Broken trowel at a dig site taught me more than the trench did

Last month I was working a small site near Santa Fe, just a weekend volunteer thing, and my trowel handle snapped right in the middle of scraping a floor layer. It was an old Marshalltown I'd had for maybe 8 years, so I figured it was just worn out. But while I sat there waiting for the field director to bring a spare, I started looking at the blade edge and noticed this weird micro-wear pattern, like a polished band along one side. Turns out I'd been holding the tool at a slight angle my whole time, which made the strike plate wear unevenly and eventually crack the tang. The director laughed and said she sees that all the time, people blame the tool when their grip is the real issue. I borrowed her backup and tried holding it differently, and suddenly the soil peeled off way cleaner. Has anyone else had a piece of gear fail and then realize you were the problem, not the equipment?

1 comments

1 Comment

the_gray11d ago

Buddy's shovel handle split, turned out he was swinging like a lumberjack.