I don't have any trouble with mine in all but the hardest dry clay , but not many trowel type diggers can handle that well anyway. If the ground is hard I do have to put a little extra weight on it but the positive side of this digger is its shape , which in most cases makes a very neat hole and scoops dirt out really well. It may not be the best available but most of the others cost a lot more and in most cases the difference is negligible , so it all comes down to personal preference. For the price , its hard to beat , and compared to ANY garden or multi purpose digger its much better.....made for the purpose we use it for and virtually indestructible. Considering the price , why would anyone go out and buy a $10 garden tool , warranty or not the garden or multipurpose variety is going to break or just not work as well as this tuff $10 digger made for this purpose. People go buy those neat looking little Ames 7 in one trowels or a knockoff and shortly after usually post pictures on here showing how they broke
.....well , they chose looks or immediate gratification over function and bought the wrong product
Here is mine, this is a Wilcox digger which also comes with a lifetime guarantee and once I mod it to work in my environment I bet it will work good after I do...maybe great.
It is the Wilcox All Pro No.101S heavy duty model.
If I sharpen the point it should pierce my clay filled dirt much better and dig down through the bad stuff easier because it wasn't great at doing that either, might even put some cuts in one side or both for root cutting and hone the edges and tip sharper to more like a knife edge.
In decent soil it would probably work as it is, here it is not so great...but I think it can be one day.
The advantage to this one is the construction for the price which is usually under $20 from most outlets.
The dealer I got it from had it slightly discounted and then since he was dumping them another 25% off of that so I ended up paying $13 for the thing tax included...I couldn't pass up a deal like that.
I noticed this company makes a few, I looked at a 12" 16 gauge shiny stainless version and it was stout but I bet I could bend or even break it with enough pressure...this one is also a 12" model, not shiny but still stainless steel and much thicker at 12 gauge...even standing on the thing prying up huge rocks I think will have trouble hurting this one.
The weak breaking point on some of the other cheaper diggers seems to be the handle since that is where they all seem to fail.
Not on this one, the blade and handle are all one piece, they form the blade then roll it at the top and then throw on that handle cover.
Once I mod it to my satisfaction I will probably change the handle cover to a better bicycle grip version with some decent padding and then I should have something unique and hopefully useful.
In Kansas soil this would have worked fine out of the box, here I need to put in a little effort to make it work even decently well but once I do I think it could be a digger to reckon with.
Thanks for reminding me about this one, till you did I totally forgot I owned one since I used it on one or two hunts then put it away.
Now I have a project I am anxious to complete and see just how great of a tool I can make this thing into.
