mts said:
1) I use the standard "horseshoe" shaped plug that is hinged on the back. I think that is more popular. But the pie shaped plug is interesting. Any reason why you think that would be easier/better or is this just your personal preference?
When you dig a circular hole (or a semicircular hole, like a horseshoe), you are digging a curve with a flat blade, making the cut wider than necessary. When you cut two straight lines, the cuts stay narrow and do less damage.
2) I have that same Fiskars digger. Very cheap but very sturdy. However, I have two problems with it (and the other diggers you show). A) They don't move large volumes of dirt. They cut the ground nicely but if you end up having to actually dig the bottom of the hole out more they are completely useless.
I've easily dug a foot deep with my hunting knife. I make the hole wider as I go deeper, leaving the top of the hole narrower than the bottom.
B) They really don't work very well with dry/rocky soil. If you are cutting into the roots of a grassy area or if the ground is moist they do fine. Otherwise, forget it.
Nothing does. With dry, rocky soil, you're gonna make a mess no matter what you do.
3) I really thought that I was doing a good job of practicing cutting plugs in my yard. But even though I'm using a proper technique and digging in moist conditions I can still sometimes see remnants of where I dug a week later.
Try the two straight cuts instead of the horseshoe cut - you might be pleasantly surprised.
4) I notice that you didn't use a ground cloth which is also something that comes highly recommended out here. I use one to hold any extra dirt and even my tools as they can get dirty and have large chunks of earth fall off of them into the grass. You didn't appear to need it in this case. Do you carry one along with you for instances where you need to excavate more dirt?
Yes, a small towel or (don't laugh) a Frisbee. I didn't use one in the video because it was my own back yard and I don't care that much, plus the ground is wet enough right now (lots of rain last week) that a ground cloth is not necessary - the ground is almost like clay, as you could probably see in the video.
5) I haven't quite figured out how to transport all of my tools yet. I typically wrap the most commonly used ones up in a cloth and carry them in my left hand. I've got to figure out a better way of transporting all of this stuff so that it is readily available when I need it. Some tools I may only use once during an outing so it seems ridiculous to carry it around with me everywhere I go. I'm assuming that you don't carry all of those diggers and just pick one or two to take along on each trip.
Lordy no! I carry a blunted screwdriver, my knife, and my pinpointer in my left hand and my detector in my right. Works great for me.
6) Can you tell us the brand of your pinpointer? I have the Garrett ProPointer which is just a dream to use. It sounds like yours has a single beep to determine proximity. The Garrett ProPointer changes the beat frequency of the tone as you get closer to the object which is invaluable for estimating distance. When the tone is constant you are pretty much touching the object.
I usually use a Tinytec. The one in the video is the $15 Harbor Freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97245
Not great, but it gets the job done. The BFOs are nice, but they cost a bit more than fifteen bucks, and I seem to do fine with this one.
Keep up the good work. I love the "radio shows" you do on detecting.
And thanks for the kind words!
Best,
---Dan Hughes
