# What's a short-handled shovels **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830 "2014-08-29T02:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/1 "2014-08-29T02:46:39Z")
‘A short-handled shovel, right, is a _shovel_. And get this… it’s _handle_ is _short!_’ I thought I’d get that out of the way at the beginning. The folk tune _Big Rock Candy Mountain_ contains the lyric, ‘There ain’t no short handled shovels.’ What exactly is the significance of a ‘short-handled shovel’? Some sort of punishment? (The line follows one about a jail.) Or is it a specific tool for a particularly hard job, where a long-handled shovel can’t be used? Maybe it’s like the ‘short straw’, and the loser has to use the shovel with less leverage? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/2 "2014-08-29T02:48:47Z")
Then what did the Seven Dwarves use ? ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/3 "2014-08-29T02:52:54Z")
No cite that the song is necessarily is talking about this aspect of shovels, but… A short-handled shovel is nice if you’re moving material from high to low (wheel barrow to ground), but backbreaking if you’re trying to dig a hole. Around my house, we’ve got one of each, and if two people are working, well… someone’s getting the short shovel. I always figured that’s what the song was talking about: digging holes or trenches with the wrong tool. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/4 "2014-08-29T02:56:02Z")
Short handled shovels are less efficient for moving lots of dirt, but they’re lighter and easier to use in small spaces. If you’re working all day moving dirt you’ll kill your back with a short-handled shovel [Short Handle Shovel](http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ames-17-in-D-Handle-Round-Shovel-1531800/202054946?N=5yc1vZc5rr) ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/5 "2014-08-29T02:58:45Z")
Plus, the jail reference is a nice jail, which you can easily break out of and you don’t have to do any work and can sleep all day. So, short-handled shovel = back breaking work, which you don’t have to do at that jail. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/6 "2014-08-29T03:01:33Z")
Found this by Googling: > [@](#): > > Short-handled shovels were cheaper, easier to account for, easily portable, and made (relatively), poor weapons; these combined to make them the tool of choice for chain gangs and other impressed labor. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/7 "2014-08-29T03:12:18Z")
> [@Pasta](#): > > but backbreaking if you’re trying to dig a hole. > [@Telemark](#): > > If you’re working all day moving dirt you’ll kill your back with a short-handled shovel > [@Nametag](#): > > Found this by Googling: > > > [@](#): > > > > Short-handled shovels were cheaper, easier to account for, easily portable, and made (relatively), poor weapons; these combined to make them the tool of choice for chain gangs and other impressed labor. Got it. Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/8 "2014-08-29T03:50:13Z")
An entrenching tool is a short handled shovel. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/9 "2014-08-29T04:58:40Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > An entrenching tool is a short handled shovel. Indeed, and during the Great Depression the men using them would have been using WWI surplus entrenching tools. Great if you are a soldier and your life is on the line and you need any shovel, but awful to use regularly. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/10 "2014-08-29T05:06:25Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > An entrenching tool is a short handled shovel. They’re really the only tool that will work for a narrow, deep hole that you’re standing in. The blade on a long handled shovel cannot be brought to the horizontal with a long handled shovel in a deep, narrow hole. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/11 "2014-08-29T13:19:49Z")
In the context of the song, it simply means life is easy, even in prison, where hard labor is not requires. “Short handle shovels” just adds three syllables to match the meter of the verse. ---
**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:** [October 3, 2021, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/13 "2021-10-03T21:16:21Z")
Let’s just call a spade a spade. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/14 "2021-10-06T17:32:51Z")
Soldiers are issued short spades because it will fit on their personal gear. Long-handled shovels are found amongst the equipment train of the engineering troops. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/15 "2021-10-08T02:51:38Z")
You can use a short handled shovel at the coal face, in any tunnel pipe or trench , … or off a conveyor or shelf … because the target material is in front of your chest or even above your shoulders. But another aspect of the lyric is that you can do the easy or even enoyable work of tilling the garden with a long handled shovel, but there’s none of that unpleasant risky work such as in mines tunnels trenches … or where you are given bad equipment. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/16 "2021-10-09T03:38:37Z")
Let all them hounds off of their leashes, Gave all that money to the rich, They’re gonna hand you down now that short handed shovel and direct you directly to the ditch. The Devil Makes Three, “[Never Learn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBbtoB9UPxI.)” ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Catly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@Bob\_Catly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Catly)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/17 "2021-10-09T12:57:03Z")
The story I heard from my grandfather was that during the depression WPA workers tried to get to the job early to get one of the long handled shovels because they were easier to lean on while goofing off. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/18 "2021-10-09T15:22:19Z")
Short-handled agricultural impliments are dangerous to workers and inhumane under most circumstances. They were [banned in California](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3456.html) years ago. This was one of the reforms demanded by the United Farm Workers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-short-handled-shovels/696830/19 "2021-10-10T09:53:03Z")
The same idea more-or-less shows up in _The Ugly American_.