The Funeral Of The Sampson T-handle

[phrunt]

Well, I've now broken my second Sampson T-Handle, and it broke doing nothing you'd think, I just dug a plug in damp soft soil, went to lever the plug out and snap! sucker broke in two.  Prior to this dig there was no signs at all of it going to break.  At least the dig turned out to be a coin although a pointless coin 🙂

The first one I had bent really badly while digging a plug in the same way.  The people at WW manufacturing were very good and replaced it under warranty for me as it was my first week using it when the first one bent, this replacement would still be under warranty no doubt but I can't be bothered with that this time, I want something better quality and stronger, these things are absolute junk.

I like my equipment to be fit for purpose and these are not.   I paid a significant amount more for the shovel than you guys in the US do to get one in NZ, big mistake.  I'm now looking into the Aussie made Black Widow shovel, it looks good and hopefully tougher, the Nokta Digger is also available locally but it really doesn't look tough... in fact it looks flimsy.  I bought a $7 camping shovel at the local hardware store that's taken an absolute beating and works a treat, no signs of breaking no matter how rough I treat it, made in China.... The only problem with it is the blade is too big so it digs quite nasty plugs.

Look how thin the metal is on it, no wonder they snap

I've seen thicker metal on a tin of dog food.

Well, now time to buy a new better one!  It ended my hunt after only 15 minutes today 😞

[GB_Amateur]

Thanks for the report, Simon.  George Lesche is now with Predator Tools and I can see they have many improvements over the company who still uses his name to make apparently corner-cutting products like the Sampson that failed you.  I know buying USA products is difficult for you but others here should know there are other options besides WW, and (hopefully) better options.

[F350Platinum]

I have never broken a shovel, but my diggin's are easy apparently. I have that very shovel but only use it where my Predator Barracuda might scare people. 😀

I can't imagine the shovels they send to NZ are any different than what we get here. Sad you have to go through this. 😵 Did the second break in the same place as the first?

[phrunt]

1 minute ago, F350Platinum said:

I have never broken a shovel, but my diggin's are easy apparently. I have that very shovel but only use it where my Predator Barracuda might scare people. 😀

Treat it like a princess, never use any force to dig holes with it, don't lever out clumps of soil putting force on the shaft and you should be ok.  I don't even have a lot of hours on it as after my first one bent I was always worried I'd break the next one, today I foolishly decided to use it...  It's probably had less than 20 hours on it.

[GB_Amateur]

13 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I have that very shovel but only use it where my Predator Barracuda might scare people.

...or burrowing animals, earthworms,... 

[GB_Amateur]

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I can't imagine the shovels they send to NZ are any different than what we get here.

It is the same, unfortunately.  After Simon had an expert welder modify the first Sampson he received (I guess the details of that post are long ago deleted), I took it to heart and had a friend (not quite as expert) weld a gusset to mine.  He welded the gusset between the shovel foot ledge and the hollow shaft.  The welding process blew holes in the thin shaft inintially but he was able to seal them up, more or less.

From now on, Predator for me.  Maybe a bit more costly (~20%?) but I buy tools to both work the way they are supposed to and to last a lifetime with proper care.

[phrunt]

Now that I've seen hot thin the metal tube is I'm not surprised your welder guy had problems, I couldn't believe it when I saw how thin it was, no wonder my first one bent.  The odd thing is for the top handle bit they've used a much thicker metal tube giving the impression the entire thing is built that way.

I'm not too bothered about it breaking as I was too scared to use it anyway and the one time I did 🙂

I've been researching the Aussie made one called a Black Widow, but can't find much on it other than it's made of powder coated steel, a lot of people saying it's expensive for what it is, other than that I can't see much on it.  I'd like the Nokta one but I just can't see how it could handle the job with the way they've made the shaft extendable, that looks like it'd be a weak point to me 

What I don't get is why a shovel from a hardware store that costs virtually nothing is so much better than one of these shovels they claim is super tough and designed for some serious digging seeing detectorists dig a lot of holes.

[RobNC]

That Sampson shovel is garbage.

It appears they are cheaping out on the metal thickness and quality. From your photo of the broken inside part it looks like a nice clean break. Maybe a bad batch of pipe material that was over-hardened.

At any rate, not worth the money they asked for it. Sorry you had to deal with that.

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

Thanks for the report, Simon.  George Lesche is now with Predator Tools and I can see they have many improvements over the company who still uses his name to make apparently corner-cutting products like the Sampson that failed you.  I know buying USA products is difficult for you but others here should know there are other options besides WW, and (hopefully) better options.

Chuck - from the research I've done, the Lesche story is A LOT more complicated than what you are portraying with different members of the Lesche family owning different aspects of the business, design, and tool dies - WW was founded by Walter Lesche who passed in 2002.  George Lesche left WW due to some sort of family squabble and founded Predator Tools on his own.  It is really inaccurate to portray George as being wronged or WW as producing inferior product.  Despite Simon's unfortunate experience with his Sampson digger, I have experience with both companies' digging tools/shovels (including WW Sampson sovels and spades and Predator Shovels) and consider they both produce high quality products (based on the abuse I have heaped upon them in hard Virginia clay and relic fields from Pennsylvania to South Carolina).  They both stand behind their products with robust warranties.  I fully understand Simon's loss of confidence and it appears there is either a design, manufacturing, or material flaw involved in the failure Simon experienced.  I don't think there are any heroes or villians in the Lesche family feud but I know WW will again honor their warranty if Simon chooses to pursue it, just as they did with the last failure.  The Sampson is really a light duty digger and definitely should not be used as a pry bar, but I see no valid reason why it should have failed for Simon under the circumstances.  Seems like a valid warranty claim.

[phrunt]

Yes, I've no doubt they'd warranty it, they were outstanding with the warranty last time.  They were closed for the pandemic between when we first made contact and when they were shipping the replacement, and closed for a number of weeks, then all the sudden I had an email from them saying they've back open and it's been shipped.  I didn't need to follow them up or do anything, so even in tough times they got the job done.  I don't want to trouble them with them wasting money shipping me another one, I wouldn't use it as I've lost all confidence in it, I'd understand if I was working them hard, but to have two fail doing light duty digging in soft soils is just nuts. 

I'm happy to find another brand, one with local warranty as other than cheap nasty Chinese shovels that seem to last for ages but without the ideal blade size for detecting these expensive ones have a curse with me 🙂