Since I was not the person that strayed from the original topic, I will throw my hat in the ring. E-Tools aka army shovels are not shovels. Shovels have one and only one purpose. A shovels job it to transfer material from one place to another. They were not intended to dig. Most have the "Ames bend" to the handle that allows a person to scoop a load without bending over too far and preventing scraping the skin off your knuckles. And since their purposed job was to transfer material, they were usually built a lightweight as possible to reduce fatigue. They also had a u shape to the blade to maintain as much of the load without spillage. The spade, which is what the army shovels actually are, have an almost flat blade, a straight alignment between the handle and blade to allow control as you stand on it to dig a hole, keeping the handle close to your body while your feet are on the blade, and allowing you to dig a straight hole.. Since the spade is subject to hard usage, prying out rocks, cutting roots, upending compacted earth, they are built stout with a heavy gauge and a sharpened blade. Whew, got that off my chest.
