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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 8 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Well Balanced Tools Dec 03, 2008
By Everett A. Warren
When I first came across these, I thought they looked neat, and maybe they might not function so bad. The look had additional marketing appeal for my landscaping company, something to set us aside from others.
However, I wasn't really sure they'd suit a functional purpose, so I tentatively ordered the shovel to give it a trial run and to see if I could live with it.
I've since gone out and stocked up on all the NRG-PRO tools, their hand tools, and I'm looking forward to at least some of the NRG-STX series tools as well.
All of the tools have a great balance. They are easier to control and carry materials across distances ~ a simple open hand across the circular handle keeps them from spinning and dropping whatever they're carrying. I've also found the handle design helps keep them from rolling or causing too much trouble when toting them around across the arms of a wheelbarrow.
The nice green does seem to get dulled quickly from the mud and, even when washed clean, still loses that new-tool shine. The business end has no such problems and remains easy to clean even when it has a right not to.
I'm tall ~ over 6' ~ and I never thought I'd like the short handles on these, however, I've found they're more comfortable even digging down below grade. This is a bit of personal taste, as my son, slightly shorter than I, prefers long handled tools.
The spade ~ and the slightly smaller transplanter ~ have a shape that's great for cutting into difficult soil. I've used this for cultivated soil, thick clay, and more. Although I love the shovel, the spade is what I reach for when I need to take the first cut into soil, whether for transplanting, planting, or for setting natural rock stepping stones into perfectly sized holes. It slices through roots fairly well, both thick root masses from perennials and the wiry woody roots of small trees.
Out of all the NRG-PRO tools I have, this one probably has seen the most usage, and, other than the darkened green bits, it looks and performs like new.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Good tool for appropriate use May 04, 2010
By Victor Engel
I bought this tool on the recommendation of someone who digs trenches for bamboo barriers. That was my purpose for purchasing the tool. My regular garden shovel with a long handle goes through easy soil much faster, but on the other hand, it's shallower. I also can't use it for any sort of leveraging without risking bending the shovel blade or breaking the handle. So this has been my procedure.
I dug the perimeter where I intended to put in the bamboo barrier with the garden shovel. The shovel easily sliced through the grass and picked up the top foot or so of soil. I don't have many rocks to speak of, so this worked fairly well.
The bamboo barrier needs to be buried 2 feet down, though, which was a bit much for the shovel. Conveniently, the garden shovel is wider than this spade, so by digging with the shovel first, that provides sideways movement along the trench to move the spade back and forth to penetrate the soil.
I did sharpen the blade, and that made a big difference. It's easy enough to sharpen it with a good file. I'm probably going to also file some teeth into the leading edge. My biggest obstacle is roots from the neighbor's pecan trees. There are roots anywhere from 1/4 inch to 3 inches in diameter going through where the trench needs to be. I can dispatch those roots with this spade, but I can't with my garden shovel.
So between the shovel getting down the first foot, and the spade going down the second foot, I'm making good progress with the trench.
One comment about weight -- this tool has some heft to it. Don't purchase it thinking you'll be getting a lightweight tool. This is a pretty heavy duty tool. Use the weight to your advantage. Without that extra weight, I would not be able to sever those large tree roots. I tried with my garden shovel and failed. Well, I would have succeeded with some persistence, but this spade cuts through them with relative easy, partly because of the heft.
After heavily using the spade for a few days, it is creaking now. It shows no signs of fatigue. The creaking comes from the interface between the metal and plastic components of the handle.
Update: Well, apparently, the creaking was, in fact, a sign of fatigue. Since my last edit, the "unbreakable" shaft broke. I've taken some pictures to illustrate the problem, but I can't find a way to add pictures to my review here, so I've uploaded them to [...]
To understand what you're seeing, you need to know that the end of the handle is inserted during assembly into the hollow shank of the scoop. The shaft of the handle is also hollow. Furthermore, its end has been cut lengthwise in order for it to be bent to accommodate the angle of the shank. The shaft slides into the shank, a snug fit being accomplished using an o-ring that is apparently made of polyethylene. When digging, if you use leverage to move the dirt, you put a lot of force on the o-ring as well as on the cut part of the shaft.
In my case, both parts of the cut end of the shaft broke off, approximately at the place where the pin goes through the shaft to hold the two main pieces together.
I explained my situation to amazon.com, and they sent out a replacement, free of charge, paying for shipping if the replacement as well as return shipping for the broken spade.
I still think this is a very good spade. But don't believe the label on the shaft that says unbreakable. I believed it, and broke it. You can still do some heavy work with it, but don't put your full strength into leveraging the tool.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Nice looking, but only OK Jun 17, 2009
By M. V. Vooren
"velvetpaws999"
I got taken by the spiffy looks of this spade, although the longer shape of the blade makes sense. However: the spade is too heavy. In this day and age of polycarbon fibers and aluminium, there is no need to make such weighty items. (Well, I guess it makes for an additional muscle work-out, included gratis in your garden work :)...). Second, and more importantly to me: the attacking edge is not sharp enough. For a spade to really cut into the work, it has to be almost razor sharp at the bottom edge. This one is not honed down to blade's width, which makes breaking into hard soil difficult. I would not buy it again, especially for the price. The handle shape is a useful design. I like the color combination, too, even if it does not add any "use" value. All in all: it looks way better than it works! I guess if you are a big guy with lots of body mass, that might make the difference, but personally, I want my tools to do as much of the hard work for me as I can get out of them.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Breakable and poor warranty service Jun 15, 2010
By Don the Gardener
I purchased this tool because I had 100 Christmas tree seedlings to plant and wanted a good quality sturdy tool that would dig through the sod in the field where I was planting them. It only made it through 7 trees before snapping off in the middle of the stainless steel shaft that attaches to the blade. I reported the problem on the Radius web site a week ago but have not heard back from them yet. The web site says they will replace it but I have to pay shipping and handling.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Nice design but cracked with normal use Dec 15, 2008
By Kat J
I really like the design of this tool but my husband used it a few weeks after getting it to dig around a plant (the soil here is clay but it was nothing extraordinary he was digging up) and it got a stress crack in the metal where the spade connects to the handle. We did not buy in on Amazon and have not returned it. We have have continued to use it but the crack is getting bigger and we expect it to fail one day. A bit too much money for a tool that may not last a year. Too bad as I really like the feel of the design.
See all 8 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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