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Generally speaking, purchasing a shovel with a wider scoop will help you take fewer strokes. Ultra-wide shovels are ideal for larger, more open areas. If this matches your needs, just remember that the bigger the scoop, the heavier the snow displacement, so be careful with your back!
According to FEMA, 1 square foot of snow can range from 3 lbs (for dry snow), to 21 lbs (for wet snow). That gets even heavier when hard ice is present. Remember, you will be using your shovel for repeated motions that definitely add up over time. To give your back a break, purchase a shovel that feels lightweight on its own, but is still strong enough to do the job. Look for shovels with light, but durable aluminum handles. Scoops are typically made from aluminum or heavy duty plastic (depending upon the surface you plan to shovel). If purchasing a poly or plastic scoop shovel, conduct a touch test to make sure it is not flimsy when you apply pressure.
Shoveling surface will determine what kind of edge your scoop needs. If you are mainly going to be using your shovel on paved surfaces, metal edges can be very useful for breaking up hard chunks of ice. Some shovels are even equipped with saw-like edges that are ideal for breaking up thick ice. However, metal edges can scrape softer surfaces, like wooden decks. So, if you plan to shovel areas with softer surfaces, find a durable poly or nylon edged scoop.
Have you ever had to dig your car out of a snowy parking space, found a snow plow pile surrounding your car, or gotten stuck in a snowbank on the side of the road? If so, you can imagine how handy a car snow shovel can be. Car shovels are typically narrower (with scoops about as wide as a tire) for easy storage. They should also be easy to disassemble to stow under a seat. Car shovels are also extremely handy for winter backpacking and hiking excursions.
Evenly spreading a granular deicer while you shovel will improve traction under your feet and make shoveling easier. You can even spread a light application right before snow falls to prevent ice from bonding to your pavement.
The grip of a shovel is the uppermost part, which is attached to the shaft. It can take the form of a wooden, plastic, or metal handle, but often there may be no handle at all, and you can use the shovel by holding onto the top part of the shaft. If the shovel shaft is made from fiberglass, then a grip handle will be attached to help prevent splinters. A D-shaped handle is common amongst shorter shovels and digging shovels, which help to increase grip.
The kickplate of a shovel is also known as a step. It is the uppermost edge of a blade where you can place your foot to add pressure, though not all shovels will have a kickplate. Kickplates are usually found on digging shovels where the extra weight of the user can be utilized to dig deeper into the ground. Using a kickplate will achieve better results, and also makes the job much easier for the user, as they can use their weight to help dig rather than just arm and back muscles.
The blade of a shovel is the lowermost part of the tool, which makes contact with the ground. It is usually made of metal or aluminum, though in some instances might be fiberglass or plastic. Shovel blades come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, and it is arguably the design of the blade that makes the most difference between different shovel types.
The tip of a shovel is the lower edge of the blade, furthest from the shaft. It takes various shapes depending on the intended use of the shovel. Flat tips are best for scooping or moving, while pointed and rounded tips work best for cutting and digging.
This shovel is specifically designed to create neat edges around lawns or borders, creating a clean definitive edge. It has a long shaft, with a small-sized metal semi-circle attached at the bottom, and a straight footplate where you can apply pressure with your feet. The blade is usually sharp and flat, as it should be pressed directly straight down into the lawn or soil. The blade is quite shallow, as it does not need to make deep cuts to be effective. While these are predominantly used for their main purpose of creating and maintaining garden edging, they can also be useful for other tasks, including breaking up shallow roots of plants. As these shovels have quite a small blade, they are ideal for use in small areas where you need to be quite specific to avoid harming nearby plants.
These shovels are specifically designed for planting trees, making quick work of a job that would take much longer with other types of shovels. A tree-planting shovel has a narrow blade that comes to either a curved or pointed tip. The narrow blade means it can dig various sized holes, by working the shovel into the ground in a circular shape. The shaft can vary in size depending on what you need for your task, with longer shafts being better for flat and even ground and shorter shafts working better on hills or sloped ground. These shovels can be used to dig up a tree for transplanting, or creating a new hole to plant a tree. The shovels are a similar shape to a trenching shovel, and so can double up to create shallow trenches where a long trench for a flower bed makes more sense than creating lots of small plant holes. It can also be used to clean out pebbles or debris from bigger trenches.
