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| It was kind of a solemn day yesterday for me. I broke my first trowel. I bought it at the Home Hardware in Vulcan when I started volunteering on digs in High School. Many years ago, I started carving a bird head into the handle before I realized I really didn't really know how to carve bird heads, so I abandoned that idea. When I got to university, they told me it would never last because it wasn't a Marshalltown trowel. It didn't even have a brand name on it, so I figured I'd just wait until it inevitably broke and get a trowel that would last. As far as I can tell, it was with me for 23 years and 17 field seasons. |
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| It developed a bit of a crack in the weld on the blade in recent years and it bent bad earlier this season, so I was digging carefully with it. It looked like I might get the summer out of it, but then I kneeled on it with one of my big knee pads and it popped. I haven't quite decided what to do with it. I'm still carrying it around in my field kit until I get home. |
Photo Credits:
1: Tim Rast
2: Lori White
Sorry to hear you lost a good friend Tim. I started with a Marshalltown and broke it after owning it for 4 years (and I only used it 2 of those years, as I used a pearing knife to excavate the two seasons I worked in Spain). When it broke someone pointed out to me that this was because it was a welded trowel and not made in a cast.
ReplyDeleteBut, 17 field seasons! That's gotta be some kinda record. I wonder who holds the title for the most used/longest lived trowel. Hmmm...
Thanks Andrew - I didn't think I'd be so attached to it. I guess something like that just creeps up on you.
DeleteI lost my 'first' trowel on an island in Katmai National Park here in Alaska almost 20 years ago. I have not had a personal trowel ever since. Now i just grab what is handy. I like short blades rather than long 'elbow torqueing' long blades. Still I remember really missing that lost trowel. And this summer i did continually use a particular trowel with a hot red handle. But a field school student grabbed it at the first day of the community archaeology dig and i fear i have lost it for the rest of the summer. Patrick
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to buying another trowel or two, now that I have a little better understanding of how they are actually used, but I don't think I'll ever get so invested in another one.
DeleteThat's a tough break, Tim. I'm still working with a Marshalltown that I first took to the field in North Alaska in 1981, unifacially sharpened on both edges for forehand and backhand troweling, or use in the left (dominant) and right hands. I'm so used to its clear, ringing sound while digging that changes in its vibration through the handle and in the sound it produces are just as, or sometimes more, important than my eyes for identifying changes in matrix/contexts or sensing where changes in strata and fill deposits will be, before they clarify visually.
ReplyDeleteOdd to hear of a Marshalltown breaking after just two seasons or to hear of one that was welded, because true Marshalltowns are drop-forged from one piece of steel. Sounds like that was a knock-off, Andrew.
That's a good run Kevin. I've been waiting for mine to break for so many seasons now that I had no idea I'd grown so fond of it. It was familiar and sharpened the way I like it. The replacement trowel I borrowed for the last few days felt left handed and odd. Not right at all.
DeleteTen summers of digging in Southeast Alaska and my trowel still survives. Then again, we mainly dig in the duff and midden. RIP.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
DeleteIf there is sufficient material left you should be able to get it welded back together. If the trowel blade is too thin to take welding heat you might still be able to braze it.
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