Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 10:43:13 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Organization: Cosmic Reminders
Subject: Re: trenching shovel - GDR or GBR?
In-Reply-To: <E6614D3B-507E-4F01-B1A2-75EBCF0B8E6C@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Wonderful Fridae fodder, lol.
Interesting about the GDR markings.
I have a Folboat ..that I think was made in the late 50's. ( a Folboat
is a skin-on-frame take-apart kayak like boat. Plywoood frame, hypalon skin.
This one is 15 feet long, has a rear trasom and is flat bottoemed at the
aft end, and has a kayak style bow and cockpit coaming. )
anyway ..it says Made in Western Germany on it .....something I never
see anymore. Nowadays things just say 'made in germany.'
I believe the more correct term is 'entrenching shovel' , as in fox
hole digging in combat.
Here's Wikipeida on 'entrenching tool'
where they say it dates back to Roman Times even.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrenching_tool
a fast search on entrenching tool turns up one made by the Glock company
...yes, the gun company. Priced at $ 50.
On sale now for $ 40.
for those that care about origins of words ..
sure seems like a French word to me 'entrench' . In a brief search I
couldn't determine that..
but I see that the word dates from about 1563. yes, 1563 according to
dictionary.com.
and then I see...the word 'trench' ....of course that's french.
1350–1400; Middle English trenche path made by cutting < Old French: act
of cutting, a cut, derivative of trenchier to cut < Vulgar Latin
*trinca-re , for Latin trunca-re to lop; see truncate
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/truncate>
What fun.
I looked at my shovel ...no markings that I can find....lots of patina
though.
about loosing stuff ...maddening of course. I can go get something 40
feet away, and loose it on the way back to where I'm going to use it.
I do spend a lot of time on organizing ...as much as 2 hours every day
on average.
Heck ...if someone maybe is going to be a used framis or whatever from
me for their vanagon ..
I end up going through all 5 of them that I may have ..
seeing exactly what I have ..
and usually nearby there's something else that needs checking over and
organizing and it just grows.
And it sure is fun to discover something you forgot you had that's neat
...or haven't seen in years and years.
Happily I recently gave away an old chainsaw ...a middle vanagon seat ,
and a high tech fleece shirt and vest from the late 80's in perfect
useful and cozy condition.
thanks for the esoteric subject matter !
smiles to all, Scott
On 11/29/2013 8:46 AM, Alistair Bell wrote:
> Made a rubbing of the stamp and I think it removes any doubt about that “D” that some say is a “B”.
>
> Pic at end of post here:
>
> http://shufti.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/trenching-tools-east-meets-west/
>
>
> alistair
