Wednesday, 1 March 2023

A Resourceful Smallholding Tool Fixer.

 I was clearing a part of my veg plot the other day and I found this shovel again.

It came from England with us over twenty years ago or so.  It originally had a wooden handle and this broke and ever resourceful number one son made and welded me a new T shaped handle.

This is used mainly for a mucking out shovel.  Especially where the floors are made of concrete.

In Ireland and a lot of the other parts of the world they use the long handled Celtic or Devon shovel.  These have a point on the shovel blade.  

I can use any.  They are horses for courses kind of tools. 

Sledge hammer heads can be picked up very cheaply at carboot sales and second hand markets and you can buy new wooden handles for less than ten Euros or Pounds. 

Why buy a new shovel if you can fix it?  


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15 comments:

  1. Yorkshire Pudding1 March 2023 at 16:21

    Make do and mend and recycle. These are Earth-friendly habits to get into. Unnecessary replacement of things is bad for the planet even though retailers encourage such wastefulness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. northsider 2 March 2023 at 00:48

      Oh for the return of the Blacksmith YP. Tools and gates were forged and repaired and bespoke made for the customer. Like my smallholding guru hero John Seymour wrote; "the dustman should never need to visit the smallholding. " Sadly though we live in a throwaway age full of plastic. I love old tools.

      Delete
    2. Yorkshire Pudding2 March 2023 at 17:33

      I have an old tool myself but I would not show it to you.

      Delete
  2. Tigger's Mum1 March 2023 at 23:58

    Couldn't agree more. We had a garden fork with a metal welded handle compliments of workshop at home.

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  3. northsider 2 March 2023 at 00:51

    Good to read Tigger. The homemade Azada I featured on here recently works far better than anything I have bought.

    ReplyDelete
  4. River2 March 2023 at 02:32

    I have no need for a shovel of any kind.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Philip2 March 2023 at 04:39

    I'm always impressed with your son's metal work abilities. Here's the story of my mended shovel: https://notesfromasuffolksmallhoding.blogspot.com/2021/10/heirloom-shovel.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. northsider 2 March 2023 at 04:57

    Thanks Philip. I must show the blog world the stairs he built. I will read your shovel story. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. local alien2 March 2023 at 08:07

    That looks like a very handy shovel. I like the T-bar handle. We have quite a few 'heads' of heavy tools lying around. They all need new handles.

    ReplyDelete
  8. northsider 2 March 2023 at 09:05

    T shaped shovels and spades are used a lot in England Linda. You see the long handled Celtic shovels used in Europe and the USA. Long handled shovels are great for loading carts with soil..

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  9. stargambling2 March 2023 at 09:49

    You have a very interesting and helpful blog. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  10. northsider 2 March 2023 at 09:59

    I'm glad you find the blog interesting and helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Debby2 March 2023 at 21:52

    Indeed I do not know! So many useful things just get tossed.

    ReplyDelete
  12. northsider 3 March 2023 at 01:33

    I found this shovel under some vegetation I was clearing Debby. It still works perfectly.

    ReplyDelete

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