Got so tired of my trowel scraping on tiny rocks in a dig near Tucson

I was working a site last month and the compacted soil was just wrecking my tools, so I started using a cheap plastic putty knife from the hardware store to gently clear the top layer first. It sounds dumb but it saved my actual trowel edge and let me see features way better before I even started proper excavation. Has anyone else found a weird non-archaeology tool that actually works great in the field?

2 comments

2 Comments

williamd7015d ago

Ever notice how the best fix for a fancy tool is often a cheap one from a different job? Your putty knife trick is a perfect example of that. It's like the real pro move is just finding the simple thing that works.

patchen15d ago

But what about when the cheap fix just makes more work later? I've seen guys use a butter knife as a screwdriver and strip the head. Or use cardboard as a shim when it crushes and throws off the whole alignment. Sometimes the right tool, even if it's fancy, is the simple thing that actually works right.