Ames Shovel and Tool Catalog of Shovels, Spades and Scoops (1926) [pdf]
19 comments
·April 10, 2025y33t
I'm a bit of a nerd for hand tools and I've the same book for axes, and another for hand files lying around somewhere. Around this time these tool companies had a huge array of designs for their tools. It seems like almost every region of America had their own pattern of ax head with a range of sizes to choose from, and their own preference for style of handle, of which there are probably more than you'd expect, and users had their own preference for the style of cutting edge too. You had axes for just about any type of wood cutting job you can imagine. The land was conquered by these tools and the people using them put a lot of care and consideration into them, and it showed.
Nowadays, you still have some regional patterns available, but they're almost all swamp axes (a general purpose axe, not good at any one thing -- the head is too thick for very effective falling, but too thin for very effective splitting). You could thin them out, but filing the cheeks down messes up the temper of the steel. Handles have about two styles to pick from, and they all come clearcoated, which is awful on your hands, unlike linseed oil. Sure you can go boutique, like Gransfors of Hult Bruk, or Tuatahi, but you're looking at spending hundreds, which may actually be more in line with what you would have been spending for a quality tool 100 years ago, if you adjust for inflation.
Maxion
In Finland hand tools are all awful. Anything available is just cheap chinese junk.
Recently found a german manufacturer, SHW, that still make forged hand tools like shovels and mattocks in old school designs. Bought a grub hoe and a strassenhacke from them and they are excellent.
eitland
Isn't Finland where Fiskars are from?
We had a number of Fiskars axes on our farm when I grew up and we were never able to break a single one of them (except when someone left them on the ground and a tractor ran over them or something).
jay_kyburz
I have a few Fiskars tools because the look cool and expensive, they are OK I guess but not as "sturdy" as some of my favorite tools.
Fiskars uses modern industrial design and modern materials, but not every cool new design works out.
NaOH
HN sees AWS as the source for the PDF, but it's more accurate to cite the Alfred B. Tofias Archive at Stonehill College from which the PDF is linked.
https://www.stonehill.edu/offices-and-services/archives/indu...
twarge
These shovels are marvels of mechanical disadvantage. When I had to manually plough a field, the Kodali-type shovel was a much better configuration than a normal shovel because your arms are around the shovel instead of at the far end of a stick.
https://www.ppguk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PPG-UK-NMM-...
somat
Wow, I have never seen one of those before, and now I need one.
It would have to be a very specific environment, more specific I think than the standard shovel configuration. I think loose dirt, and shifting it or lifting into a wheel barrow. but under those conditions, it would kick ass.
On the subject of shovel mechanical disadvantage, the reason for that is to gain higher velocity so you can fling dirt(or coal or whatever you are flinging) further. And perhaps more importantly to give you mechanical advantage when prying dirt loose when digging a trench.
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rfdave
Ploughing a field is a very different activity than moving material from one place to another.
Maxion
And even moving material from one place to another differs so much depending on what material it is. There are very good reasons for so many shovel designs existing.
returntooffice
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dtgriscom
I love the terminology and the details. Back in the day, if you were a professional shoveler, you had to have exactly the right shovel.
Interesting that the best wood for handles was "second growth Northern ash".
defrost
There's an extended pro shovel monologue in the gripping Boy's Own Adventure series:
Ripping Yarns Episode 2: The Testing of Eric Olthwaite (1977)
Eric Olthwaite is interested in precipitation patterns in West Yorkshire, shovels and black pudding. He is so boring that his family all leave home to escape him.
One day he is accidentally caught up in a bank robbery and discovers that the robber shares his interests in shovels, black pudding and rainfall so they team up to make daring raids to steal rainfall records.
Eric becomes famous and is considered interesting again, so much so that he is made the mayor of Denley Moor.
baxtr
I know nothing about shovels. Would have never thought that there is a need for such a variety of different items.
eitland
From someone who used to earn most of my money by showel and pitchfork from I started working for real as a 15 y.o. until I was around 18 in 1998:
Yes, the correct showel makes a whole lot of difference. You have to believe me on this.
Straight edge for flat surfaces. Pointy edge for digging. Pitchforks with various numbers of tines depending on if you are moving fresh grass or hay (typically 3 tines) or manure (5 or more).
I am somewhat amused at how extremely my life has changed over the last 27 years: I am now a consultant and a techlead but I can never forget my past and somehow I thing it helps to keep me grounded and in touch with reality.
DeathArrow
This should have been the dream of ever '20s grave digger.
The catalog is a reminder of a time when the prime motive power for moving material was a human. Thus, the large number of different shovels(for different materials and situations,) with a human interface (i.e., the handle.) Ames was just one of many firms making shovels. Often these were local to a region since transportation costs added excessive costs (unless the target market had no competing shovel makers, say on the frontier.) The same situation exists for the ax. Look up "vintage ax brands." At one time there were many ax makers, mostly regional, because the ax was still a common tool for shaping wood, again, with the motive power being a human.
In modern times most of this type of work is done by a machine. Possibly human run but a machine so trench digger, auger, backhoe, etc.. (or with the ax, a sawsall, circular saw, chainsaw, etc..) With the result being there are a few shovels for sale in, say, Home Depot, most made in China, and, although most construction companies and landscapers have some shovels they're mostly for situations where a machine can't reach or can't do a fine enough job.