that is good news!
I sometimes use hedge ( osage orange ) to replace handles . I have also slipped PVC pipe over the long handled shovels . I recently replaced a handle in my timber jack ( log roller or cant ) . The thin pipe bent . So I used black pipe and then welded angle iron on it for strength . So far it has worked good . I am not familiar with muscle wood . I know iron wood (hop hornbeam ) . Do you have another name for it ?
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Olpea, I have 35 trees until this spring, when another five arrive and only one acre of land and that looks just like my shovel collection!!! Very funny. 
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Pic was when my wolverine spade was new, now onto the 10th year using it, still use the other spade some, but mostly just use the wolverine spade, digging hundreds of planting holes a year and other adventures.
I’ve never made a handle out of Osage orange, I know it is very rot resistant, do you work it green? I would think it would be hard to work with after it was seasoned.
just curious…what was the second photo showing?
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We use osage orange aka hedge for fence posts and you wont need to replace them in a lifetime.
I have worked osage orange both green and dry . My favorite use for it is splitting maul and sledge hammer handles .
I have using pretty cheapo Craftsman lifetime guarantee fiberglass shovels for years now. I have cracked the fiberglass twice and Sears gives me a replacement no problem. I like them because of their light weight but it does not take a lot to bust the fiberglass. I found online a few years back these shovel attachments for $5 that make digging easier on my feet, they add a little weight to the shovel but have been well worth the money.
Musclewood is the “regular” hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. It has twisted grain and splits but is really tough stuff. There are lots of old osage rows around here but they are never straight enough unfortunately.
Man, you guys are handy! Inspired me to take a look at a dogwood limb I recently took off a tree that might be workable into a handle.
I lose money when I fix tools (time being money) so tend to pay more for ones that are less likely to break. I do not use a digging shovel for prying but even when carefully used, wooden handled shovels just don’t last when stored outside- at least the crap ash usually used nowadays.
Fiberglass handles make the most sense if I’m not prying stones or roots- something by a manufacturer like Bully or Nupla for digging soil. Their fiberglass handles are much stronger that the brands you find at your big box. Bully’s roundpoint shovel is my staple. I can’t find a stronger one at its weight.
King of Spades is worth the extra price for a long handled diamond point spade that can take a great deal of pressure before springing the metal. Other cheaper all steel brands have been short lived for me, although I’ve also ruined a few KS spades over the years- they are not indestructible but the best I’ve found for prying roots and stone.
LIving an hour from NYC, the whole economy about buying tools is different, especially because I’m making wage when I use them and losing wage if they break on the job (I don’t want to have to lug around extras). When good tools save labor time they are always worth the investment here. Even my help gets more than triple minimum wage if I want to keep him working for me.
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I have rough sawed Osage beams 3" x 14" x 11’. I will have to try some for handles. I made billy clubs and numb chucks out of it when I wasa kid in school. I have Black Walnut, oaks, maples, Wild Black cherry, and Ash milled. I made two really nice rocking gliders from Ash and Black Walnut. I made the seats too. To much time went into those. I made the walnut chair first then seeing I had all the patterns made up I did the ash chair. It still took about the same time. I haven’t made anything since. The walnut with white maple looks great together in cutting boards. I made two batches of eight of those and gave them all away. People said They would of paid $50 for them but I never sold one.
I’d say that philosophy has almost always been my own. I’ve been disappointed many times trying to save a buck w/ a cheaper tool. Not only do they not generally last as long, but don’t work as well either. I’ve rarely been disappointed when spending more for a better quality tool. When buying a cheap tool, it has almost always been the case of penny wise and pound foolish for me.
Shovels have been sort of an exception here because they pretty much give them away at estate sales or auctions. I don’t go to a lot of auctions or estate sales, but if I see a sign, I stop if I have time. One can buy them for a few dollars, then use them like a disposable lighter (if you aren’t paying high priced help, or having to lug a bunch of digging tools around). I keep a few disposable shovels sitting around at the farm, when I need one impromptu.
