It Had to be the Free Shipping

[Jim Koepke]

Well that plust refunds from the IRS and the California State Franchise Tax Board that got me to buy something that has been on my wish list for a long time now:

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A shovel of this quality has been on my wish list for a longer time than any plane. This one is definitely a quality shovel.

My LN #62 was purchased to be used mostly as a shooting plane years before any modern maker was producing a plane especially for use on a shooting board.

Because my right shoulder bothers me at times, a left hand shooter seemed like a better idea. My LN #62 can be used if some shooting absolutely, positively has to be done right handed.

A short foray over my oilstones and the PMv11 edge was ready. The only work on the back was to remove the burr. A few licks on the strop and into the plane. After a few very light cuts the blade was advanced to make almost effortless shavings on ash end grain:

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Square from the start, a welcome addition to the shop.

Hmmm, have to move some things around. Have to start thinking about building a plane till…

jtk

[ken hatch]

Jim,

Congrats on both the shovel and the shooting plane, I'll bet both will make your life easier.

ken

[Phil Mueller]

Congrats! You’re going to love that shooting plane. You might even find yourself cutting ends off square on purpose just so you can use it ;)

[Jim Matthews]

What angle is the edge grind?

Did it come with a proper instruction manual?

[Jim Koepke]

According to the instructions included with the plane the bevel was ground to 25º with a 27º secondary bevel.

It was actually fairly easy honing the edge to the point of raising a burr.

Just for fun an O1 blade was also ordered. Presently it is on back order. They should be available by the end of the month.

jtk

[Jim Hoti]

Generally that type of digging device is called a spade-it's handle is straighter and the edge is square whereas a shovel handle is more curved and has the pointy end. A shovel "scoops", while the spade cuts. Semantics perhaps, but this group seems to appreciate the nuances of language and tool names.

Is a good looking spade. With the hard soil I have here, I use a spade much more than a shovel - keep the edge sharpened with a coarse file.

[Jim Koepke]

Generally that type of digging device is called a spade-it's handle is straighter and the edge is square whereas a shovel handle is more curved and has the pointy end. A shovel "scoops", while the spade cuts. Semantics perhaps, but this group seems to appreciate the nuances of language and tool names.

Is a good looking spade. With the hard soil I have here, I use a spade much more than a shovel - keep the edge sharpened with a coarse file.

Growing up in California and learning state history in school may have given me a different perspective on this:

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Also playing cards might make one think of spades as having a pointy end.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

I meant the shovel.

[Jim Koepke]

I meant the shovel.

Oh, it came with an incomplete bevel for bevel up use. It may be around 15-20º.

It was extended a little. It may be extended more after some more use.

jtk

[Jason Buresh]

Hopefully your wife doesn't decide to use the shovel after she sees the price tags!

All kidding aside, it looks like money well spent to me!

[Jim Koepke]

Hopefully your wife doesn't decide to use the shovel after she sees the price tags!

All kidding aside, it looks like money well spent to me!

Candy liked the shovel, but it is bigger that what she likes to use. She is standing next to me in my avatar image. She isn't much taller than the shovel.

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

Jim,

I am really curious to hear your review of the shooting plane. Thanks in advance.

[Mike Manning]

Good for you Jim on the new toys! I was wondering what is your intended use of the shovel? I can't say as I've ever seen one quite like that.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,

I am really curious to hear your review of the shooting plane. Thanks in advance.

So far it has been impressive, as time allows more will be written later.


Good for you Jim on the new toys! I was wondering what is your intended use of the shovel? I can't say as I've ever seen one quite like that.

My business license is for a nursery. We have a greenhouse and this year my intention is to expand our outdoor garden area.

jtk

[Rob Lee]

Well -

Speaking for our shipping department....that's one ugly order to pack......!

Thanks for placing it though! :)

Cheers -

Rob

[Jim Koepke]

Well -

Speaking for our shipping department....that's one ugly order to pack......!

Thanks for placing it though! :)

Cheers -

Rob

Our cat enjoyed the box and all the wrapping paper.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

The email blast omitted the free cats part.
(They're probably Ottawa Senators fans, anyway.)

[Jim Koepke]

The shovel/spade is an impressive piece of garden tool:

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Here it is compared to one of my better shovels. The stainless steel is thicker than any of the steel on standard shovels seen in any but one or two gardening supply stores in my experience.

The top sides of the shovels look to be pretty much the same mechanically:

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Though the socket for the new shovel is longer.

It is the backside where a real difference can be seen:

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Most of my shovels have broken in the area where the metal transitions from the handle to the scoop. It is usually when someone else is using one of my shovels when a handle breaks. Hopefully this design will help to prevent cracking in this area.

Hopefully this shovel will become a family heirloom along with my other tools.

jtk

[Josh Robinson]

Nice toys! Congrats

[Bob Jones 5443]

A dedicated shooting plane. Way to use that tax refund! Congratulations.

I still use my 4-1/2 to shoot. Used it today on some very hard ash end grain to creep up on a length. Shooting is such a zen process.

It looks like you got their last one: it was out of stock just now.

Does your board have an outer fence to provide a no-play track?

[Jim Koepke]

A dedicated shooting plane. Way to use that tax refund! Congratulations.

I still use my 4-1/2 to shoot. Used it today on some very hard ash end grain to creep up on a length. Shooting is such a zen process.

It looks like you got their last one: it was out of stock just now.

Does your board have an outer fence to provide a no-play track?

No, the plane was very easy to guide without a track. It looks like it will be easy to add a strip of wood to work like a track. That may be my next addition to my shooting board.

