# Hershovel



## surfaceone (Feb 3, 2012)

The very latest in Hergonomic Tools. Check it out, they've also got some 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 that might be of use to some of us. American made, too, in New Tripoli, PA.

 Rick, are you dialing them now?

 Choose yer shovel...


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## Wheelah23 (Feb 3, 2012)

What wacky handles. I like shovels with handles best, they provide maximum leverage for optimal dirt flinging. But that kind of handle might get annoying. 

 Ladies, how does your digging style differ from that of us men? I wonder how "they" came up with scientific differences...


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## rockbot (Feb 4, 2012)

Hey Wheel, I think its a boob thing![]



> ORIGINAL:  Wheelah23
> 
> What wacky handles. I like shovels with handles best, they provide maximum leverage for optimal dirt flinging. But that kind of handle might get annoying.
> 
> Ladies, how does your digging style differ from that of us men? I wonder how "they" came up with scientific differences...


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## surfaceone (Feb 4, 2012)

Hey Rocky,

 You wouldn't wanna say that to my bride when she's packin her Homi... [8D]


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## rockbot (Feb 4, 2012)

I was just guessing![]


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## Stardust (Feb 4, 2012)

DO THEY COME LABELED like towels now when u register for wedding gift? []


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## Dugout (Feb 4, 2012)

Rocky, believe me, it is not a boob thing. Women were made with a pelvis to produce your offspring. So a womans leverage system is totally different than a mans.  Men have small hips and broad shoulders. Didn't you learn anything in art class?? [8|]


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## rockbot (Feb 4, 2012)

> ORIGINAL:  Dugout
> 
> Rocky, believe me, it is not a boob thing.Â Women were made with a pelvis to produce your offspring. So a womansÂ leverage system is totallyÂ differentÂ thanÂ a mans.Â Â Men have small hips and broad shoulders. Didn't you learn anything in art class?? [8|]


 
 Ah hips, my bad!


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## Wheelah23 (Feb 4, 2012)

Those things may not help you to dig, but they certainly would help you get permissions! [:-]


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## Dugout (Feb 4, 2012)

[] That is why I only dig on my land !


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## RedGinger (Feb 4, 2012)

Yeah, men usually have more strength in the upper body.  That's why it's so hard for me, at least, to do pull ups and the classic pushups and shovel a lot of dirt.  I can kick pretty well.  That's why... well, I'll let you guess why things are located where they are lol.


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## rockbot (Feb 5, 2012)

.[]


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## surfaceone (Feb 7, 2012)

Hey Tony,

 Are those dancing gophers?

 I was doing some further lookin around on shovel technology, and found this:






 "*Pro-Lite Shovel*

 The Pro-Lite Shovel is a high performance, all-purpose 
 digging tool with a round-point sharpened carbon steel 
 blade, designed for easy digging and greater leverage.
 Radius Pro-Lite tools are 5" longer than their PRO 
 counterparts and feature the same large "O" handle and 
 extra-wide raised forward kick for reduced strain, better 
 balance, and ease-of-use. 
 Dimensions
 8.5"W x 3.5"H x 46.3"L
 Weight
 72 oz." From.

 Whether it's a Hershovel or a Himshovel, do you have better shovel mousetraps up your sleeve? Show me some shovel technology, please...


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## rockbot (Feb 8, 2012)

The most economical way but not very trust worthy method...[8D][]


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## surfaceone (Feb 8, 2012)

*RE: One Shot Shovel*

Yeah, Tony, I don't much go in for group digs...[8D]

 Check this one:  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 "Youâ€™d think there wasnâ€™t much more you could do to improve the trusty old round-point shovel, but Gemcor, maker of the One-Shot Shovel, thinks theyâ€™ve found a way. They start with a basic round-point shovel and give it wings â€” the â€œwingsâ€ provide extra carrying capacity and extra support for your foot when you step on the shovel, and the extra edges cut the ground quicker.


 The 2mm steel blade connects to a 32mm diameter by 3mm thick fiberglass handle with a reinforcing metal collar. One version of the shovel has a shorter shaft ending in a D-handle â€” the other version features a longer straight handle with two rubber grips that wrap around the handle, an adjustable lower grip and a fixed upper grip with integrated hanger.

 Pricing for either shovel starts at $30." From.


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## baltbottles (Feb 8, 2012)

*RE: One Shot Shovel*

I have used a lot of different shovels in my time but the ones I like best are Ames 20 in. D-Handle Steel Blade Round Point Shovel they are a super lightweight shovel and don't tire you out when moving dirt all day. They are made of good quality steel and seem to hold up well when digging through clay bricks ash or whatever else gets thrown in a privy as fill. I do tend to wear out the point of the blade after about a year of digging. plus they are fairly cheap at about $15 each at home depot.

 Chris


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## surfaceone (Feb 8, 2012)

*RE: One Shot Shovel*

Hey Chris,

 Do you ever resharpen, refile the blade?

