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?  


15 comments:

  1. 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.

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    1. 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.

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

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

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

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  4. I have no need for a shovel of any kind.

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  5. 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

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

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  7. 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.

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

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

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

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

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