It took me a while to finally get the courage to purchase a steel shovel – I thought it to be a frivolous purchase and unnecessary. I’ve used wooden-handle shovels for years and only had a few issues. I chalked it up to them being old and me expecting too much from them. I made the plunge and picked up the Fiskars Steel Shovel after breaking a wooden shovel in half trying to dig out a stump from my front yard.
I was so impressed at how sturdy and effective it was at heavy-duty work; I decided to write a review the moment I cleaned the mud from my boots. If you do a fair amount of digging, you may want to consider this shovel.
All Steel Construction
Made from welded 14-gauge hardened steel for the blade and 18-gauge steel for the shaft; this shovel will outperform and outlast a truck bed full of wood-handled shovels. It’s 57.5 inches long and has a sharpened blade to assist in digging. I’ve broken plenty in my life and always figured I was just using them incorrectly. Turns out I was expecting too much from regular shovels.
The Best Steel Shovel
The all-steel design allows you to push harder without breakage and you won’t have to worry about overloading the handle. The foot platform is extra large so you can get more of your boot on it and utilize your body weight more effectively. You can really crank on a steel shovel and put your weight behind it. The longer handle allows you to use it as a pry bar in some cases.
Sharpened Blade for Max Penetration
One thing that really impressed me with this shovel was how effective it is at cutting roots. I spent the past two days digging up a medium sized tree in my back yard and couldn’t have done it without this shovel. The wide stomp edge and sharpened blade allowed me to dig straight through roots and hardened clay. Once I was able to remove some dirt and access the roots – I used the shovel blade to actually chop through them! It was more effective than my axe! I pushed through and eventually dug a small moat around the tree and flooded it to moisten the dirt under the thick root system. Once the water subsided and exposed the roots, I speared and chopped them with the blade and cut through each one of them.
Extra Long Steel Handle for Leverage
The extra long steel handle allowed me to use the steel shovel as a leverage and push the tree to its side where I was able to continue chopping at the roots. I felt confident the handle wouldn’t snap, even with me putting my weight on it. A wood handle shovel would have snapped under that type of pressure. They’re just not designed to handle that much work. These steel shovels by Fiskars are perfectly capable of handling the workload.
Lifetime Use
It’s important to note that this shovel is quite heavy compared to a regular wood shovel, but that’s easy to overlook when you realize the amount of work you can do with this thing! This is the shovel you will be able to use for life if you take care of it. It also has a lifetime warranty if you ever have any issues with it.
Our Proof
We only recommend products that we use, so here are a few pictures showing what the Fiskars Steel Digging Shovel can do.
As you can see, the Fiskars Steel Digging Shovel is a workhorse and worth the price of admission.
Jerome is an avid outdoorsman who moonlights as an attorney when he’s not creating the world’s greatest online content.