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Hi Gary,
I've been using long hand shovels for about 14yrs, they are great. I currently use a round nose shovel with a glass fibre handle, a tenner from homebase, last one lasted 10yrs. Great for unloading builder sacs and compost bins and digging tree pits etc. I still wouldn't be without a normal shovel though.
Some builders I know swear by the tapered long hand shovels for mixing muc
Long shovels are good for loading trailers etc or for throwing stuff further, but they aren't great for unloading trailers. Having both is worthwhile.
A must have, really does save the back, makes tasks like scraping some dirt lying against kerbs, lifting the rough of some moss off a path, even taking the top inch or two of grass off a whole lot easier. When emptying soil or stones out of the trailer I prefer a long tail but when the bulk of it is out the long handled square mouth is the easiest and quickest tool to fill the last few wheelbarrows.
I had 2, both were wooden handles and I can't remember which make, I would be keen to replace the recently broken one of the pair with a fiberglass shaft one so I will watch this thread with intent!
in short, definitely buy one!
The definitely save the back part appeals to me right now!
been looking at the bulldog Irish spade but I suppose the square mouth one would be good too!
looks like I'll be treating myself 😬
You guys have got me thinking about the first long handle shovel I used, back when I was an estate gardener.
Every winter some nice Belgium chaps would come and we would plant massive topary and I mean massive, lifted by a kinglift massive! And they brought with them Hollander shovels and long handle spades/fork and light weight long handled pick axes. In fact they gave me a shovel for keeps, but I forgot to take it with me when I left the estate, to become self employed. So I managed to find one on Amazon but had to order a handle for it. I bloody love tools!
Until I moved to the South West some years ago, I never used the Devon Shovel and and in Cornwall, the Cornish Shovel. They are good to use and do help your back on certain jobs. Bulldog makes them but I prefer to use old tools with wooden handles and British steel for longevity. The are ideal for cleaning out ditches I find. A useful tool to have in your repartee.
Totally useless in my opinion, I've seen them used in America, in fact over there, despite being made in the same country (China) you can't get square shovels at all, at least not on the east coast Road gangs and landscapers offloading and moving spoil with them and taking twenty times longer than a conventional all steel builders shovel would shift it with an average Brit working over here, but I can appreciate your back comment. I'm not convinced though and despite having had a back operation the year before last, just bend my knees, hold my core in and don't have any problems. Physical pain I can handle but the mental attrition of loading or unloading with those things that just take an eternity would seriously make me lose the will to live, mind you, that attitude probably contributed to me having to have the operation in the first place. Interesting to read the comments though. Interesting to hear your comments Andrew, you sound more flamboyant than me. Honestly though, it has to be all steel construction, like Faithful tools etc, or modified, home made and welded if you are grafting, that other romantic woody stuff is nice for pottering around and doing light gardening with, but if you got 40 tonne of Type 1 to move by hand within the day or dig out 30 year old shrubs and transplant them, it's just not gonna cut it. Mind you most of the tools I've got I've modified and welded. lol. I'm a bit of a spaz and break everything so don't listen to me.
The Hollander shovels is as big as a square shovel. When planting big shrubs you can just lift the soil round the back rather than walking, saves a lot of time. 40ton type 1 in a day!? That's a digger job! Long handle shovels are brilliant digging out old shrubs! That and a digging bar!
Just got my new Hollander shovel and it didn't disappoint?