Spade or shovel?Light hearted.

To me :
a spade has a long handle and I use it for gardening .
A shovel has a shorter handle .

I've had to be really careful with the word spade - a Jamaican guy who worked for me took great offence when I described my garden implement as a spade and I reverted to shovel .

Put very simply, a shovel is for moving material, while a spade is primarily for cutting soil and digging holes. With a flatter, shallower face, the spade is meant for digging, piercing, cutting. It's an edge tool, first and foremost
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Shovels and Spades: What's the Difference - Garrett Wade

No idea why in bold ooops!
Sorry!

NanaDana

A spade has a flat blade, whilst a shovel has raised sides. So it's not a case of using different words for the same item. They are different items.

This is correct. They are different things.

Although I do tend to call a spade a spade and sometimes it feels like I'm shovelling s+++ up hill.

Oh dear, when is a spade a shovel? Coal shovel, garden spade? I hate being told what to say by a know-all and it seems like splitting hairs in this instance, doesn't it?

I'm a bit of a know-all myself (on the quiet) and I can't stand being told by another know-all as it feels like they're muscling in on my territory if you see what I mean.

Yes- same over here. A shovel is something a builder would use more . A spade is something you use in the garden.

toscalily

I like the idea of your blooming cement mixer FannyCornforth which particular blooms are they?

That’s not a bad idea, toscalily, I may as well get some use out of it

NotSpaghetti

What were you using for your shoveling Yammy?
I might well use a spade if I was removing moss off some flat surface and didn't have something easier.

I might then shovel it up with the same tool! ...but if there was s lot I might use a shovel...

I was using a builder's shovel that was left behind. I also have a garden spade but I'm afraid where I come from all spades are called shovels and garden forks called gripes. I live among farmers and have reverted to type .

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202303/medium-559810-dab87e52-1663-4058-9c5a-9225a2b08b81.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202303/medium-275979-278e122e-e558-471b-87d2-95dbc83a9d12.jpeg

I’ve just found this!
One is definitely more preferable

FannyCornforth

It’s ironic really Yammy, as MrC was a self employed builder for 40 odd years and we have every type of building based implement, tool, gadget, widget, and gizmo known to man.
We even have a blooming concrete mixer in the garden

You should see what the builders left us. Like you a cement mixer with lots of tools. When he came back for them he suggested he could get rid of all the rubble we had and we agreed. He took all the Shap and Skiddaw slate and big pieces of red sandstone they are probably his garden patio now. We were very naive.

I recall, I think Michael Portillo, visiting a spade maker at the Patterson's Spade Mill in County Antrim. Fascinating stuff, where we learned that there were over 100 different types.
A grave digger's spade, a turf cutter's spade to name but two!

Take a look at this - no shovels tho!

www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/place/patterson%27s-spade-mill
www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/results?Collections=4259aef5fffffe0736b14667aefc1497&Sort=collection

Now a 'heritage craft^.

Just asked DH the difference between a spade and a shovel.

“A spade is for digging, a shovel is for shovelling”.

Simple enough. Yes. I shovel snow and sh*t (horse sh*t).