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Yea that's odd, I have a few and have used them pretty hard without much issue.
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I have heard of some SovUnion/ComBloc shovels having deficient steel, and quite often, extremely fragile handles. Have seen YouTube vids with almost instant handle failures with some ComBloc shovels
Not specifically speaking about Cold Steel units, BUT, as with
any wooden-handled shovel, the quality of wood used in the handle is extremely important as to the durability of the shovel.
I have always assumed Cold Steel to have used top-quality steel and wood in their products, and have no first-hand knowledge to the contrary.
That said, an astute owner
might consider buying a spare handle from the vendor, as long as the wood of the handle is decent. IMHO, Birch or hickory wood seems to be ideal for most wooden handles of items that are
impact items; this means hammers, axes, hatchets, and even some shovels. Straight, cnventional shovels, pushing along the length of the handle are a little different, and usually can use a different type of wood.
In any event, having a SPARE high-quality handle available for your chosen implement is always a wise idea. Having done a fair amount of replacing implement handles, doing so,
properly is time-consuming task, because the exterior of the wooden handle must be
closely-fitted to the interior shape of the metal tool. The more time taken to do this procedure, the longer-lasting the assembly will be. FWIW, takes me, using hand tools, about 1/2 hour to fit an axe/hammer handle. But then, I'm no expert.
One
sweet pro trick is to use automotive anti-freeze liquid to "tighten-up" very slightly loose wooden handles fitted-into metal heads. Some folks use water to do so, but the water evaporates, and the wood shrinks back to its' original state. Using glycol antifreeze, the antifreeze stays in the wood for a long time, and does not cause wood/metal deterioration. Soak the head of the slightly loose implement in pure antifreeze overnight, making sure the entire loose joint is submerged in antifreeze.
This is a
temporary fix, and gives the user some time to get a new handle and so forth. It's pretty slick, but NOT a proper fix. It's a
warning, and a
temporary fix.