A mystery of consumer economics is that a new handle for a garden shovel in Haines costs $23, more than twice the $10 cost of a new shovel.
Admittedly, a $10 shovel doesn’t come with a lifetime guarantee. Its blade is stamped out of cheap sheet metal, not forged from quality steel. Its bulky handle likely hides a core of wood softer than its veneer exterior.
Still, it was tempting to buy the cheaper tool, or even two, and still save money. It’s hard to imagine I could wear out two new shovels in the remainder of my career building paragraphs.
Career ditch-diggers might opt for a new steel or fiberglass handled shovel guaranteed not to break. Outwardly they seem a great solution but the drawback is added weight. If you’re doing much shoveling, those extra ounces can get heavy.
So I forked over $23 on the logic that a tapered wooden handle still works best and I’d rather not orphan another shovel blade.
The world is filling up with disembodied shovel heads. I’ve seen them at garage sales and scrap metal collection days. I’ve rescued a few that weren’t already bent out of shape. I collect the older, sturdier ones that were built to last a lifetime and would have except their owners learned that new shovels were cheaper than new handles.
I’m not sure of the mad logic of shovel economics, but my hunch is that China or Mexico or Singapore has a factory where some poor slaves put together crappy shovels from dawn to dusk for $5 a week. It’s a sad equation all the way around, promulgated by bean-counters who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing and I’d rather not be part of it when I don’t need to be.
So I took my $23 handle home and got to work. Removing a broken handle from the throat of a shovel blade requires some effort. The easy way is to toss the blade into a hot fire, and burn out the old handle. But after hearing that technique can damage blades made of tempered steel, I’ve reverted to the old-fashioned method that involves power tools and skinning a knuckle or two.
Shovel blades are anchored into handles by a long rivet that bisects the handle near its intersection with the blade. The old one needs to come out. Either an electric grinder or a hand-file used with a lot of elbow grease will take down the rivet’s heads. That’s the easy part. Driving the old rivet out of the shaft is tougher, typically requiring a nail punch, a big hammer, an anvil and several hits.
Even with the rivet gone, the wooden handle core will be tight in the blade’s throat and difficult to knock out. What works best is a hacksaw blade in a reciprocating saw, slicing the wood vertically along metal handle’s open, vertical crease. This will ease pressure in the throat. Now hold the shovel upside down in a vice and bang the narrow end of the old shovel handle with a length of rebar or any other thick, metal shaft.
With luck, the remains of your handle will pop out. Inserting the new handle is the fun part. Get the handle started into the blade, then turn it upside down (blade facing the sky) and bang the top end of the handle hard against a tree stump or chunk of wood on the ground. Gravity will do the rest. Drill and insert your new rivet, and you’re good as new.
A new handle on an old, rusty shovel blade may draw some looks, but only from people who recognize that you worked and paid a little extra and recycled a bit of value.
In a world drowning in cheap labor and cheaper products, that’s not a bad thing.