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Treads for spades
jenksie98
Posts: 3
Hi,
After using a spade to dig a narrow trench in my garden I've realised that I've managed to slice up the soles of my wellies quite nicely!
This happened because the ground was very heavy and compacted and required me stand on the spade in order to get it to penetrate the ground.
The same thing happened to me a few years ago but unfortunately for me and my wellies I'd completely forgotten how damaging the top corners of a spade can be to soles of wellies...
Does anyone know of a plate/tread that I can buy to attach (permanently or temporarily) to my spade that will hide/cover the pointed corners?
Many thanks,
Pete
0
Posts
Buy some new wellies and buy a new spade - plenty available with trreads, aka bootsavers, already built in
If ground is very compacted it may help to use a fork first, to break it up a bit and then tidy it up using the spade.
I used to have a spade and the bit where you put your boot was flat and about 1/2" wide (the top bit was basically turned over). They may still be available.
My annoyance digging in wet weather is my boot keep slipping off the shovel/fork.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I made do with a piece of hosepipe,split along its length and slipped over the top of the spade.
Spades with the 'turned over bit' seem to be more common recently. I've got a couple like that, whereas my older ones don't have it.
Recently bought this kind of spade : http://www.gardena.com/nz/garden-care-tools/terraline-digging-tools/
Quite nice to use!
Last edited: 18 November 2016 16:44:54
A big thank you to everyone who kindly replied to me.
I do actually have a very old spade where the top is turned over, but the trouble with this spade is that it doesn't have a very smooth blade surface and so when digging in clay-rich, moist, and compacted soil I tend to find that it becomes very clogged very quickly. However, had I remembered that I was going to ruine my wellies by using my stainless steel spade then I probably would have opted to go with the old spade.
Fortunately my wellies were already well on their way "home" and so it's not as bad as it could have been. I've already ordered a new pair of wellies, but I really don't want to buy another spade when I already have 4. This is why I'm looking for something that I can use to attach to a spade - either permanetly or temporarily.
My Spear & Jackson border spade came with a sturdy hard plastic protective sleeve (visibly similar to the split hosepipe suggestion/idea from Berghill) which is excellent for light digging and not slippy. I'll be very surprised if there isn't something out there that you can buy which has been purpose designed/built for this purpose... If not, then I sense a niche in the market...
Thanks again everyone.
Pete
Son in law (a blacksmith) also sliced open some copper piping which he ?Welded soldered? brazed? whatever, to the top of one of our spades. That worked well until I did my usual and snapped the handle. All I did was lean on it, honest guv. Never had the nerve to ask him to do it again.
Oops!
It was only yesterday that I learned that part of the spade was called the footrest. So I did a Google search and found something very interesting from a May 1936 edition of Popular Mechanics...! - attaching a piece of angle iron across the top of the spade. And this method still gives you the ability to scrape the mud off the soles of your boots.
One of my neighbours has all the kit - you name it and he's got it. So I'll ask him if he can make me something from a piece of stainless steel angle iron. One issue I can think of is dealing with the natural curve of the spade's blade and also the "obstruction" where the handle joins the blade.
Cheers,
Pete
If I remember correctly s.i.l. used two pieces of piping, one on either side of where the handle joined the blade.
hi to all above when I used to work with my farther long long time ago when we where digging trenchs we had what was called a foot iron that you tied to boot or wellys don't know if they still exist but some one will know Michael