Romanian Short Spade, Sapper Model, Surplus

A traditional short spade often fielded by the great Eastern Powers. Easier to carry than a long spade, still way better for digging than a spoon. Made of wood and steel, like everything should be!

This architypical military spade is a true classic design. You can use it for digging, hitting your foe and frying eggs all just as well. This short model is a sapper / engineer model. They probably still manufacture almost identical spades in Russia. No joke. These spades however are Romanian army issue from the Ceaucescu era.

• Total length about 50 cm / 19.7" (varies a few cm from shovel to shovel)
• Blade width 15 cm (5.9"), length 19 cm (7.5"), length with the socket piece 27 cm (10.6"), but might vary just slightly from shovel to shovel
• Weight about 670 grams

Some bushcrafters like to bring a spade with them for various camp tasks. These are pretty cool for that kind of purposes and crude enough to use for rough tasks without fear of ruining a "good" shovel. If you want to save space in your pack, you could make the shaft easier to remove for transport and pack both the blade and the shaft on top of each other. Of course a true pro always makes the shaft from local materials!

Such short spades are sometimes sharpened and used for throwing purposes. You could probably do the same with this.

Romanian army stuff!

These are pretty old, and used with the love and care usually associated with vast East Bloc conscript armies. All are "intact", meaning the shaft might wobble a bit (normal with military spades), but such a "problem" is rather easy to fix. The details and length of the shaft piece might vary from shovel to shovel.