Name a better e-tool. Miss me with your folding tinpot cross threading pencil dick fake pick axes and your tacticool nonsense.
I have digging to do. I need the most solid military shovel ever made. I do not need it to saw the callouses off my palms while I dig. I don't need it to be a multi-tool pile of shit. It should also be less than 4 foot OAL, T-handle or straight shaft is a point of debate.
Picrel is a starting point.
mpl50 tbh
>mpl50
This has a better spade point without losing much of the belly that carries weight. Good suggestion anon. I don't like the Cold Steel one though because well... it's Cold Steel.
What does say the US Army Corps of Engineers issue for short shovels and picks as a hurry up and go before they bring in real logistics and normal hand earth tools?
I've been a highway guy for 20 years so this is parallel to tools I've relied on forever, but we of course have the luxury of immediate supply and no travel. I know over the years there are tools I hated and revered. I want to know about the military solutions
>t, never had to dig through rocky ground with roots
sure your little shovel is great for sand and digging up your moms garden but I always bring a pick axe if I have to dig out a reasonable area in real outdoor conditions
assuming you can just shovel out loads of soft soil seems to be a thing with dudes who never spend time outdoors
I use a shovel more for digging my vehicle out of snow and shit
You can pick with a shovel, you just step kick the bit in a cross hatch. It does the same thing. I'm in a region not far off hard limestone shale, there isn't a lot of soil, so yes I pick a lot to dig.
never going to work in thick roots unless you sharpen the edge of your shovel but you do you
I'm a civil servant; we can't harm the roots. It's a stupid blue state conservation thing. If I have to run a 4" perforated drain pipe just to fix a swampy area, it goes under or around roots.
Yes I hate my life. But I also love to dig.
Oh fair enough my bad, good luck with the job and all that
Checked. What job are you in? Public sector by the sound of it?
>name a better shovel
we've really hit a new low
I see you've never had to use one tool to set, clear, shore and grade a utility trench. Or to excavate around another utility with a metal detector. The more spaded version posted after the OP was better, what's your suggestion?
Remember, civil engineering is a part of COIN in today's wars.
https://www.bestmaterials.com/detail.aspx?ID=10678&=IF($A2=%22%22,%22%22,%22utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=%22&ENCODEURL($A2)&%22&utm_id=18022917246&utm_content=&utm_term=%22)&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhKBSxOmA6N4VArYuUqhc9tNektxWWxuFHMbPLu2INtYyutaHXtO9lcaAo--EALw_wcB
A second most useful tool as it can grade faster than anything else by hand in a soil or gravel environment. Before anything fancy can get there to do it by machine.
You need a mattock. I have brutal soil, sometimes it is the only thing that works. I also made my own tool with a 6 foot piece of black 1" pipe and welded a 6"x5" card on the end with a 1" strip for my boot. Looks like the tool for linoleum removal but much more robust. Kinda like an earth chisel. Cut a slot into the pipe to take the plate and weld it in. the weight of the pipe help you chop. Sharpen the edge of course.
>mattock.
I use this to square out a place to put a trench box. Other than that it's just to make nice for the FRICKING ENGINEER.
The other tool you describe is a "Step Spud Bar", it was adapted for civil engineering from farming but the name just forgot to change.
I like the folding e-tool kinda almost. Adjusting it 90 degrees for a pick is faster to dig, you break up ground faster and can drag it out faster while it's still shallow. You can't scoop for shit with an e tool if you're not raking it with the head turned 90 out it's basically faster to just scoop up piles of dirt by hand than trying to shovel it as a shovel you're just going to waste energy and get pissed off doing that it makes more sense to just break shit loose using it more like a pick. Plus it's not that annoying to bring with you it folds down to the size print of the shovel head and can go on a molle strap.
mattock that was the word I was looking for when you fold it 90degrees.
for digging big holes I honestly prefer pick axe and bucket
a shovel is nice but I can scoop with my hands and the bucket means I can fill it up and move large amounts of earth at once versus the effort of chucking it out of the hole with a shovel
this is particularly important when your hole is at least 5-6 feet deep, always a pain for shovelling and really you want one that's full length for the leverage
Pick axes are so fricking handy when there are a shit ton of rocks everywhere or tree roots. I mean if it's a nice clumpy soil with clay or whatever I like a spade for the first foot or two, cut out the grass into a half foot or a foot by a half foot section to save for a cover piece, then spades are really good at flinging a lot of that crap out. Even nice soil like that about half a foot in when you really get into clay or it's just hard packed dirt that busts up into sand and it's full of rocks a pick is super handy. I've never had a bucket while I was doing that kind of stuff but that would of been really helpful.
That's the thing everyone I talk to seems to be digging into these ideal soil boxes
Meanwhile I'm out here in a fricking forest up north trying to dig a 20 foot long, 6 deep, 6 across minimal trench. With just a shovel it's fricked. Under ideal conditions I have a pick axe, mini sledge, bucket, shovel, crowbar, and a hand chainsaw because god damn.