The low angle of attack and the skewed blade make this much less of an impact and more of a slicing reaction when the blade contacts the wood. It is less effort and more ergonomic than my #62 LA Jack.

jtk

[Scott Winners]

Now that I have googled it I am more confused by the difference between a shovel and a spade than I was before I opened this thread. Thanks Jim. Whatever that long handled this is called, it looks like a good worker.

[Jim Hoti]

I apologize for creating the confusion of spade versus shovel....I have just noticed many esoteric discussions relative to the nuances of a particular thing, whether it be the placement of a chipbreaker, or the difference between a Type 8 and 9, or the art of tool storage following the knolling principle. So I will try to assuage everyone's concerns - generally, a spade has the sharpened straighter edge for digging, slicing through roots and soil, and usually used for hard packed earth. Many gardeners use them to create new beds, turning soil, etc. At the end of the day, there is still a lot of confusion on the differences. For example, I have an older dictionary that defines a shovel as a spoon like instrument used for digging, a spoon as a scoop like instrument used for eating and a scoop as a shovel like instrument for moving loose products like grain......

I will end with a famous excerpt from Frederick Taylor's 1911 paper on Scientific Management - the paper, including this excerpt was actually presented in a speech to a House Committee in 1912. Here he uses as an example of "The Science of Shoveling."

"For example, the average man would question whether there is much of any science in the work of shoveling. Yet there is but little doubt, if any intelligent reader of this paper were deliberately to set out to find what may be called the foundation of the science of shoveling, that with perhaps 15 to 20 hours of thought and analysis he would be almost sure to have arrived at the essence of this science. On the other hand, so completely are the rule-of-thumb ideas still dominant that the writer has never met a single shovel contractor to whom it had ever even occurred that there was such a thing as the science of shoveling. This science is so elementary as to be almost self-evident.For a first-class shoveler there is a given shovel load with which he will do his biggest day’s work. What is this shovel load? Will a first-class man do more work per day with a shovel load of 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20, 25, 30, or 40 pounds?

Now this is a question which can be answered only through carefully made experiments. By first selecting two or three first-class shovelers, and paying them extra wages for doing trustworthy work, and then gradually varying the shovel load and having all the conditions accompanying the work carefully observed for several weeks by men who were used to experimenting, it was found that a first-class man would do his biggest day’s work with a shovel load of about 21 pounds. For instance, that this man would shovel a larger tonnage per day with a 21-pound load than with a 24-pound load or than with an 18-pound load on his shovel. It is, of course, evident that no shoveler can always take a load of exactly 21 pounds on his shovel, but nevertheless, although his load may vary 3 or 4 pounds one way or the other, either below or above the 21 pounds, he will do his biggest day’s work when his average for the day is about 21 pounds.The writer does not wish it to be understood that this is the whole of the art or science of shoveling. There are many other elements, which together go to make up this science. But he wishes to indicate the important effect which this one piece of scientific knowledge has upon the work of shoveling."

[Jeff Bartley]

Jim,

Now I love a new hand plane for sure but that shovel! I really love a good shovel.

In the not so distant (before kids) past I spent some of almost every day out at the trails, in this case 'trails' refers to BMX jumps that snake through the woods in long lines that weave together. All hand built with picks and rakes and shovels. I kept a file in my bag to keep the flat shovels sharp.

I even made a handle out of laminated ash and Osage that was a little longer so it could reach further down the face of a jump.

Looks like I'm gonna need to put one of those LV shovels on my wishlist!

Thanks for sharing Jim!

[Jim Koepke]

"For example, the average man would question whether there is much of any science in the work of shoveling. Yet there is but little doubt, if any intelligent reader of this paper were deliberately to set out to find what may be called the foundation of the science of shoveling, that with perhaps 15 to 20 hours of thought and analysis he would be almost sure to have arrived at the essence of this science. On the other hand, so completely are the rule-of-thumb ideas still dominant that the writer has never met a single shovel contractor to whom it had ever even occurred that there was such a thing as the science of shoveling. This science is so elementary as to be almost self-evident.

It is an amazing thing to see two people side by side shoveling a pile when it is obvious one of them has no idea how to work with a shovel.

A year or so ago my son-in-law was helping me move a pile of gravel. There wasn't enough room for the truck driver to turn and drop the load in the desired spot, it had to be dropped a few feet away in the driveway. My son-in-law was going a mile a minute but the gravel was flying every which way. He had to be told, "keep it on the pile." After trying to use a shovel like a hatchet it was explained to him how that is one way to break a handle.

Many of the finer points of digging with a shovel come from thinking while we are in the process of using a shovel. For some, reflection on how our work is being done is not part of the experience.

jtk

[Dennis Droege]

What a hoot! I broke down and ordered a shooting plane last week--and I used the free shipping as an excuse.

[Jim Koepke]

What a hoot! I broke down and ordered a shooting plane last week--and I used the free shipping as an excuse.

Free shipping is a capitalist plot! :eek::D

jtk

[James Pallas]

I had to join in on the free shipping party too. Will show’n tell when goods arrive. I learned to dig as a kid working for a plumber. I learned from the laborers that knew how to dig. A spade is fairly flat with a straight edge and short handle and narrower than a shovel. You dig with a spade and clean out with a shovel. When digging in sticky clay it doesn’t stick to the straight spade as readily as it does to a rounded shovel. You can then scoop the clay loosely on the shovel and throw it from the ditch with the long handle. Those guys could dig and they could sing pretty well also.