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Comment by JCThoughtscream | Hacker News Reader

While multipurpose tools are always fun, how is the Chinese army shovel particularly noteworthy? I'm pretty sure you can get an almost identical model from, say, REI. Or the /US/ Army's surplus.

...actually, they likely all come from the same factory, huh?

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I agree. I have a US Army surplus entrenching tool in my basement right now, folding serrated edge and everything.

My dad used to use it when my siblings and I were younger to dig holes at the beach. :)

Ingenious design? Absolutely. Noteworthy Chinese super-shovel? Not really.

We had similar tool in finnish army. The only difference was that when used as a pick against frozen ground it quickly fell apart. I wonder how this fares against such a hard material.

I know it sounds plausible, but I've never seen one. Show me: http://www.rei.com/search?query=shovel&button.x=0&bu...

The thing is that these things are called 'entrenching tools', searching for that gives more results. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrenching_tool - the pictures there don't look like they have serrated edges to serve as a saw, but there are plenty on e.g. Ebay that do. I know I used to sell the folding model, with serrated edge, 15 years ago in the military surplus stored I worked at.

Dutch shovels, they're known as in the outdoorsy subcultures in the UK, probably because at one point some supplier like Millett's bought up a job lot of them from Dutch army surplus, and that's what everyone bought.

For some reason olive oil in spray bottles is known as "Portuguese sunblock".

Seriously, though, you have to admit they thought of quite a bit more than just an entrenching tool . . . I mean, they at least deserve credit for offering it in "funny shade of orange" and fluorescent yellow.

Though I did think the part where the guy used it as a shield seemed to be the least optimal for the situation at hand. Seems he could have used the blade more effectively, but then that would have made the scene a little less palatable for an infomercial.

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