 Here's a more ergo-shovel:






 "This ergonomically designed range of spades and forks guarantees a good working posture. The long handle and the 40Â° lifting angle minimises strain on back and shoulders and the bent grip gives the hand a natural working posture. Tubular steel shaft with plastic coating insulates from cold and gives a firm grip. The 170 handle angle allows a natural hand position. The head is welded to the handle for a durable connection. The spade blades have been sharpened for better penetration into the soil." From.


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## surfaceone (Feb 8, 2012)

*RE: Ode to Grandmother's Shovel*

"DAVID MAS MASUMOTO: Old Shovels, Old Friends


 I say goodbye to a dear friend in the late autumn: I put away my old farm shovel for the winter.

 I wipe off the dirt and dust and pause to think of what we went though this past year. A nice cold winter. Heavy late winter and spring rains that resulted in weeds. Lots of weeds; they grew where they normally don't. A wild downpour in early June and frantic shoveling to channel water away from equipment sitting in soft dirt. A summer peach and nectarine harvest with good enough prices. Anticipation of a great raisin year until October rains and an inch of water in seven hours. Weeds grew between the raisin trays and grapes desperately trying to dry.

 Shovel and I work hard. It's what we do.

 As the years pass, I find myself leaning against my shovel more and more. Not just a place to park my hands and arms, but now to stop and rest. My shovel supports me.

 The blade is browned by rust but I am struck by the fine old handle. The original one snapped long ago, a victim of age and an impatient young farmer. But we simply shortened the wood and it fits the Masumotos well. We're not big people. Like my father, I'm 5 feet 6 inches with broad shoulders and small hands. Perfect match with our shovel -- narrow handle and not too long. An old Japanese neighbor once told me: Short people make good farmers, they're closer to the earth.

 My Baachan/Grandmother used this shovel. In her old age, she religiously reached for this tool, her tiny 41/2-foot frame paired well. She seemed to enjoy digging weeds.

 I watched her trudge into the fields early in the morning and spend hours claiming the land from the wild grasses. Late in the day, she'd wander home, her back bent, sore from the hours of labor, her arms bulged with muscles cut into a lean body. Hunched over with shovel in hand, she came home from another day of life.

 When I say "put away" a shovel, I simply store it in the barn, lean it against the wall near the door. No good farmer can be without a shovel for very long. We're compulsive: see a clump of weeds or rain water puddling and we reach for the shovel. My dad used to always carry a shovel with him, handle resting on his shoulder with blade end trailing behind, a profile of a worker ready for work, almost like a soldier.

 But winter is a season for rest and perhaps by moving the shovel from pickup bed to shed, I'm declaring a time out. We both need to rest and recuperate.

 I may then use some sandpaper to smooth out a gouge from the handle, recalling the time of anger (bad peach prices, uncooperative irrigation water and a grumpy farmer) when I flung the tool into the pickup bed. Or I grind out a nick in the blade, smiling at the memory of chasing a squirrel into my junkyard and believing for a moment, I could hurl the blade like a warrior and stab the prey (my fantasy ended with a clunk and the sound of the metal blade bouncing off a stack of metal pipes). Another time, I'm amazed the shovel didn't break when it fell as I was driving too fast on a tractor and ran over the handle; I am blessed with soft, fluffy sandy loam soil.

 No friend should take such abuse. I vow to be more careful and wiser next year.

 I pause to admire a sheen reflected in the wood. I stroke the tight grain and feel a coolness in the sleek surface. Sweat and body oil from working hands has polished the wood tens of thousands of times.

 The scent of my late father is in this wood. Years of dedication. Not a monument to his life, not a permanent marker to celebrate his presence. His body has become part of my shovel.

 Only when I use the shovel do I truly understand its value. When I poke at some weeds, the brown steel slides easily into the dirt, cutting just below the surface, slicing the weeds in a single smooth pass. The rust is deceiving, the metal is still sharp with a filed edge.

 But it's the shape of the blade that makes the difference. The shovel face -- a relatively flat piece of steel gently bowed upward at the sides -- has two crescent-shaped curves that glide through the moist ground of spring and the damp earth of freshly irrigated summer furrows, swimming just below the surface, slicing through delicate roots.

 Nature has sculpted the correct slopes and angles from solid metal. Generations have honed the proper shape so that each pass in the sand and silt acts like a natural whetstone. I can't tell if the original shovel had this shape, or if, as years of use have slowly ground the metal to half the size of a new shovel, only two rounded cheeks instead of the point remain.

 I work with a piece of my family's past, a gift I inherit. It's a timeline of our family on this land. I can measure time by the gradual abrading of the steel from years of use. My grandparents and parents left their mark, the shovel shortened by an inch or more with each generation.

 I pause and think of my contribution. Another half inch? Actually, probably only a quarter inch at most: I don't work that hard. The shovel doesn't lie." From.


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## baltbottles (Feb 8, 2012)

*RE: One Shot Shovel*



> Do you ever resharpen, refile the blade?


 
 Nope they just wear out from lots of digging. I get a year to a year and a half out of one before the head gets too small to really be usable.

 Chris


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