Doubtless already answered, but a spade of whatever shape is a digging and
prying implement, with the strength and geometry to lift and break soil or
whatever.  A shovel is a scooping and moving implement. Hence on our small
horse farm where we have several of each in various shapes, we use spades
for holes and trenches and occasional rock-prying, and shovels for grain,
stall-cleaning, loose dirt and gravel moving, and mixing and lifting small
batches of concrete.  If we lived further north, we'd also have shovels for
snow, whereas in snow weather, spades are only used by me in card games.

J

Joseph Sullivan

 
-----Original Message-----
From: OldTools [mailto:oldtools-bounces@s...] On Behalf Of Adam
R. Maxwell
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2017 10:21 AM
To: Cliff 
Cc: oldtools porch 
Subject: Re: [OldTools] Shovel vs spade and internet plagiarism


> On Jun 5, 2017, at 07:17 , Cliff  wrote:
> 
> For reasons  I can't articulate I stumbled onto a web site that had it 180
degrees opposite.  In disbelieve I started googling around. Seems that there
are countless websites all repeating the same information that the spade is
not spade shaped, but rater flat nosed.

I always thought the distinction is whether it holds dirt or not. A spade is
relatively flat-bladed, for turning or chewing up ground. Line crews used to
dig pole holes with a pointed spade and a spoon.

A shovel is for lifting dirt. Hence, we dig fence post holes and ditches
with a round point shovel, and use a square shovel for scooping off of a
flat surface.

Source: my parents (mom used a spade in the garden, dad used a shovel to dig
ditches at work). I've also run into this terminology conflict, but if you
ask for a spade when all I have is a shovel, I'll look at you like a cow
with a bastard calf.

Adam
Port Angeles, WA

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