My Digging Tool Design

[New Direction]

Made from mild steel with heat treated edges. Going to try out a wooden handle aswell to shave weight. Wanted something right in between my other two shovels.

 

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[Coinstriking Michigan]

Damn, very nice. Hook me up

 

[AcRellik]

I am interested How much for one ?

 

[New Direction]

Wasent sure if I would try to sell any. Two of my friends want one so maybe I will make a few extra. I will try and figure out a number. Thanks for the interest.

 

[leprechaun]

Lookes like a great ballpark shovel,I might like one also.leprechaun.

 

[Goldmoon]

Thanks for the idea, I think I'll try something similar. Is that round tubing or solid round?

I was looking at the rambo knife style ones, and wanted to make something because my little aluminum garden shovel just doesn't "cut it" so to speak lol...

Did you sharpen the edges like a knife?

 

[New Direction]

Hey guys thanks for the input. As of now I wont be making any to sell. I made this at my work and besides us being super busy I don't think its a good idea to mix work with money on the side. I will be moving into a new house soon and setting up my own little workshop so I may make some then if there's enough interest.

This design has worked amazingly well for my parks and fields hunting. I haven't taken it out into the woods yet though I have a feeling it wouldn't do too well with roots unless I sharpen and or add teeth to it. The holes I dig with it are very small 3x3 inch squares so relic hunting may be risky. Some relics could be odd shapes or bigger and risk damaging them.

I got this idea from someone who posted on here about adding a short wooden handle to a lesche tool. I imagine that performs as well if not better.

@Goldmoon Its all tubing I just welded nuts and bolts into the ends for the connections. I didn't sharpen the edges like a knife I would say about as sharp as a letter opener maybe a little duller. I first tested it without heat treating and the edge get really messed up the firs rock I hit so I was worried about going too sharp. But since I heat treated it nothing has come close to knicking the edge so I probably could go sharper. I also like it a little duller in case I hit a valuable.

 

[Goldmoon]

Thanks for the info. 1 more quick question, to heat treat it did you just heat up mild steel with an oxy acetylene torch?

 

[New Direction]

Yeah I heated it up evenly around the whole edge till it had a good cherry/orange glow with the torch. Just kept moving it in an arc around the edge trying to keep the heat away from the center as much as possible. Then once it gets nice and evenly hot quench it rapidly with water or even better used motor oil. The idea is to just harden the edge while keeping the center softer for ductility. This should give the best of both worlds without having to get too technical. You can see in the picture where the mill scale came off near the edge from the heat.