# So are these Chinese Army shovels really that great? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825 "2011-01-24T19:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/1 "2011-01-24T19:37:41Z")
Since [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b60OZhrTB6o) went viral, online interest in this particular shovel has grown apace, with notice that the price is higher than other shovels due to importation costs (because stuff from China is… rare and expensive to import…:dubious:) But is this shovel really that great compared to other shovels? Who’s the real tool here? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/2 "2011-01-24T19:44:10Z")
That looks like a pretty nifty device, assuming all the parts can stand up to the normal stressed of a shovel. I would think the hinged neck would break after a while. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/3 "2011-01-24T19:55:57Z")
The Chinglish alone is worth $120. Operner function show! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/4 "2011-01-24T19:56:10Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > But is this shovel really that great compared to other shovels? Who’s the real tool here? Well, no. It’s three feet long. Anyone who’s actually used a shovel before can tell you that using something like that to do any real digging is a slipped disc waiting to happen. As an all-in-one tool it’s rather natty. As a shovel, it looks pretty useless. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/5 "2011-01-24T20:02:14Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, no. It’s three feet long. Anyone who’s actually used a shovel before can tell you that using something like that to do any real digging is a slipped disc waiting to happen. > > As an all-in-one tool it’s rather natty. As a shovel, it looks pretty useless. The video has an excellent demonstration of the shovel being a yardstick. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/6 "2011-01-24T20:43:00Z")
It is too short to lean on. So how can it replace a real shovel? What are you supposed to do when the supervisor’s gone to another job site? (A bunch of guys get dropped off at a job site, the contractor goes to the back of the truck, and tells them that he forgot the shovels and has to go back and get them. “What do we do in the meantime?” asks one of the workers. “You’ll just have to lean on each other.”) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/7 "2011-01-24T20:47:05Z")
Can you order the soundtrack separately? ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/8 "2011-01-24T20:49:12Z")
I was going to chime in that it’s basically an e-tool, but then I got the part in the video where they were using it as wire cutters and a hammer. You can sharpen an edge on an e-tool for cutting purposes (fairly common, in fact) but that other stuff… that’s pretty nifty. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/9 "2011-01-24T23:01:38Z")
There was a WWII US Army spade that was similar. My father had one. It folded like the Chines one, but I don’t think it had all the other cool stiff like wire cutters/ ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/10 "2011-01-24T23:08:24Z")
I knew it, they’re attacking us from below!! ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/11 "2011-01-24T23:36:48Z")
Kind of a neat idea, but it looks like one of those things that does a mediocre job at best at a lot of things, and does nothing particularly well. It’s too short to make a decent shovel (as others have noted). It doesn’t function particularly well as a hammer (the second guy didn’t squarely hit the nail very reliably at all), which I suspect is due to the shovel blade blocking your view of the nail somewhat. I can guarantee you that the cutting blade along the edge is going to be dulled very quickly if you are using the shovel part for digging. I would also have concerns about it holding up to a lot of abuse. It doesn’t look like it has anything special to allow a rope to be attached for anchor mode, so it’s no better than any sturdy collapsible shovel there. I suspect that it doesn’t catch on the rail or tree limb every time as easily as they showed it too. A lot of the demonstrations seemed to be creative uses for a standard thing. A regular collapsible shovel without all the fancy attachment bits can hammer in tent pegs and be used as an oar or a makeshift shield in an emergency. You could climb just as well with a standard collapsible shovel as well. The can opener looked absolutely horrible. The bottle opener worked well though. Compared to tools that are designed for specific tasks, these all in one tools are going to perform horribly. I can see it being useful for a soldier or a camper who is trying to keep his pack weight down to a minimum though. I think it is more creative advertising than creative tool though. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/12 "2011-01-25T00:06:10Z")
I’d like to see them as the “secret ingredient” on Iron Chef. All cutting and chopping must be done with the shovel! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/13 "2011-01-25T00:11:45Z")
Some of the uses, it looked like the user was gripping it by the edge of the business end, but other uses show both of those edges being sharpened. It looks like there might be some sort of sheath you can attach, but I’m not sure how much that would actually help: One, if you’re going to have a separate sheath, why not just have a separate saw? And two, if you’re putting a lot of pressure on the sheath, it, the blade, or both, are going to wear out pretty quickly. And, of course, a lot of the uses they show for it are things you could use any random rock or stick for. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/14 "2011-01-25T00:48:42Z")
When you’re 3 years old, they’re called “toys.” When you’re 30 years old, they’re called “tools.” If something is even marginally useful, people will buy it just to play with it for a while, then throw it in the attic forever. That’s why there’s like 10 variations of pawn stars/pickers/etc. on tv now, and some of the stuff looks like it’s never been used. I didn’t watch the video, but I often browse kitchen supply stores. On average, an “all-in-one” device will do about 5 different things, but none of them particularly well. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/15 "2011-01-25T01:15:26Z")
I’ve had several entrenching tools like this over the years and broke most of them during the first use. The one thing that impressed me about this one is that they didn’t. The other thing that I liked was the pliers and pry hook. That would be handy. But most of what they’re doing is standard entrenching tool stuff plus a little salesmanship. Sharpened/serrated edges have been around forever, the Soviets and Germans liked to hack at each other with them during WWII, but it’s not exciting until some energetic Chinese guys chop a tree, slice potatoes and saw a pipe with it. Locking the blade at 90 degrees is meant for digging, but also means you can use it for anything else you can dream up such as an anchor. It just took the Chinese to dream up using it as a grappling hook as I suspect no one outside of movies ever uses a grappling hook for climbing. So my take is that it’s nothing exciting. Just an entrenching tool that is possibly a good one and possibly has a couple of small improvements over others. That may make it the best one on the market right now for all I know, but this is basically an action packed infomercial. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/16 "2011-01-25T01:25:49Z")
They neglected to mention so many other possible uses. It could prop up the short leg of a table - Furniture Repair Function Show. It could be extended to someone sinking in quicksand as a means for them to get out - Emergency Rescue Function Show. You could use it to break the window of your car if you lock your keys inside - Keyless Auto Entry System Show. The list just goes on and on. What a nifty tool. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/17 "2011-01-25T02:19:00Z")
I find the lack of a Dissident Beating Function Show particularly telling. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/18 "2011-01-25T03:01:21Z")
I remember seeing something like this in the catalog Sovietski (apparently no longer around). They sold the [Spetsnaz GRU throwing shovel](http://www.soviet-steel.com/showthread.php?t=359). Seems very similar. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/19 "2011-01-25T03:48:06Z")
As a kid I had a Viet Nam war era entrenching tool my father had “liberated” when he was in the Air Force. It did much of what that video showed, including “grappling hook”, I climbed trees with it. And chopped them with it, too. That looks like nothing more than an updated version with a few extra functions. Is it a quality product that can stand up to heavy use? Can’t tell. You can bet they left the scenes where it broke on the cutting-room floor. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825/20 "2011-01-25T03:48:18Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Who’s the real tool here? Oi loffed! Best wishes, hh [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-are-these-chinese-army-shovels-really-that-great/568825.md?page=2)