The Fiskars folding shovel uses a low alloy Boron steel, so would hold up to abuse more than the Low carbon offering from Cold steel.

If digging holes in the ground rather than throwing your shovel around like an Apache Indian (oops I mean Soviet Spetznaz) is the thing then the British Army 37 Patten Entrenching tool would be be more effective. They were practised at digging lots of holes in the ground 20 years earlier. In fact they dug a big long hole in the ground all the way from the North Sea to Switzerland.

http://www.surplusandoutdoors.com/shop/b...ing-326554.html