On 19/11/2012 18:43, Jeff Layman wrote:
About 20 years ago I bought a full-size stainless steel spade (made by
Griffin). It hasn't had a great amount of use.

Today I was trying to dig up an old variegated Euonymus. Its roots were
somewhat entangled with those of a 30-years old Chamaecyparis lawsoniana
'Ellwoodii' (which was cut down on Friday). I got half the Euonymus
roots cut through, then using one of the Ellwoodii roots as a lever
point, pushed down as hard as I could on the spade. There was a loud
crack, and something gave. I thought the plastic handle of the spade had
broken, but it was fine. The Euonymus was still in the ground. Pulling
out the spade, I was amazed to find that the blade had split
horizontally about 3/4 of the way across, an inch or two below where it
became the shaft.

How could this happen? Stainless steel isn't brittle, and having split,
why didn't it split all the way across?

Anyone had a similar experience?




Almost. I once used a 'Neverbend' fork from Woolworths (not their
brand, though) and attempted to remove roots from some form of
Cuppressus. Unknowingly, I had inserted the fork below a buried stone
slab ... 'Neverbends' never bend .. they snap.

Since I was a 7.5 stone weakling at the time, I took it back to Woolies
and was given a replacement. I blush to think of it now, but I couldn't
afford to replace it then.

Can't explain your stainless steel break, though, unless there was a
latent metal weakness from manufacture. It's undoubtedly out of its
guarantee period, so looks like you'll have to spend some dosh. What a
shame.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay