Shovel ID?

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Lang

In fact many people have never used the word spade for a digging instrument of any variety.

This does not mean they’re correct, though Many people call any military vehicle that has either armour or tracks, let alone both, a “tank” — does that make a Universal Carrier a tank, or an M29 Weasel?

The distinction is that a spade is an implement for digging, while a shovel is an implement for moving loose stuff around. It has nothing to do with what it looks like, but everything with what its intended use is. Look at the blade: if it’s strong, made from thick steel with a fairly sharp edge, the tool is most likely a spade; if it’s thin, usually pressed steel, the tool will probably be a shovel. Of course you can use a spade for shoveling stuff, or a shovel for digging a hole, but neither will work as well as the other for those jobs — especially if you try digging with a shovel in hard or sticky soil.