My name is Greg and I’ve broken plenty of shovels and digging forks.
I’ve switched to all steel here with our rocky West Virginia soil. I use the AM Leonard all steel spade and the Corona full length shovel and they are seriously tough. I use an all steel digging fork from Amazon that isn’t nearly as tough but it works well enough even with bent tines. I haven’t seen a high quality one from AM Leonard yet but I would buy it if they made one.
The AM Leonard, and Corona steel tools are heavy. It’s been a while since I used a King of Spades, I think it was a little lighter weight but just as strong. I broke the Fiskars “Worlds Greatest Shovel” which really was great and was much lighter weight but also less strong.
Kobalt brand at Lowe’s has a pretty good broken shovel return policy, if you bring it back in broken you just go get a new one off the shelf. I asked an employee where the replacement handles were one day and he said they don’t sell them, just bring the broken shovel to the returns counter and they will replace it. I said that I had been using it professionally for landscaping and on a farm for 5 years and they said that doesn’t matter.
When you pick out, or make, a wooden handle make sure the growth rings are running in the direction (quartersawed) of the most force. With a shovel they should be visible from the top and bottom, with an axe they should be visible on the front and back of the handle, not the flat sides. I hope that makes sense. Mark Krawzyk’s book Coppice Agroforestry has a pretty good description of this with illustrations. I have looked through all of the options available on the shelf and just decided to wait to buy a tool another time because the grain was oriented wrong on all of them, both with shovels and the expensive Stihl brand axes at my local dealer. This is why I do not buy wooden tools from catalogs.
AM Leonard and Forestry Suppliers have quality tools to choose from and you might check out your local hardware store, mine sells Corona and Fiskars and can special order any of their products. Also, the rubber foot pads from AM Leonard are great for those of us who don’t always wear thick boots.
Happy digging!
