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My trowel snapped at a dig near Tucson and I realized how much gear has changed since my first field school
Last month at a site outside Tucson my trowel snapped right at the base of the handle while I was clearing a hearth feature, and I stood there holding half a handle like an idiot. My first field school in 2011 handed us wooden-handled Marshalltowns that never quit, but this newer one lasted maybe 9 months of hard use. I switched to a 5 inch pointing trowel with a full tang after that and it feels way sturdier, though it costs about $45 now instead of the $12 I paid back then. Anyone else notice field gear wearing out faster, or did I just get a bad batch?
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jana30915d ago
Noticed the same thing with Marshalltown specifically. They moved a bunch of their line to cheaper steel and the tangs got thinner, and if you look at the older ones next to a new one you can see it. A buddy of mine who runs a CRM crew said they started buying trowels in bulk because they were losing two or three a season instead of one every couple years. It's not just you getting a bad batch, the whole point of that tool is that it should outlast you and that's clearly not the case anymore. What kills me is the price went up while the metal got worse, so you're paying more for something built to fail. I've started hitting estate sales and old hardware stores for the older ones and it's worth the hassle, those wooden handles are workhorses.
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