My trowel snapped in half mid-dig at a site near Tucson last Saturday

Kim Stone · 2026-04-22T09:05:03.765581+00:00

I was working on a Hohokam pit house excavation outside Tucson when my old Marshalltown trowel just gave out, blade cracked right at the tang. The handle spun loose and I spent the next hour using a broken paint scraper I found in my truck. Has anyone else had a favorite tool fail on them at the worst possible time?

lisa55mo ago

Just grab a new one" is basically the motto for half the stuff that breaks in life. It's always the tools you trust the most that crap out at the exact worst moment, like a car battery dying in a drive-thru.

7

norag665mo ago

Remember my friend's total level failure? It makes @wyatt52's point, you just have to laugh and get a new tool.

5

wyatt525mo ago

Broken trowel's a bummer but it's not like the site's going anywhere. Just grab a new one.

2