A post hole shovel is a type of double shovel, which is also known as a post hole digger. It is composed of two shovels attached together, usually with long and narrow inwardly curving blades that have curved tips. The shape of the blades helps the shovel to slice through any roots or anything which might get in their way. When closed together, the blades create a cylindrical shape. A post hole shovel is used primarily to dig deep holes for fence posts to be inserted into. They do this by using a dig, pinch, and lift motion, removing a cylinder of soil from the ground in one swift movement. If you have a series of post holes to dig, a post hole shovel is a worthwhile investment. It creates the holes in a fraction of the time compared with trying to dig the holes with a digging shovel, and it also results in much neater holes for a clean and professional-looking finish.
These shovels go by a variety of names, including garden shovel, garden trowel, hand shovel, hand trowel, and garden spade (though calling this a spade would be inaccurate). These are essentially miniature shovels with short shafts of usually around six inches in length, which can be used for a variety of garden tasks, including digging up weeds, removing plants, and digging holes for new plants. The design of these tools can vary, but for the most part, they all have a fairly narrow rounded or pointed blade, which typically measures around four inches across. The blade of a handheld shovel is usually convex, making for better scooping.
Root shovels can vary in design, though they typically all have elongated triangular blades. These blades can come to a point at the tip or are sometimes cut off to give a flattened tip. The side edges of the blade are often serrated, which helps with sawing through the roots of established plants. These shovels are designed specifically to help with plant or tree removal, either for transplanting or disposal. Their blades are useful for cutting through tough, established roots of old trees, which can then be removed to allow more space for new roots to generate and spread. These shovels are also useful in creating holes for new trees or plants to be settled into.
If you live in a region that regularly experiences snowfall, a snow shovel is an essential tool to have in your garage. These shovels have long shafts that can range in construction material, from wood to metal, or plastic. The blade is large and rectangular and is vertically curved. This shape enables you to scoop snow up from the sidewalk or front steps, and throw it out onto the yard or wherever you like. Some snow shovels have metal grooves or ridges along the blade tip to aid in removing snow, and can also be used to chip away at ice.
Snow shovels come in a variety of material options, with blades being plastic or metal, and blades vary wildly in size. A large blade with a sharp edge and a deep curve will shovel the snow most effectively and efficiently. If you have a large area to shovel snow from, or if snow shoveling is a task you have to complete often, you may want to invest in an ergonomic snow shovel. These have a curved shaft, which helps reduce back pain associated with snow shoveling, and they can also feature extra handles along the shaft so that you can adjust your grip to more comfortable positions. Ergonomic snow shovels will also have ergonomic grip handles, which will be easier going on your palms.
A pointed digger shovel is what you will need if you want to dig through tough, compacted soils, or even rocky soils. This type of shovel will have a blade that comes to a pointed tip and edges that curve upwards slightly. Both of these features result in a tool that is ideal for digging, as well as holding on to the material it has dug up. These shovels have a long shaft, which can be wooden or metal, and a wide footplate. The footplate enables you to use your weight to dig through deeper or denser soil than most shovels will allow.
A round digger shovel is best utilized for digging holes in softer soil types. It has a blade with curved edges like a pointed digger shovel, but the tip has a curved shape. It is ideal for digging holes for new plants or trees, or for transplanting bedding plants. However, if you have heavy clay, rocky, or tough soil, then a round digger shovel may struggle to give you the results you want, and a pointed digger shovel would be more appropriate.
Using surveillance video, Twigger says they tracked both David Eisenhauer and Natalie Keepers to the Wal-Mart in Christiansburg, where they were pictured buying a shovel. Twigger testified they are on camera paying cash at the self-checkout for the shovel.