I normally wouldn’t replace handles (on anything) unless it’s a tool I really like. You can generally buy a new tool cheaper, unless one is making his/her own handles. In that case, it’s mostly a love of the labor because the time it takes to make/install the handle isn’t worth the cost of buying a new tool. But I totally understand the pride that goes with fixing something better than it was new. I’ve done/felt that a lot in my life.
In the shovels above, I particularly like the heads of the three shovels and wanted some indestructible handles to go w/ them. The one on the left is sort of like a King of Spades http://www.amleo.com/king-of-spades-nursery-spade-all-steel-13in-blade-with-54in-handle/p/KS12L/ which my son likes to use when helping me plant trees. He likes it because he can drive it into the ground almost to the hilt and pry a bunch of dirt up at once (which is how he broke the last handle).
The next one was a shovel head I found several years ago while mowing a commercial property. I threw it in the scrap iron pile because I’ve never seen a head that heavy (and it doesn’t have much pitch/lift which I like). I thought the shovel head deserved a steel handle too.
The last shovel I fixed is my favorite because it’s so small. I generally prefer a small light shovel when digging because it’s easy to push into packed dirt (no jumping up and down on the head to get it into the earth) easy to break the shovel over (without putting too much stress on the handle) and easy to lift out. Plus it doesn’t have a lot of pitch on the head. The handle rotted though and it was either pitch it, or fix it. I put the steel handle on it but I’m not sure I will like it. It’s pretty heavy.
As an aside, I wouldn’t recommend using a heavy shovel shoveling gravel. In that case I think the cheapest, lightest medium sized shovel with a medium pitch is the best to keep from getting worn out.
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I have a variety of shovels that I “inherited” from my mother when she
passed away. Nobody wanted her garden tools, so I got them all. I seem
to always gravitate to just one shovel, that I use for every job that I do.
It must be close to 50 years old, has a wooden handle that has never failed me.
It’s just like the one on the far right, but has a short closed handle like
the green spade in the photo. It’s great for prying up trees/bushes
by the roots and is very easy on my back. Somehow the other shovels seem to stay on the
rack in the garage. I love this shovel, and nobody gets to use it except me.
Ray, that’s real nice. I don’t think my mom ever owned a shovel and I never saw her use one- her primary domain was the kitchen, I was the gardener in the family of 7. My parents were both raised in apts. in NYC and didn’t possess a lot in the way of country skills although they both virtually worshipped nature.
America used to manufacture very high quality garden tools with nearly indestructible hickory handles. I do look around for farm and garden tools from yesteryear at barn sales and the like. My favorite mulch fork is a 100 year old beauty with a hickory handle. I will be crushed if it dies before I do.
I picked up an antique shovel with a hickory handle this fall and haven’t gotten around to trying it out yet.
Alan, I think it’s commonplace that the older we become, the more
we think about our roots(no pun intended). We lived in suburbia, and
my father NEVER went in our yard, period. It was my mother’s domain.
She had camelias and azaleas the size of cars, and my first introduction
to roses was when I got tackled, while playing football and wound up entangled in one of her climbers. She had to take me to the emergency room in order to get some thorns removed my lip.(I still have the scars)
One of my fondest memories was a black man, named Robert, that my mother and all of my aunts would hire to do really heavy work. We had all solid hardwood floors that Robert would wax with paste wax, while on his hands and knees. Then he’d go outside and move large bushes from place to place. My mother was famous for doing this and furniture too. I had a great admiration and respect for this man, and the work he did, while never once complaining. My mother loved this man also, and anything he wanted, he got. She used to feed him lunch, and the plate she would give him was piled so high, you would think nobody could eat that much food. But he’d consume it in no time, and before he knew it, there was another plate in front of him, piled just as high.
Years later, when Robert passed away, we all went to his funeral. It was my first time inside of a black church, and we all mourned for Robert, just as his family did.
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Given your love for the music, too bad you didn’t attend some of the services in nearby black baptist churches. A lot of the music you (and I) love actually started in those churches and still does. Of course, I’m sure you are well aware of this, but Robert’s story made it cross my mind.
Any pictures?
Amen!!