Professor at a dig in New Mexico gave me bad advice about trowel sharpening

I was working on a site outside Santa Fe last summer when a visiting professor told me to keep my trowel razor sharp for digging. Said it would cut through the caliche like butter. First day I tried it and ended up scratching a pottery sherd so bad the field director had to photograph it for the record. Took me three tries to learn that a duller edge gives you more control and less chance of damaging artifacts. Has anyone else been given bad tips by experienced archaeologists?

2 comments

2 Comments

sagep1925d ago

the real trick isnt even about the sharpness, its about the angle you hold the trowel. most professors are used to digging in dirt thats softer or has bigger rocks, so they think sharp is the answer. but in the southwest where its all caliche and clay, a sharp trowel just skates and gouges instead of scraping clean. what nobody tells you is that a slightly dull trowel actually lets you feel the texture change when you hit bone or pottery, cause the edge catches instead of slices. plus, using a sharp trowel in that hardpack means you end up digging too fast and missing small flakes or beads. i had a crew chief once tell me to file the edge at a 45 degree angle, not razor sharp, and it saved me a ton of heartache. maybe that professor was from a wetter area where the dirt behaves different.

jennysullivan25d ago

Ever consider the temperature makes metal behave different in the heat out there?