Shape
— Bayonet. The traditional, familiar to many shape is quite wide, rounded and slightly pointed downwards. Bayonet-type canvases are intended primarily for digging — they easily penetrate fairly dense soil and can even cut the roots; but
bayonet shovels are poorly suited for pouring bulk materials.
— Owl. Rectangular canvas, bent up along the edges and set at a certain angle relative to the axis of the handle. Due to this angle, as well as the same width along the entire length (and in some models the blade also expands downwards),
shovels are not well suited for digging — sticking such a blade into the ground, even loose, is noticeably more difficult than bayonet. But such tools are indispensable if you need to reload a large volume of loose or viscous materials from one place to another — you can collect a lot of such material at a time, and the bent "sides" of the canvas will to some extent prevent spillage. And snow shovels and scrapers are generally made only with scoops.
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Rectangular. Outwardly, such canvases are similar to the soviet ones described above, however, they do not have “sides” along the edges. Their main purpose is digging loose soils: a rectangular shape allows you to grab more earth than a bayonet, and sticking the blade with great force is not required in such soils. And if necessary, such a tool can serve as an impromptu replacement
...for a shovel, although due to the lack of sides, this may require some skill.
— Bayonet rounded. Although such shovels are formally classified as bayonet shovels, they are closest in shape to rectangular ones; the main difference is that in this case the blade is not made even, but somewhat rounded. This makes it easier to work on tight ground, otherwise rounded models do not differ much from rectangular ones.
— Pedigree (chirva). Such canvases got the name "chirva" for their characteristic shape — in the form of a heart, used as a designation of the card suit. Their formal name — "rock" — is due to the fact that such shovels are popular primarily in mining — when loading / unloading rock, coal, crushed stone, etc. At the same time, the pointed shape allows you to easily plunge the shovel into dense heavy materials.
— Drainage. A specific type of canvas, characterized by an elongated shape — the length of such a canvas is 2.5 – 3 times the width; the blade is usually slightly pointed, like a bayonet, and the sides are bent upwards. The name "drainage" comes from one of the most popular uses for such tools — digging narrow and long trenches to drain water. Of course, nothing prevents digging trenches for other purposes — for example, when laying electrical cables for ground lamps or pipes for an irrigation system. In addition, a drainage shovel can be useful when digging up and transplanting individual plants — a long and narrow canvas allows you to dig under the very roots without turning out excess earth and without hitting neighboring plants.Shovel length
The total length of the shovel; for models with variable length (folding or telescopic, see above), the maximum size is taken into account, when unfolded to the maximum position.
In the case of full size shovels (garden shovels, construction shovels, snow shovels — see "Type"), the optimal length depends primarily on the height of the user. It is believed that a shovel, placed vertically, should be 10 cm below the shoulder joint; however, some prefer a shorter tool — up to the elbow. If you do not have the opportunity to “try on” the shovel “live”, you can measure the height to the desired point (10 cm below the shoulder or elbow) and, when choosing, compare this height with the length of the tool. Note that a shovel without a handle (see above) may well be somewhat longer than necessary — the “surplus” of the handle usually does not create any particular inconvenience. But in the presence of a handle, length matching is extremely important.
If we are talking about small shovels for tourist / automotive purposes, then here we should proceed from a compromise between efficiency and compactness. A shorter shovel will be more convenient to store and transport, but may be inconvenient and ineffective for heavy work (both because of the inconvenience in the hands and because of the short lever length, which requires considerable effort).
