A spade is a digging tool with a long handle and a blade that is narrower and flatter than a common shovel, with a sharpened edge, a slightly curved profile and a pointed end suited to breaking and cutting into earth. Garden spades are typically wide bladed with a tread for the foot, while narrower long spades such as the sharpshooter are made for confined digging and post holes. Early spades were made from riven wood or animal shoulder blades before metal tips let a single tool both break and move earth, replacing the separate need for a pick. In ancient China, miniature spade shaped bronze pieces even circulated as an early form of currency before being replaced by round coins under the Qin dynasty.
Facts
OriginEarly spades were made of riven wood or animal bones such as shoulder blades, before metal spades. 1 Connections
Associated With
the hoe and the spade are the two core hand tools of manual soil cultivation, used together in the same work
Sources
1. Spade (Wikipedia)
History section
Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades).
History section, metalworking sentence
After the art of metalworking was developed, spades were made with sharper tips of metal.
Use as currency section
The blade of the spade was used as currency in ancient China
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