I'm sure it won't happen and that I received a form response, but if I receive any further information I'll let everyone know.

Email I sent:

I love your special forces shovel. While I'm on the subject of your products that I love, the honey comb is very cool, the K4 Neck Knife non-serrated is wonderful (I use it picnicking these thick backed folders split the cheese as you cut it), and various other products of yours that I've picked up.

I'm writing today in support of something I'm sure you've thought of: The Special Forces Shovel in stainless with a fiberglass/plastic handle. I do a lot of duck hunting and boating in saltwater and the special forces shovel in stainless with a fiberglass/plastic handle would be an incredible asset in both the fishing skiff and the duck boat. I'm sure the potential uses are immediately apparent to you, but just in case, Duck Hunting: Emergency secondary paddle/rudder, regular use for modifying blinds, smashing ice, and generally making myself more comfortable in muddy cold places, Fishing Skiff: Potentially for survival if blown ashore someplace foreign, but more realistically, when beaching the boat, etc, it'd be great to have a rugged tool to assist in anchor placement, digging for clams and other shellfish and so on.

I would personally be willing to pay double the price of the current version for a stainless/fiberglass-glass/plastic model.

Thanks for the great products.

Best,

Robert




Response:

Thank you for your suggestion. I have passed this email on to our R&D department.

Our plate is very full for new products coming up, but they do look at all suggestions. If it is an item that will become part of our line, R&D will release that information when it is ready for production.

Again, thanks for your suggestion and your enthusiasm for Cold Steel.

Customer Service

Nice idea. The problem is, I don't quite know what kind of stainless steel could do the job at that price point. 420-ish will take a working edge, but can be quite brittle. Anything else is too expensive. Sorry, I just can't see stainless.

The real trick would be an optimized system for the existing carbon, at a price. A double-epoxy-coated head, with a phosphoric-acid repair and marine-paint touch-up kit. And a pressure-treated handle with several replenishing protective coats. (Yeah, it sounds like a skin-cream commercial, quit sniggering :-)

I could really see a fibreglass handle though. Not the junk that's half plastic, but the 100% fibreglass version. Maybe with an octagonal cut and a couple of axe-handle-style flares (whatever they're called) at the butt.

P.S., If I were to poke CS, I'd request a version of the CS shovel that was a trifle smaller (but not much shorter) and came through at 16oz exactly. The Backpacker's Buddy. And the Gardener's Friend. And the Hunter's Companion. I think they could sell millions and millions of these, retail and wholesale, and make themselves insanely filthy rich. (I've just put in an order for 10, delivery pending ... or not ... just in time for Christmas.)

My $0.02 and then some.

How about Fiskars folding shovel? Don´tknow if it is available in the US though.

http://www.varuste.net/en/tuotetiedot2.asp?_prodid=674&nimi=Fiskars+Folding+Shovel

Doug - All Great point. I don't know enough about metallurgy (as it turns out, knowing nothing about something is just not enough ;)). My thoughts were basically that if big cheap stamped knives flex and last on a fishing boat for years, then a shovel out of that steal would also last. I think the knife I'm imaging sitting on the boat is a dexter russel 31628, but its steel is only described as "stain-free, high carbon steel." That said, it might be that in a thicker form it would get brittle, or be prohbitivly expensive.

As far as full fiberglass, I'm not sure I've handled anythign with that. I was imaging the glass cored plastic exteriored cheap mauls and axes I own. Full glass may well be nicer, but I remember anchor pickup buoys giving me unpleasant splinters.

Alas - I'm sad to hear my idea is unrealistic.

Re properly maintaining a common steel shovel in a marine environment, agreed, it can be done, but there is that leave it and forget it beauty if stainless and plastic.

On the smaller version, it might be huge w/backpackers, etc. As for me, the current size is just fine. I have to take a picture of how I mounted it in my Subaru. It is super dorky, I love it.

R

wellllll since I'm never qualified to jump into the equipment end of the discussions... lol. here's my two cents. We have a Gerber folding shovel that my hubby acquired through his job. It seems great. He used it when he climbed mt. whitney a couple years ago. I regularly use it for smaller gardening jobs (to my hubby's dismay). The edge is kind of sharp, so I recently used it to cut through roots of stupid rose bush I was digging up, and it was spectacular. This of course, was to my hubby's dismay, as the shovel is supposed to be part of our emergency preparedness supplies. However, I consider a scrawny ugly rose bush to be a bit of an emergency when there are gardenias to be planted. Yeah. LOL. So anyway, here is a link to the shovel, and at only about 50 bucks I consider it a good investment. By the way, anybody know how to post a link so that it actually works as a link, instead of having to copy/paste?

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp;jsessionid=QI1YPLJVGRUS5LAQBBKSCNNMCAEFAIWE?id=0066691518952a&type=product&cmCat=froogle&cm_ven=data_feed&cm_cat=froogle&cm_pla=1550102&cm_ite=0066691518952a&_requestid=32770

Good ideas are definitely worth exploring. Sorry if I rained all over your parade.

There are other ETSers who know a heckuva lot more about steel than I do. Maybe they can offer a solution that escapes me.

I like my CS shovels too. I may just trim one down to a backpacker-friendly size.

I'd love to see pic's of your car mounting setup.

As a fellow driver of the "mighty Subaru" I'd like to see how you mounted your shovel too. I have a full sized German WW2 vintage shovel attached to my roof rack, comes in handy and the "hmmm" factor I get from people who see it makes it worth it even if it wasn't a practical tool.

above the editing box there's a row of icons. the second from the left, if you look real close, looks like a globe with a chain link. click on that. you enter manually or paste the link of the website you've previously copied. then you'll need to create a word or words that will serve as the link.
you can edit your existing post. took me a few times, too.

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

After looking at picture of the gerber shovel, it´s exactly the same as fiskars.

Actually I think fiskars stuff are sold uner the gerber-name in the US.