Shovel

Drawing of a man shoveling coal by American artist Alfred Waud

A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore. Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made of sheet steel or hard plastics and are very strong. Shovel handles are usually made of wood or glass-reinforced plastic (fiberglass).

Crafting instructions

There are two main forms of shovel construction: one where the entire digging end is forged from metal (forming both the blade and socket), and another where the shovel is primarily wooden, with a separate metal blade attached to the end. The latter is easier to craft with minimal tools and materials, making it more practical if you are working with less developed resources.

Shovel with metal blade and socket

Find a piece of wood roughly 4ft (1.2 meters) in length. whittle it down to create a smooth surface. Forge the blade and socket using a forge. Common metals for this include iron, steel, copper, and bronze. The basic form should look like a curved rectangle or elongated scoop with a slightly concave cross-section. The edge should be forged to have a rounded or pointed end at the center. average width and length should be 6-10 inches and 8-12 inches respectively. The socket should be conical or cylindrical in shape, angled upward designed to receive the handle with a snug fit. riveting or nailing it into the handle will increase security.

Wooden shovel with metal blade

Find a piece of wood roughly 5ft in length with at least one side being 6-10 inches in width to allow for creation of the scoop of the shovel. the basic form of the wooden scoop will be similar to that of the metal scoop form of shovel. The blade should be 2-3mm thick formed from iron, steel, copper, or bronze. cut into a rounded rectangle equal in length to the width of the scoop. Blade height will very depending on material access, but should be long enough for you to be able to sharpen the blade multiple times without loss of functionality. Once the main form is created, attach the metal blade to the digging end of the shovel. this can be done via riveting or folding the blade around the wooden shovel form. You can also bind the blade edge with metal strips for extra durability.

Dependencies

• Iron
• Steel
• Stone
• Wood
• Blacksmithing

Semi-dependents

• Copper
• Bronze
• Coal
• Gravel
• Sand
• Snow

See also

• Farming
• Tools

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Shovel, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).