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Vent: My trowel handle snapped mid-dig at a site in New Mexico yesterday
I was scraping away a pretty clean layer near a hearth feature when the wooden handle just cracked in half. Had to finish the day using a paint scraper from my truck. Anybody have a brand of trowel that holds up better?
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sethhernandez15d agoTop Commenter
Yeah, that "pretty clean layer" near a hearth in New Mexico is almost always caliche-rich soil, which is brutal on wood. Your mileage may vary, but Marshalltown's carbon steel trowels handle that abrasive stuff way longer than most.
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johnson.faith15d ago
Dropped my old trowel last week and watched the handle split right down the middle, so I feel what @alice89 is saying about wood just being wood. But I used to think any trowel could handle a dusty New Mexico dig, this caliche explanation honestly changed my mind about picking the right tool for the job. Gonna grab a Marshalltown before my next trip out there, better to fix it once than keep buying cheap replacements.
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alice8915d ago
...and honestly I think people get way too dramatic about a busted trowel handle. Like yeah it sucks but you had a paint scraper and got the job done, so what's the big deal? @sethhernandez is probably right about the caliche being rough but it's not like you were excavating with a plastic spork. Marshalltown's are fine but I've snapped those too after a couple seasons. Wood handles just break sometimes, it's wood.
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