Homemade Backpacking Gear

by Jason Klass

A Titanium Trowel Project

by Jason Klass

Difficulty Rating:  4

Material Sourcing: 3

Inspired by this thread I decided to try to copy Bill Fornshell's idea and make my own titanium trowel.  What I didn't realize was that titanium is a lot more challanging to work with than I anticipated. 

 

 


 

Basically, the design is a copy of the popular Mont Bell trowel.  The Mont Bell one is great but weighs 1.4 oz.  This titanium version weighs only 0.3 oz.  Over one ounce less!  The negligible weight better justifies carrying a trowel for those into ultralight backpacking.  I used my Mont Bell to trace the pattern onto a sheet of titanium and cut out the blank with a pair of tin snips (easier said than done).

 




Here is my trowel on top of the Mont Bell one to show that the curvature is nearly identical. The black marks are from burnt wood that stuck to the trowel during construction (see below).  I'll probably sand them off.

 

 


 

Perspective front.  Originally, I thought I could form the titanium simply by bending it but this soon proved to be impossible.  So, I borrowed a friend's blow torch (Thanks Steve) and formed the curve by heating it, then placing it over a gap between two blocks of wood, laying a wooden dowel down the center and pounding it with a hammer.  When Bill says it involves a lot of pounding and filing, he's not kidding!

 




Perspective back.  Drilling the hole in the handle also proved difficult.  Originally, I planned on drilling large holes all the way down the handle to reduce weight even further but after seeing how tough it was just to get a 1/8" hole gave up on the idea.  The loop of reflective Kelty Triptease is to make it easier to find if I lose it.

 

 



Underside.  One main difference between the Mont Bell trowel and mine is that mine has a slightly pointier end.  I did this to make it dig better in tougher ground.

Advantages

  • Extremely light weight justifies carrying a trowel
  • Sharper point penetrates soil better
  • It's one more thing I put in my pack that I made myself!

Disadvantages

  • Difficult to construct as special tools and materials are required
  • Not as strong as the Mont Bell Trowel
  • Between material cost and labor time, there is no financial savings

Conclusion

I should point out that this trowel is not as rigid as the Mont Bell and would probably not work well in hard ground or for chopping roots; however, it should serve it's purpose as a basic hole-digging tool.  Given the weight savings, I think the reduced strength is acceptable.  As a project, it was a good learning experience to work with a different material.  But the real reason I'm proud of this is that I just upped the ratio of bought-to-made gear in my pack by 2%!
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