iron recycler and got a piece of stainless steel tubing with .125 wall and reworked it. I'm just not paying $50 for a drain spade, and the other two I have will fold over like a stick of licorice if you really use them.

(I was going to upload some pictures, but I get a message saying invalid post specified, maybe tomorrow will work.)

 

[85Hokie]

D2Cat, I share your pain!

I had a pair of nice post hole diggers, the kind that cost much more than they should have, lifetime fiberglass handles.

Used them a good long while when I was building decks during the summer for years...........

Used them less and less.....got them out last year and the bottom, right at the two bolt holes snapped like twigs! The outside of the fiberglass looked like an old tire - checks up and down its length - the inner core looked like a white "stick of licorice" and was not that "hard" - they had not been in the sun and stayed in the dark when not in use....

SO - going to the store, bought two hickory handles, of course had to modify them to fit , talking about sticking a round peg in a square hole!

anywhooooo - life is good, they work better than ever - I will have to say, the cutting edges have neeeeever chipped, cracked or pulled back - and I have hit a many of rock!!! So things are worth keeping around !!!

 

[OldeEnglish]

A few years back I bought a nice new short handled spade, heavy duty for working in ditches. I was mixing up some concrete with my father one day with a hoe and he asked me where the shovels were. I said in the back shed.... and went somewhere to grab something. I come back and he has my new shovel in the concrete filling buckets . I have a shed full of every shovel you could think of, most of them have some concrete or mortar stuck to them that are used and abused. He grabs the shiny new one that I specifically wanted for dirt work only

 

[Corney]

I started my adult life in concrete and asphalt paving in about 1983. I have shovelled a gaggle of asphalt, concrete and aggregate in my times. My tool of choice is a square angled Garant heavy steel shovel with a long wood handle. I was taught to grade with this tool, you push and roll so your material does not segregate. Same way you grade with equipment, you keep your blade or bucket full and rolling to fill low spots.

I bust spade handles off all the time because it's a kick end and bend. Bending moments for those engineer geeks. Prefer wood over fibre glass or metal because it breaks cleaner when I over do it!

 

[D2Cat]

Ok, working on pictures