Cold Steel Trenchcoat Shovel Unisex Adult Shovel, Brown (Wood), 762 mm

They are special precise tools for property improvements ranging from digging a pond to making a storm shelter. They have secondary functions for camping and a wide variety of other things. As advertised the larger American 30" version of the 50cm (<20") shovel. There is a special digging technique that needs to be followed for long term use of these shovels to avoid breaking them. You can dig a little bit normally with them but the thick blades make it harder to penetrate soil in typical style and the stress will eventually cause the handle or blade to break if you try and build a large dugout shelter or tunnel like that. The proper technique involves using the shovel as a scraper. One hand on the pommel, one hand just above the blade. Then you scrape a thin piece of dirt like you are shaving chocolate with the tip. As with the 50cm shovel you are likely to need a minimum of a square of 3x shovel lengths to have enough room to scrape across the ground and start your hole moving downwards. It might feel like a slow way to dig but it can be very consistent and low stress and low impact and also (specially with the smaller 50cm shovel) allow hole geometries unavailable to larger shovels. Being the larger 30" version this obviously is going to require more fitness to be able to work with 8+ hours per day BUT being larger it can also dig faster at the cost of requiring more room to do it. So anyways you shave the dirt like shavings of chocolate in a fancy restaurant. Usually sitting or kneeling when going down, whatever works when going forwards or up whatever other direction there is. Once you have a nice pile of shaved dirt (you just let it fall and pile up loose) you scrape it up into a bucket and haul it out. No fooling with the shovel blade for dirt transport mostly. This has one very narrow precision use that it is perfect for and that is all. Everything else that you can do with it is sort of secondary use that may end up breaking it if overused. Done a lot of digging and never broke one with the gentle scraping or shaving, only with stabbing and prying. It still takes a lot to break one by stabbing and prying but if you are building a dugout shelter or tunnel you might. The manufacturer advertising is horrible showing all sorts of stunts that will very likely break the shovel pretty quick. Properly used this is a precision digging tool that can move literal 100s of tons of dirt without breaking like a more agile manually powered backhoe that can dig stairs, tunnels or a whole underground house. It has only that one primary narrow precision use shaving dirt to loosen it and that is it. Any other use even other types of digging may eventually break it. That said it has a variety of potential secondary emergency functions just do not overuse them! Truly amazing tool when properly utilized that can provide years of entertainment and utility building or digging anything you can imagine out of the dirt. Build a cave shelter then use the dirt you dug out to build a house on top! You can make whatever you can imagine out of dirt including highly efficient secondary combustion masonry heaters, rocket stoves, Russian stoves, Kakelugn, secondary combustion enhanced Dakota firepits or whatever you want to call them. Also good for portability but that is definitely secondary to me compared to all the other possibilities. Recommended if you already have the 50cm shovel or are getting it, plan to get fit enough to use it 8+ hours a day and want to have the big brother available to work even faster when you are fit and motivated enough to scale up. Also if you just need a more portable shovel but want something more robust than folding models. However it is good to have the 50cm version for finer smaller or tighter work. Do not think this is just better because it is bigger. If you get only one I recommend the 50cm version first.

Eine multifunktionale Schaufel, die einfach zu bedienen und dennoch unglaublich robust und scharf ist! Sie kann praktisch als Beil und Überlebensmesser verwendet werden. Unzerstörbares Material! Absolut empfehlenswert! +++++

Excelente calidad. Robusta y con un filó adecuado en el contorno de la pala. Balance y peso adecuado. Creo que el costo es ligeramente alto tal vez 150 pesos menos hubiera sido más justo pero es una buena herramienta

I know these days its trendy to carry the all metal folding shovels into the woods, the better ones seem to hold up well, the not-so-great ones will bend and break quickly. This shovel is built with the quality one would expect from something costing much more money and here's why... First of all it's a carbon steel shovel, it's made from I believe 1040 but I could be wrong, in any event it will take an edge and hold it, while being characteristically tough enough to handle a beating (it wont chip easily) and keep on doing it's job - a big plus to me. It's durability and sturdiness is obvious the moment to handle it, this is not something cheaply made, it screams quality. Secondly, the head is mounted using two screws, if the handle ever broke while in the woods any competent person could improvise one themselves rather easily - good to know. Third, and this is the really cool part about this shovel, mine came very sharp out of the box and due to the edge profile (something difficult to see in the photos really) it makes a fine chopping tool. When I go camping I don't have to bring a machete - I bring this instead. This is not something many bushcrafters do very often but they might give it a try, having a shovel like this in the woods is great for many reasons. The last thing I will add here is that both sides can be sharpened, effectively making this equivalent to a double bitted axe. The only downside of this shovel is the fact that the handle came coated in really cheap shellac, this took me all of about five minutes to get off and treat the (properly grain oriented) handle with boiled linseed oil. Five stars all day long, great product. Note: A word of warning, there is a smaller version of this shovel (I own one too) it is just as well made, however the head is smaller on it, if you mistakenly purchase the cover/sheath for the small one, it will not fit the large one.

I have two of these now and well the shovel is fine but i also wanted the longer handle for a boar spear head. I have not however located a source for purchasing the longer shovel handle, anyhow i now have two each shovels and 3 boar spear head, two shovel lengths & one full length. As for the person unable to find a sheath that fits it, [Well yes i bought the cold steel one made for the shorter handle shovel and it does not fit.] Marbles does make a shovel sheath that does work. I originally got this shovel for use with my metal detector but, while it works in most situations small roots and moderate rocks & it is easy enough to carry. I have decided if you need one for metal detecting you may as well carry the extra weight and get a Lesche or something similarly heavy duty. In my opinion these are tough. Oh sure hickory handles can have hidden weaknesses an in my experience i can destroy any tool even ones guaranteed against destruction. Use good judgment.