Part 5: Farmer's Classic Short Shovel care | The Cold Steel shovel handle care and micro review

This handle care advice applies to most Farmer's Classic Short Shovels with a varnished or raw wood handle. Excess oil can make it brittle but in moderation on raw wood should generally increase strength, flexibility, moisture and crack resistance from aging and drying. Some exceptions might be carbonized wood like my two Mastiff Gears shovels which also have a more grippy wax or varnish coat or some other USSR replicas that have burnt looking handles. My USSR replicas came with fresh raw wood handles, slightly rough but not splintery, no varnish, very good for oiling. I also like their stainless blades and overall material quality but the assembly and finishing was a bit lacking in that they rattle and are dull with ornamental sharpening only. I really like them but they are not totally perfect or ready to use right after delivery. They can be repaired and the materials are very fine. This is not about them this is about the Cold Steel shovels which are my primary workhorse of a digging tool. While the Cold Steel shovels are sharp and tightly fitted into the handle right out of the delivery box there is one improvement I did want to make which is handle care. Simply vegetable oil onto the handle to improve durability including crack and humidity resistance and grip. I call this shovel type the "Farmer's Classic Short Shovel" as you can probably already tell. These types of short shovels in many variants have been used by farmers into prehistory to build emergency shelters from all sorts of disasters and wars and also to build cellars for food storage. Used to be that a major part of most more successful at surviving peasant villages would be their underground cellars, shelters and tunnels. They provided free heat (and cooling) without fuel from ground temperature if they were deep enough. Airflow could be routed through them or blocked off according to the needs of the household above. They provided food storage, security and escape against raids. The most successful and functional likely evolved into castles on artificial hills. The castle thus being mostly a way to guard the entryways and to socialize and trade with outsiders who would never be allowed to see or know of the subterranean systems. The 50cm Cold Steel shovel is specifically based on a version that was standardized by Imperial Militaries prior to WW1. However I prefer to focus on the constructive uses of this shovel and move away from glorifying it's war history. The Cold Steel shovels are something I literally could not find much on YouTube about digging with so I felt like I had to make something. Everyone is misusing these shovels as everything EXCEPT a shovel. The only thing Farmer's Classic Short Shovels should really be used for is a very specific type of digging I call "shaving" and the reason for sharpening them is to make them "shave" the earth better. You can see this in the Part 4 miniseries demonstration micro-segment related to this shovel specifically OR hear it described in depth in Part 1. Every other use is secondary, outside primary design parameters and likely to break the shovel blade or handle in extended use for that secondary purpose. Even other types of digging like standard garden shovel stab and pry will eventually break the blade or handle, eventually both. Yes really even though it is 2mm thick good steel. Material fatigue is what kills this very robust shovel when immediate violent force is not enough. Some uses like chopping or throwing can destroy it, usually the handle but sometimes the blade specially where it joins the handle, immediately and violently. Other uses like the wrong digging technique will destroy it slowly through fatigue. So again if you want to dig 100s of tons of soil with this the only way I know how to do it that the shovel always survives when done properly is by shaving the dirt. Shave a slice long and thin to loosen it up like shaving chocolate or ice. Best is if the slice is so thin that it just crumbles and falls off the shovel and does not hang together like a wood shaving but more like shaved ice just crumbles. Then you sweep the soil into your bucket. The blade does not do soil transfer only shaving and sweeping. The bucket does soil transfer. The oil on the handle may make it more water resistant and rot resistant up to a point but it's also food so do not leave the shovel outside as some things like fungi will absolutely love to eat the oil. Have fun, stay safe, do not abuse your tools or use them violently. Plant a tree, dig a dirt castle. Spare a bear, live and let live. As always, do your own safety research BEFORE you dig. Do not blindly follow me. Do not invite other people into your hole for legal and safety reasons unless you have the certification and real knowledge needed. A few more feet into my hole and I'll probably be deep and wide enough to be using this almost exclusively. Maybe show more then. I'm currently paused due to heat and wildfire smoke.