Put your shovels and garden tools away

General Gardening
1

At the end of the day, I’m tired and usually leave my shovels and other wood handled tools out for long periods of time. Today I got a splinter from one of the shovels on the rounded butt end. From weathering, the handle got cracked up and rough.

I never noticed it until today. Maybe a coat of linseed oil every year would have helped. But it probably would have been better to stow the tools at day end instead of leaving them out for long periods of time. The metal parts are all fine, other than wear from digging. It is the wood that has suffered.

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2

mix a little pine pitch with some boiled linseed oil. tractor supply has the pitch in the horse section. i rub it on liberally on anything with a wood handle then lay them in the hot sun for a few days. flip occasionally. the heat bakes it into the wood. a trick a old trapper told me about years ago. will just about last forever and never gets weather beaten. he also used to char the wood slightly with a propane torch which helps toughen up the wood surface to impacts for stuff like axe handles.

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