Overview of the Deuce of Spades

Backpacking is a fun pastime and can make you feel one with nature, especially when you have to have to go number two. You obviously need to make sure you bury it in a hole, but what do you use in such a delicate situation?

A backpacking trowel is a very useful tool to carry with you when this happens, and the Deuce of Spades is a top notch choice.

Specs and Features of the Deuce of Spades

The biggest feature of the Deuce of Spades is its ability to dig using either the dedicated scoop or the handle. The scoop part of the trowel has little notches at the end of it to create teeth for cutting through roots.

The large scoop is useful for removing large amounts of dirt at once, and this blade design should allow it to dig through almost any terrain. For hard dirt, like clay, the handle offers four times the digging power as the scoop and can be used to weaken the earth to then be removed using the scoop.

Tough terrain will dull the sharp edges of the tool over time, reducing their effectiveness. Fortunately, they are designed to be sharpened in the field using a rock, ensuring that the trowel is ready for use regardless of where you are.

The only true negative of this design is that the handle is sharp, making it a bit rough on the hand when digging into the ground. However, digging shouldn’t take too long to do, and the sharpness of the handle is a result of the company’s design of the tool to be lightweight and portable.

Considering the time that the trowel will need to be carried around compared to the time it is used for digging, this negative quality seems worth the sacrifice.

It offers a variety of colors and sizes to help users find the tool that is just right for them. There are three models of the trowel available.

A 0.45 ounce model is designed to offer the basic features of digging in a lightweight option, for users who care more about weight than anything else. A 0.60 ounce model is designed to be a middle ground between digging functionality and weight, offering a slightly heavier tool capable of digging through tougher terrain than the 0.45 ounce model.

This is an option that will likely fit most people’s needs, and weighs the same as three and a half teaspoons of water. A 0.97 ounce model is also offered.

This trowel enables a user to dig through tough, root filled terrain and hard dirt to dig through, and is the heaviest of the three models. Some people have shown concern about the sturdiness of the tool as a result of the flimsy nature of its thin form factor.

All three models are constructed of aerospace grade aluminum, a material chosen for its strength. Thus, this tool is strong enough to handle the tasks required of it, and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

There is also a hole included on the handle to allow the user to attach a carabiner or run rope through it to easily clip to a belt or the outride of a backpack. If you want to carry the trowel inside the bag, the curved nature of the scoop and handle allows the trowel to be placed against a water bottle or toilet paper, minimizing the space it occupies, so there is no excuse to leave this tool behind.

It operates like basically every other backpacking trowel, so most people should already be familiar with the proper way to use it. For those that forget sometimes, though, there is a useful diagram illustrating how to dig a hole for both the scoop end and the handle end.

The focus of this diagram, however, is on the useful combination of digging with both the handle and the scoop. The handle should be used to cut out the shape of the hole intended to be made, and weaken the surrounding region.

The scoop end can then be inserted into the outline to scoop out the entire lid of dirt at once. After doing your business, you can dump the dirt in the scoop directly back into the hole, making a no trace dump easy to accomplish.

Wrap Up

A digging trowel is a must have tool to dig holes and hide your poo. Three sizes allow a user to find the right balance between weight and functionality for them, and a variety of color options can make this tool truly personal.

All three sizes offer a strong, thin form factor constructed of aerospace grade aluminum, and its unique design that utilizes the handle and scoop for digging ensures the tool can handle any digging tasks you throw at it. Next time you go backpacking, don’t let yourself be caught up poop’s creek without a Deuce of Spades handy.