Talk:Spade

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.

What do spades have to do with black people? Bastie 21:37, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

"Black as the Ace of Spades" 203.143.238.107 05:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Google hits

[1] Sam Spade 22:49, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I should have been clearer in my summary yesterday. It's not that the link to trowel was bad as in broken, but that I believe it was inapropriate in context.

While a trowel is also an implement for breaking up soil, a spade is not the same as a trowel. A gardening trowel is always a small hand-held tool (single hand). A spade is a larger tool that is designed to be used with both hands and to be pushed into the soil with the aid of a foot. This article is about spades, not trowels.

I would be okay with putting the link in a =See also= section, but it is inappropriate in the opening sentence. The way it is currently written leads the reader to believe that "spade" and "trowel" are synonymous.

As a side note, the link to trowel should be another sub-bullet under shovel. Rossami 21:10, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Spade is not a shovel

The request to merge: Funny, I just came across this as I had used the expression "calling a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel" and here's a proposal to make them the same page. One is for digging, the other for shovelling/carrying soil. No points for guessing which one. Guess the art of digging stuff is becoming a lost skill if people are considering them the same thing. :) NathanLee 18:02, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Totally agree. A spade has a flat blade whereas a shovel has curved sides they are totally different! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.105.53.109 (talk) 17:05, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

No merge - calling a spade a shovel, eh? --sony-youth^pléigh 08:14, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree with not merging, the two terms are not identical. However, a spade is a type of shovel.--RLent (talk) 20:06, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm still confused about the difference between spade and shovel. Spade is for breaking ground, while the shovel is for transport it, right? Kind of the difference between weathering and erosion. But the pictures in both articles show tools with a flat edge, and I thought a v-shaped pointed edge was used for breaking ground. AThousandYoung (talk) 20:53, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Think of shovels as big spoons (like pitchforks are big forks). The purpose is to keep the dirt on the shovel. Spades are different: they usually have a flat, sharp edge and a flat, thicker back you can step on to cut deeper into the ground. Spades are designed to cut rather than to carry stuff. You can use either for both, but the performance won't be the same (like eating spaghetti without a fork). --88.153.33.63 (talk) 13:42, 7 June 2008 (UTC)