carbon fiber shovel

Thats very nice….

Is this a personal project, or do you plan on making more of these? I asume now that you have the mold and everything …

Thank you for your reply! This is a personal project, I do have a simple mold, and I've made four of this(slightly different between each other), but currently, just for my own use.

It looks big but extremely light. Do you have pictures of the fabrication? Source for the fiber?

That is a handsome piece of gear, ke wu. I have been thinking a bit lately about the possibility of fabricating something like this that could function both as a shovel and as a paddle (for packrafting or canoeing), with a shape that is intermediate between the two. It also occurred to me that it could be made to fit on an ice axe shaft. It would be very close to what you came up with, I think.

Could an aluminum edge be incorporated to improve the durability?

Hi~Keith, Actually, this shovel is not very light, because it has three layers of carbon fiber together with epoxy resin. Two layer structure is much lighter, but it is not strong enough and it cannot be used for digging frozen snow or soil. My carbon fiber is Toray's product,I have no more pictures you asked at this time. Anyway, the pictures below will show you how we used the shovel to build our camp in winter mountains.

Very nicely done and very light and sturdy looking at only 2.26 oz. Put me on the list of folks who would buy one if you ever decide to produce them in quantity.

Stargazer

Hello Colin! sounds like a good idea!

I often connect the handle of a trecking pole to the opened shovel groove, ice ax may also do. The design of this opened mode is always useful,due to its good adaptability,I think…

Aluminum is too soft to endure impact,I added another two layers of UHMWPE fiber cloth to enhance the hardness of the shovel a few month ago.

In first half of the shovel, maybe you can see that two layers of UHMWPE ,faintly visible.