My old trowel snapped clean in half on a dig site last Tuesday

I was working on a volunteer dig at a site near Tucson, carefully scraping back soil in a test unit. The trowel was a Marshalltown I've had for about 15 years, so it had seen a lot of use. I was putting some pressure on it to get under a rock, and it just gave way with a sharp crack. The blade broke right at the neck. I had to stop everything and drive 45 minutes to the nearest town that had a hardware store to buy a new one, a WHS 4-inch pointing trowel, which set me back $28. It threw off my whole day and I lost about three hours of work. The new one feels too stiff and the handle isn't broken in yet. Has anyone else had a trusted tool fail like that in the field, and what did you replace it with?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenixgonzalez2mo ago

Ever try a margin trowel? In my experience they're a bit more flexible for that kind of work. That's a real bummer about losing your old one though.

the_robin2mo ago

Wait, you actually lost a whole trowel? @phoenixgonzalez, how does that even happen? Mine's covered in dried mortar and I still never lose track of it. A margin trowel is a good call for the flexibility, but I'd be more worried about finding where my old one went first.