View Full Version : Trowel by jury
Roving Rich
09-02-2004, 14:19
Well nobody mentions carrying a trowel amongst their kit. So what do you do when you need your daily turn out ? I have tried digging with an axe and found it pretty hopeless and ruined the edge when i hit a stone. So some of you with "designer" axes thats a no no. The digging, well generally i've found them more of a scraping stick or pick than a shovel and don't always have the time and means to manufacture one.
So i propose the humble garden trowel as an essential piece of bushcraft kit.
Wot do you reckon? and does anyone know of a folding titanium survival trowel?
Sorry to lower the tone (Tone)
Rich
Sometimes I have a folding shovel, but usually find it far better to fashion a digging stick. The digging stick can then be used to mix soil into the deposit (to aid decomposition) and then the stick safely disposed of (rather than put back into belt pouch or ruck :shock: )
I used to have a folding trowel.
Then I let the Scouts use it, and now I just have a trowel!
Could be worse ... could have started off as a non-folding one! :-D At least it broke in a still usable state!
I used to have a folding trowel.
Then I let the Scouts use it, and now I just have a trowel!
gurushaun
09-02-2004, 16:22
I use one of the plastic trowels they sell in garden centres, very light :-D
Cheers
Shaun
Justin Time
09-02-2004, 22:14
Size 10 Boot
scrape away leaf litter etc
kick hole
add substances to hole
wipe
burn tp in hole
use boot to return dirt to hole
scrape leaf litter back on top
easy
You missed out a step ... keep boot out of used hole! :shock:
Size 10 Boot
scrape away leaf litter etc
kick hole
add substances to hole
wipe
burn tp in hole
use boot to return dirt to hole
scrape leaf litter back on top
easy
Justin Time
09-02-2004, 23:07
You missed out a step ... keep boot out of used hole! :shock:
:lol: Yes, there are a number of hazards to outdoor toileting, not that any of these happened to me, they happened to a friend;
Losing your balance when in the squat position
misaligning the edge of your trousers/belt
heavy items from belt sliding off into latrine
:oops: :shock: :shock:
I like my comforts. :-D I use a plastic trowel. I modify mine to save weight.
http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/images5/trowels1.jpg
[quote="Hoodoo"]I like my comforts. :-D I use a plastic trowel. I modify mine to save weight.
Ah, the type of lad who trims his toothbrush -- and cuts the borders off maps. :-)
Great Pebble
10-02-2004, 11:11
I like my old folding 'trenchin' tool.
:wink: That way you've got hole and a "seat" to help use it.
Nick in Belfast
Friend of mine was ski touring in the Rockies a couple of years back.
Woke up to find major fall of snow, soft powder. Needed to answer the call of nature and rather than spend time digging down through the snow decided that she would try to "do her business" off the back of her skis.
Pants down, snowplough position, racing crouch was the idea. Didn't work!
She leaned too far back and ended up upside down with her pants at her ankles in several feet of powder! If you've ever felt how cold that Rocky mountain powder snow can get you'll understand just what she went through!
It took almost half an hour for her to get sorted out and get out of the situation - and several months to get over the embarrasment of getting frostnip in her nether regions!
A lesson to be learned there somewhere.
George
http://store3.yimg.com/I/wv-scoutgear_1773_2974365
U-DIG-IT is probably the best folding trowel there is
you can get titanium trowels but i havent found any folding ones
Stuart that's a great trowel but it's so heavy you have to hire a grown boy to carry it for you into the bush. :wink:
http://secure.sovietski.com/isroot/sovietski/ImagesOnline/catalog/206271T.jpg
This is a titanium trowel, probably lighter :-D
doesnt fold though :-(
Is that a wooden handle on that titanium trowel?
I could warm up to that Ti trowel. :-D
i carry an sfa so i just flatten a log (pun intended) to dig with like a spade :-D
I normaly carve a digging stick...... though a billhook does the job of digging holes quite well.... ;-)
Ed
Yeah, digging stick, unless there is a group of us and then something more substantial like a entrenching tool
Or a big digging stick!!!!
:shock: :-D
Yeah, digging stick, unless there is a group of us and then something more substantial like a entrenching tool
MartiniDave
12-02-2004, 08:30
You could try using a dibber - and then working on your accuracy! :shock: :-D :-D :lol:
Dave
Roving Rich
12-02-2004, 11:53
:rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: :biggthump
That reminds me of a Mr Whippy joke, but its a visual one so it has to wait for a gathering
Nice one Dave
Cheers
Rich
I thought we were supposed to bag it and take it home with us? :shock:
You know. Leave only footprints take only memories etc etc etc.
Or are two footprints either side of a hole OK? :-?
Just joking......no more OP drills for us old boys. Shovel Recce rules apply.
I use a stick, or if it's an emergency, my dartmoor blade. Big as a shovel and I can keep my wipes in the hollow handle. :wink:
You could dig a whole latrine with a Dartmoor blade!!! :-D
I use a stick, or if it's an emergency, my dartmoor blade. Big as a shovel and I can keep my wipes in the hollow handle. :wink:
If you are a traveling man, i.e., you are covering a lot of ground backpacking, stopping to carve a digging stick every time you have to potty is a pain in the ****. Carve a good one and it's a bit heavy to lug around. I still vote for the lightweight plastic trowel. I have one that is 25 years old and still going strong so they hold up, last forever, and do the deed. :-D Now if you are a sedentary sort that likes to hang out at a basecamp, that's a different story, eh? Good place to practice your woodcraft.
Roving Rich
12-02-2004, 23:15
Spot on Hoodoo, that is exactly my point. Just I can't see plastic one lasting on our flinty soil.
Stuart have you found a titanium folder yet? I'm impressed, but you will fail you mission...
Cheers
Rich
ChrisKavanaugh
13-02-2004, 05:07
You might consider one of these, which are a popular item in many garden catalogs. Basically a spearpoint trowel, slightly concave with one serrated and one standard edge. Aside from latrine duty, a digging implement can create a depression for shoulders on a bedground, drainage in wet weather etc. Titanium is fefinitely wiz-bang, but consider such exotic materials take a trenendous amount of extraction costs and local impact. Watching a local woodland disappeer under a highway is sad enough. Packing a tool that represents several metric tonnes of earth no less :oops: Not that I'm fitted out like Oetzi, just something to ponder :-o
I've found a folding titanium shovel, but I've not yet found the trowel
http://www.telemark-pyrenees.com/photos/Ortovox-Pelle-Expert.JPG
I've found a folding titanium shovel, but I've not yet found the trowel
http://www.telemark-pyrenees.com/photos/Ortovox-Pelle-Expert.JPG
The shovel for when you REALLY have to go! :shock:
MartiniDave
13-02-2004, 13:51
Perhaps we should link to this shovel from the tobasco thread?
:-D :-D :-D
:o): :o): :o): :o):
Think we might need a bigger shovel!!!
Perhaps we should link to this shovel from the tobasco thread?
:-D :-D :-D
SquirrelBoy
13-02-2004, 18:14
I`ve got a black plastic trowel from a garden centre - it comes with graduated measuring marks....
.... guess you dig to a depth that is appro for your prevailing condition :lol:
I`ve got a black plastic trowel from a garden centre - it comes with graduated measuring marks....
.... guess you dig to a depth that is appro for your prevailing condition :lol:
A good place to look. :!: There are Kevlar reinforced and carbon fibre models out there for gardeners who want light AND tough for their puttering around. Such models should stand up better to the tougher soils than our old orange plastic standards.
bushwacker bob
18-02-2004, 00:19
Someone better tell Jack we've found another use for BILLHOOKS :wink: