A bayonet shovel is most often used for the processing of garden, garden areas and in general when working with land. Its working part has a rectangular shape with a rounded or pointed end. This pointed and sharply sharpened edge facilitates the processing of the soil.
Characteristics of garden bayonet shovel
Typically, such wedge-shaped shovels are made of tool steel, which provides them greater strength and reliability during operation. The size of the working cloth may vary depending on the nature of the work and the type of soil.
Other fabrication materials can be titanium . This material is lighter, while the strength characteristics are not inferior to steel. A shovel made of titanium can be dug for a long time clay soils and chernozem. Of course, this inventory is more expensive than analogues from other materials.
There are also shovels of aluminum, but they are designed to work with light materials - sawdust, dry loose mixtures. This metal does not withstand high loads of bending. And this shovel is faster than the rest.
Cuttings of bayonet shovels are usually wooden. The tree belongs to light materials, though not as durable as metal. Sometimes aluminum or steel is used as a material for the cuttings.
Many buyers choose telescopic cuttings, with which it is possible to adjust the height and make the shovel more compact for storage.
The shape of the spade shovel can be straight or with a bend. Curved cuttings are certainly more convenient to use, since in this case the load on hands is much less.
The standard dimensions of a bayonet shovel are as follows:
- length of bayonet shovel - 320 mm;
- the width of the bayonet shovel is 230 mm.
The dimensions may be somewhat different, however, when choosing, one should follow the recommendations for comfortable work with the tool. So, the length of the working part of it should not exceed 400 mm, the optimal size - from 300 to 320 mm. As to the width, for an acceptable load when digging up the soil, it is desirable that this figure is within the range of 230-250 mm, but not more than 280 mm.
Smaller in size shovels are classified no longer as garden, but as sapper. If the dimensions are larger than the standard, this makes the tool heavier and does not make the work more efficient, but rather vice versa. So it is quite enough of a variant "standard".
How to sharpen a bayonet shovel?
You can sharpen a shovel in several ways:
- with the help of a Bulgarian;
- on an emery machine;
- file.
Sharpening a file is a more traditional way and has some advantages over others:
- a good edge quality is obtained;
- metal does not overheat;
- You can take the file with you wherever you want and sharpen the edge when you need it.
Shoveling a shovel by a Bulgarian takes less time than the "grandfather's" method described above. However, in addition to the speed of this method of positive aspects, perhaps, no. The disadvantages are the following:
- overheating of the metal, because of which it becomes soft and then the shovel dies faster;
- obtaining an uneven edge thickness;
- the formation of chips and burrs, which must be filed all the same file.
Work on the emery is the most optimal option, combining the speed and accuracy of sharpening. Best if you can control the speed of rotation of the emery wheel. Even better, when the abrasive wheel has a small weight, so that the grinding work can be performed without taking into account its oscillation and getting a flat layer of the removed metal.