Thedillestpickle

If your shovel is too long you have to bend your elbow or twist your torso in an unnatural way. You already have to reach into the dirt anyways so it helps if you are already bent over far enough to reach the ground(which you likely won't be if you are working with a longer shovel). Here are two examples of tree-planting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9wPTwlGGJs http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/22252128/pov-camera-mounted-shovel-treeplanting.html

It's all done. I've made some tree-planting shovels in the past but this one is my masterpiece. It is a beast 27 inches long and 1.5 Kg. If I work my hardest I could be putting 250 000 trees in with this shovel this summer. I'll post some update photos at the end of this summer to show how it weathered the storm. Thanks to all who showed interest and offered advice! Enjoy

Ok I see how the site is weird now. I managed to delete the unwanted quotes though! I heated the shaft and bent it. I did a quick in and out dunk it water to semi-halfway quench it without making it completely brittle. I obviously don't know what effect that had. At any rate it's done now so I am on to the grinding and adding a handle. Thanks for the welcome! and BTW I really enjoyed watching those shovel forging videos.... that is really cool to see.

I am starting to think that I would have a hard time bending the shaft while working with this shovel even if I do soften it. Perhaps I am putting too much worry into the amount of weakening it will cause. I may just go ahead and heat and bend it. If it ends up bending while I work i will just heat it up in the camp fire that night and quench it in a bucket of water haha Why is Frosty having so much trouble with the site? I haven't had any problems yet and I like the way the pictures posted so large, really gets the texture of my photos.

Klorinth: It won't be for large stock, I'll be planting 4-10 plugs mostly. I plan to keep a good amount of that material though. I don't like small blades, deeper blades don't get caught on roots etc. And actually I would correct you about saying that tree-planters use a higher carbon steel than other shovels, that is not the case anymore! I'm not sure how long ago you were planting but nowadays the shovels are junk. workwizer uses soft stainless steel that splits apart after a week of use. And bushpro(the most common) uses soft steel blades welded to a shaft, and componsates for the softness by making it extra super thick. It's not ideal, the old tree-planting shovels from back in the day are awesome. Working with the new blades is like using a butter knife in place of a chef knife. You should check out this shovel Klorinth. It was made by a good friend of mine who apprenticed with a damascus knife maker. It's actually stainless steel damascus. Exceptional work. http://cosmoknives.com/other-tools/ BigFootNampa: Thanks for that tip on curving the blade, that will work nicely. That is correct I want it to be more parallel with the shaft for a number of reasons. I am not sure I would have the ability to bend that metal as you described, it's quite beefy. Perhaps a machine shop could help me. I was planning to go ahead and do this work today, but I'm still waiting on Frosty to get me that info it sounded like he had a caution for me in attempting this. I'm on the fence between cold bending it and heating it to bend. If I do heat it up to bend should I quench it in a bucket of water?

There is no way to really make it work with an angled handle, what I need is to change the bend where the shaft meets the blade. That's a great idea to experiment first with another shovel . I actually bought another $5 shovel that I could use as a prototype. It's also vintage and looks like the same manufacture as well. Ahh that's too bad about the photos, I will check the more recent posts now that I know that. I have another question about bending tempered steel: The second shovel that I bought is a flat square type shovel and I need it to have more concavity in the blade. Is it possible to bend that blade by hammering on an anvil? can I bend it in a vice? I don't want it to crack obviously. Thanks for the help everyone. Good ideas.

Bit of google research with those words reveals that this shovel was made by a Canadian company called True Temper

Thanks for the replies so far! Looking forward to that video Frosty! Ok so simple answer sounds like I should just leave it alone. I don't want the metal to bend when I put heavy torque on it. I can make do with the angle as is but it is not ideal. Part of me thinks that the steel is beefy enough that it would function even if softened. In my experience the different qualities of steel make the most difference right at the cutting edge of the blade where it will be striking rocks frequently. An inferior steel at the cutting edge quickly mashes, bends, or I've even seen steel separate into two layers. That being said I have seen a planter torque the shaft right off the blade. Klorinth, from your description I wonder if this antique isn't what you were describing with "bare root shovel". I bought this thing for $5 off an old guy who collects antique stuff. I really feel like the quality of the steel is almost certainly going to be much higher than anything I can buy new today, that's why I went out of my way to hunt this down. I'm still trying to decide how I want to shave it down, whether I keep the kickers etc. Canada goose, how would I go about testing? I imagine heat up with a torch in one are of strip of scrap, then let it cool, place in vice, torque the steel and see if it bends in the heated area first. Thanks guys. I appreciate the enthusiastic responses.

First off I would like to say hello! This is my first post here. The truth is I don't forge iron, but I have done some welding and enjoy working with metal. It would be a great hobby for me so registering for this site may come in handy sooner than later. The reason I have signed up is specifically to make this post with a question that I hope some of you will be able to help me with. Oh and before I get into that I noticed that I can't see photos on this forum. If anyone can help with that thank you, I would really love to browse the bottle opener pictures thread. Ok so here is my situation. I am a tree-planter who works in northern Canada and I have been doing this a number of years. I have a very demanding sense of what my shovel should be shaped like. I plant 3000 trees every day so I need that tool to be exactly how I like it. It's piece-work, so if my shovel isn't perfect it is costing me money. A good shovel can make me a lot of money in a 4 month period. So I making myself a new shovel this year and I have found an antique shovel that I wish to convert into my customs shovel. I'll be doing some grinding to bring the shape down to where I want it but I find the angle of the blade to the handle is a little too extreme for my taste. I want to bend the shaft of the shovel just before it reaches the blade. On the shaft of the shovel is printed "Taper Forged Made In Canada Heat Treated". What I want to know is can I simply clamp the shovel in a vice, heat the shaft up with an oxy-acetylene torch and bend the shaft to the angle I want? There will be times when I'll be putting a lot of torque on the shovel, and I don't want to weaken the steel. I have seen other shovels fail in this part of the shaft but those were likely of poor quality. I'm probably being overly cautious posting here looking for advice, however this tool is very critical to me and also I expect I could learn something interesting. I look forward to expanding my knowledge of steel and iron! Thanks for the help.