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Pro tip: the $12 trowel I got at a yard sale in Tucson saved my dig season
Bought a beat up pointing trowel at a yard sale near Tucson for $12 two summers back. The archaeologist running our survey at the site said it was junk and told me to get a Marshalltown instead. Used it anyway on a unit full of compacted caliche and it held up fine while two other people snapped their handles. Then last month I lost it somewhere near the screening station and now I'm stuck using a $45 replacement that feels worse. Anyone else have a cheap tool that just outworks the expensive stuff?
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oscar7431d ago
Buddy, that trowel didn't "outwork" anything, you just got lucky on ONE unit. Snap two handles and suddenly a yard sale find is the hero of archaeology? Come on. Marshalltown costs more because the steel is tempered right and the handle won't split when you torque it in clay, which is exactly what happened to your two buddies, by the way. Your cheap trowel survived caliche and then you LOST it, which kind of proves the point that a tool you can't keep track of isn't saving you anything. And now you're out $45 on a replacement that feels bad, so the $12 bargain actually cost you $57 total. Do the math on that one before you tell people to skip the good stuff.
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