Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Cool shovel


Today during lunch I stopped at a local army surplus store to see what was available for folding shovels. The owner of the shop was a very friendly oriental man who spent about 15 minutes telling me about the history of army shovels from WW II through the Vietnam war era. He had a few different styles. I liked an older wooden handle design that was from the Korean war time-period. It included a folding pick as well. The only drawback of it was the wooden handle was not removable, so it was somewhat long when folded. I ended up getting a newer all metal tri-fold design. It's much more compact and slightly lighter than the wooden handle shovel, but it doesn't have a pick head. The store was also selling carrying cases for the shovels, so I picked up one of those as well. Since I'll be using this camping, having the sharp edges of the shovel covered seemed like a good idea. As can be seen in the pictures, the shovel is a little bit rusty on the edges, but what do you expect for a used army shovel?