Does Anyone Else Weld Their Tools?

Here in Peru, the hardware stores always sell tools with the cheapest wooden handles. The handles on shovels, for example, always snap off during use. So, everyone down here takes
their newly purchased tools to the local welding shop and removes the wooden handle, replacing it with a steel tube that the welder fuses to the blade of the shovel. It makes me wonder why they don't just sell the tools already like that in the stores.

We did it to all our shovels.

I was thinking about getting a swing blade. I doubt they have them here in Peru. Any Idea how to design one?

I only recently got into metal fabrication, but so far I've made myself a rock grizzly and a slag hammer, and have fixed some metal items that were cracking. Often the steel is so cheap/thin that it's hard to repair.

In regards to why wood over metal it's primarily cost. Steel is just pricier than wood in nearly all ways, plus metal needs to be finished a little better. I had a saw that detatched from its wood handle the other day because the threads that seated the screws were *in the wood*. They didn't even add the $0.05 it would take to put proper fasteners in. Just complete cheap garbage.

Cost is only part of it..

Weight.. a good quality well made hardwood handle with properly oriented grain is going to be hands down stronger than a steel one, *PER POUND*. Every ounce counts if you are working that shovel, pickaxe, etc for hours..

A wood handle also transmits less shock; really noticeable with something like a splitting maul.

A steel handle is a misery in cold weather.


Of course, if the choice is garbage quality wood, steel will win every time...


A lot of the tools in the hardware store here have visibly flawed handles; take a couple minutes, look at the grain, and pick the ones that won't break on the first usage..

And don't let anyone else use your good shovel, fools are always confusing them for prybars. Steel handled shovels are perfect for friends or WWOOFers..


Seems around here with modern tools the steel is just as suspect; can't really tell if it's ok by looking like you can the wood, and pot-metal mattocks don't last long..

With any striking tool, the vibration feedback from steel handles actually does harm to the user over time. To mitigate, I wrap them in discarded bicycle inner tubes, held in place by the Canadian Secret Weapon, hockey tape.