Ingenious Chinese Army shovel (video) | Hacker News Reader

Ingenious Chinese Army shovel (video)

tudou.com

59 pointssown42 comments

While multipurpose tools are always fun, how is the Chinese army shovel particularly noteworthy? I'm pretty sure you can get an almost identical model from, say, REI. Or the /US/ Army's surplus.

...actually, they likely all come from the same factory, huh?

I know it sounds plausible, but I've never seen one. Show me: http://www.rei.com/search?query=shovel&button.x=0&bu...

The thing is that these things are called 'entrenching tools', searching for that gives more results. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrenching_tool - the pictures there don't look like they have serrated edges to serve as a saw, but there are plenty on e.g. Ebay that do. I know I used to sell the folding model, with serrated edge, 15 years ago in the military surplus stored I worked at.

Dutch shovels, they're known as in the outdoorsy subcultures in the UK, probably because at one point some supplier like Millett's bought up a job lot of them from Dutch army surplus, and that's what everyone bought.

For some reason olive oil in spray bottles is known as "Portuguese sunblock".

Seriously, though, you have to admit they thought of quite a bit more than just an entrenching tool . . . I mean, they at least deserve credit for offering it in "funny shade of orange" and fluorescent yellow.

Though I did think the part where the guy used it as a shield seemed to be the least optimal for the situation at hand. Seems he could have used the blade more effectively, but then that would have made the scene a little less palatable for an infomercial.

We had similar tool in finnish army. The only difference was that when used as a pick against frozen ground it quickly fell apart. I wonder how this fares against such a hard material.

I agree. I have a US Army surplus entrenching tool in my basement right now, folding serrated edge and everything.

My dad used to use it when my siblings and I were younger to dig holes at the beach. :)

Ingenious design? Absolutely. Noteworthy Chinese super-shovel? Not really.

It slices, it dices, it opens cans, bottles and jars; but wait there's more; you can also use it as an axe, can your shovel do THIS, I don't think so! So call now, operators are standing by.

Repeat above sentence with different features, repeatedly. Until someone buys every last shovel you have in stock.

Also, you can use it to determine the height of a skyscraper.

Drop it off the top and time how long it takes to reach the ground!

Or use it as a payment for the janitor if he tells you how high the building is!

Lower it on a string and measure the string.

They forgot to show in the video that you could of course kill people with that shovel.

Or save them - use it as a splint on a broken leg!

That's what I thought when I saw the chopping and sawing parts. I seem to recall that in the Great War book "All Quiet on the Western Front", the author mentions that sharpened shovels get used as weapons extensively on the German side. The author makes some offhand comment about chopping deeply into someone's neck and chest with a sharpened spade or something.

Every comment on this thread so far (20+) has said that this story is not noteworthy in some fashion or another -- and it has a lot of upvotes and is the top ten.

My theory: a 4chan group is starting to experiment with manipulating HN through reddit.

Needs more cowbell

EDIT: Sorry, that was bending the rules. I wasn't trying to be snarky. My point is that I think you are pulling my leg. If so, well done.

how is this any different from any other army's entrenching tools? Yes there are a few extras added to it but it is not in any way more ingenious than what's already available elsewhere.

Well, it looks like not many people were aware of these entrenching tools.

Nerds on hackernews not familiar with tools for digging infantry trenches!

Hope nobody ever posts a fashion/haircare/style video.

The other armies' entrenching tools don't have a patriotic soundtrack.

The dudes in the video seem to maintain a high level of enthusiasm about it. I quickly grew tired of my e-tool so I have an appreciation for one that can make digging seem fun or worth doing for an extended time.

I love the rousing music accompanying the video, it's like something from The Great Escape!

Looks like a pretty standard multifunction shovel to me.

Yup, most Eastern bloc armies have these or similar. Well, the one I saw, of the Romanian army, may not have had the bottle opener :)

Or I may not have seen it among all those gadgets.

FYI, they're also a close-quarters combat weapon, and were a favourite of assault engineers.

I love the video player they're using. Instead of 'scrubbing' over the video when you drag the playhead during playback (like most online video), it has something like the Red Book Audio CD 'search' algorithm; it plays a short sample over and over. Hilarity ensues.

Put a USB memory stick in it and I'll buy it.

I have a few e-Tools too, but nothing like this. And the outdoorsman in me would really like one of these, versus the two anemic and subpar e-Tools I already own. So to all you guys who are like "oh yeah, just swing by REI" or "yeah I have one just like that" (yes, I'm hyperbolizing a tad) it'd be nice if you'd show us where we could get one that's more like this one and less like the ones you can buy for $50 at big retail sporting goods stores.

kthx.

The shovel is pretty cool, but I kept on marveling at just how fast the soldiers work when a propaganda video is being made.

Are you absolutely sure that is not the same speed that the Chinese make iPods?

You can buy similar tools on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Folding-Camp-Army-Shovel-Tool-Entrenc...

Yeah, but that sort of looks like a cheep Canadian knock off.

I don't think I've ever used that phrase in this context before.

Damn, the Chinese have invented everything! The compass, gunpowder, chopsticks, printing press and now this!

Although, the fact that their inventiveness missed baking, opting instead to stir fry everything, is a point I bring up often with my Chinese colleagues during lunch.

I see they're already preparing for WW IV. The Shovel War.

I see nothing new here because the German army used this in WW2 and possibly™ even sooner (they called it "Schanzspaten").

Is that spam, at 4:55 ?

my question is what can this shovel not do ?

digg

TL;DW

I am super scared of Chinese military now, because they can use their shovels to open cans of Spam.

PROPAGANDA EFFECTIVE

Reply on news.ycombinator.com