Our cat enjoyed the box and all the wrapping paper.Originally Posted by Rob Lee
Well -
Speaking for our shipping department....that's one ugly order to pack......!
Thanks for placing it though!
Cheers -
Rob
jtk
[OP]
Contributor
Our cat enjoyed the box and all the wrapping paper.Well -
Speaking for our shipping department....that's one ugly order to pack......!
Thanks for placing it though!
Cheers -
Rob
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
The email blast omitted the free cats part.
(They're probably Ottawa Senators fans, anyway.)
[OP]
Contributor
The shovel/spade is an impressive piece of garden tool:
Material Differences.jpg
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:
Topsides.jpg
Though the socket for the new shovel is longer.
It is the backside where a real difference can be seen:
Backsides.jpg
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
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 04-08-2020 at 6:37 PM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
Nice toys! Congrats
Contributor
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?
Last edited by Bob Jones 5443; 04-08-2020 at 10:37 PM.
[OP]
Contributor
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
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
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.
Member
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."
Member
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!
[OP]
Contributor
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."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.
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
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
What a hoot! I broke down and ordered a shooting plane last week--and I used the free shipping as an excuse.
[OP]
Contributor
Free shipping is a capitalist plot!
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
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.
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