Was helping at a dig in Vermont when my trowel snapped in half

I was brushing dirt off a suspected pottery shard about 4 feet down and put too much pressure on my old Marshalltown trowel, then the handle just broke clean off into my hand. Had to finish the last hour of the shift using a bent screwdriver from my car's emergency kit because nobody else had a spare. Has anyone else had a tool fail at the worst possible time on a site?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.evan2d ago

Went through something similar a few years back on a site in Ohio. Ended up using a flathead screwdriver and a rock to hammer it through the harder dirt, and honestly it worked better than the trowel for breaking up the clay layers. That busted handle actually taught me to always keep a backup tool in my bag no matter what.

johnson.ryan2d ago

Wait, you hammered a flathead screwdriver into clay with a rock on an archaeological site? That's wild, @stone.evan, I can't believe you actually did that. Honestly though, the makeshift tool trick is a classic lesson learned the hard way.