That's also ignoring larger stones which would require a further rock drill, a couple extra drill bits, chisel, and of course a fricking generator to run your rock drill.
Yeah digging when you got regulations and work conditions is a bit different than when you're doing it in the middle of no where yourself.
Why would you waste all that time and energy on trying to destroy a rock it with a tool? Take it to a spot where you can be a safe distance away and have a drainage canal that dumps water on it after you heat it up in a hole. If it's in the hole and it's kinda a b***h to get out I'd just start a fire on it and run a thing from way back and take cover that'll drop water on it, it'll break itself apart. Now that I think about it I should have just used one of my canteen cups as a bucket I used one of them for soup one time when they did a improvised give people a hot meal since it's below freezing thing for morale or whatever.
that's assuming I can lift the rock
but that's pretty badass actually, canteen bucket..could work too? definitely creative
second this you sound like an interesting person
>that's assuming I can lift the rock
Maybe I'm understanding how big of a fire it would take, I would pile a couple logs and spend a day or two heating it up and run something that could move quite a bit of water at once. What do you think miners did back in the day? buy slaves to chip away at rocks? They heated that b***h up then doused it on water. It's going to fricking explode so I wouldn't do this unless I knew nobody else was around it's already a fairly deep hole and maybe dig a hasty to take cover from a long distance away where you're going to insert the water from a lot of people have died doing that sort of thing.
I mean a bucket would work better than a canteen thing but I said I didn't have a bucket and techniqually I'm sure one of my NCO's would be like well why didn't you scoop it using one of the tools on you instead of using your hands like a dumb monkey. I'm all for work smarter not harder but a lot of the time it involves almost as work as doing the work or more by hand if it doesn't work just to set it up.
makes sense, well damn I learned something today
you're definitely a better hole digger/rock exploder than I am
I think I would get paid if that was the case. I'm more of a moronic ape that tries to do the easiest thing possible with the least amount of effort.
lol but don't sell yourself short there
I try to ride smart for lazy for all I can. So if I were getting paid for talking myself up more I'd still tell you I'm a fricking moron and there is more than one way to do a thing.
I mean you shouldn't take my advice, don't do that that is really bad. I'm just saying with a grain of salt. Just rent a machine and dig it out if you don't like that sort of thing it'd be safer.
Can we emphasize a LOT of people have been killed by this?
And to bring it back to /k, the "Step Spud Bar" was originally used in reverse to set trench wall reinforcements for Napoleon's battery positions. It set sectioned tree trunks to shore up below grade walls before they got pounded in.
Is this a crypto moleman thread? Post tunnels you degenerates.
I only dig trenches
if digging is your main objective/need, get a surplus tri-fold US army e-tool. fricking great for digging, even in the tough dry soil in my area.
just buy a hydrovac you chuds
Since this is the only E-Tool thread I'm going to requisition it.
What German WW2 military shovel is the best? I do re-enactments and my current shovel is just a shit recolored one to fit the look, I've got some places where I can buy replicas of WW2 shovels but I need to know if I should get the relatively short non-foldable or the tall foldable.
luv me bundeswehr shovel
simpel as
Came here to post this.
Mine is dated '86 with the pouch dated '97, what about you?
Got one of these in my car, in case I get stuck on some muddy/snowy road in backwoods. Good to have some basic tools in your car, like an axe, saw, rope, towing line, roll of toilet paper, gloves, blanket and so...
BW folding shovel just feels indestructable.
My mom used it once when I gave her a lift to the cemetary and she wanted to plant some new flowers on grampa's grave but forgot her garden trovel. Well were those new flowers entrenched.
Gaston glocks shovel
Both weigh about the same. The Klappspaten is definitely too thin for heavy use and I’ve managed to bend the spade before, had to bend it back to have it fold correctly. It’s a more sturdy camp chair, but it’ll sink real bad if the ground is soft. Also have never needed to use the pick but the thinner spade width cuts through roots really well.
The USGI I have never had an issue with its durability while digging. I did have a buddy break his while sitting on it, but I’ve only seen that once and it’s harder to sink in soft ground because of the triangle handle. The spade is thicker so it’s harder to cut through roots and the serrations are fricking useless
I keep meaning to get one of these ww1 british entrenching tools but never hit go with it. At home its easier to just use separate full size tools. In my fantasy though its a great tool to have in your vehicle for digging yourself out of shit
>Name a better e-too
pic related
My childish brain has always wanted a shovel mortar, but to launch shovels not grenades. Imagine being killed by a ballistic frickin shovel.
Captcha: GAD0T
Conclusion: I get to frick Wonder Woman I guess.
Rip your pelvis
I allways found it easier to dig like this for the first part of buildning trenches, especially when the ground was frozen.