HEWOLF Outdoor Camping Folding Shovel - Camp Shovel of Multifunction with Carrying Pouch Survival Shovel for Hiking Backpacking, Gardening and Trenching

I'm not sure what I expected, but this thing is pretty usable. In a way I feel it's a bit of a shame you have to screw the handle on as it adds a delay, it would have been nice to be able to use it in "short mode" with optional extra handle, but you can't really, it sort of doesn't work like that.Oh, by the way, here in the UK we'd call this a trowel, not a shovel. It's a trowel. You know, like the things you have in a potting shed. Don't knock it though, I do most of my digging with a trowel. You can get a lot done with a good trowel.Anyway with the handle on you have a picky thing (what's this for, tent pegs?) and a spadey thing. The spadey thing has a serrated edge although I doubt you could use it as a saw, probably good enough to cut through basic materials like um...bread or...yeah I'm not sure what it's for.At the end of the day this is a folding trowel, and it's a pretty decent one in a pouch, which contains it and stops it from losing the extension piece and also stops it from scratching anything else. So it's good enough.

Weighing 507 grams (1.1 pounds), this is not as flimsy as I thought it might be. In fact, it is not flimsy at all.But neither is it good for as many tasks as a Swiss Army Knife, as the top-of-page write-up seems to imply.In particular, don’t count on the serrated edge being any use as a saw. It can be used hatchet-fashion to make firewood of lightweight wood such as a tomato box might be made of, but that’s about it.Neither the serrated edge, the leading edge of the ‘spade’, nor the tapered spike have anything sharp about them. That cuts the risk of accidental injury to yourself or others, but also makes the tool less useful. Sand, loose soil, moist turf, compost and snow are all possible, and if soil is hard-packed, or you are faced with ice, the tapered spike and the shovel blade can be set in opposition to each other and the whole thing used as a pick-axe.But bear in mind that the maximum length of the handle is 30cm (12 inches), so backache will soon become a factor. The tool is really only for small and emergency jobs.The bag into which the tool can be folded-down and stowed is also suitably strong and well-made.

This is a folding trowel (not shovel) and offers adequate strength to do some basic campsite tasks. I like to wildcamp and I would only consider taking this if I was going by car with a short walk-in. It's too heavy to be worth it's weight and not effective enough to replace other tools. Yes, you could certainly dig latrine / short-drop toilet pit with it if the soil wasn't too hard. But the serrations are useless for cutting anything more than snow and the handle isn't comfortable enough for long duration use such as trenching around a tent or snow-holing. If you need a basic toilet trowel, there are tent peg diy projects you can do or a few decent aluminium options that are light enough to actually pack. If you want a snow shovel, get one. If you need an emergency tool for the car, there are better devices to smash windows, cut seatbelts etc. You'd have difficulty digging yourself out of being stuck in mud or anything like that with this.It's better than a toy and if you have it you could find uses for it but it's not good enough to make it into any kit list I can imagine making.

Folding shovel/ice pick.This is around the size of an adult hand when all folded away and in its pouch, so doesn’t take it too much room, even in small car boots and it could even be kept in the door pockets.It has a screw in hand, the thread is ok, but you need to pay attention when putting it together as it could easily become cross threaded ( I very nearly did before unscrewing it and correcting it ).Once together you have a small shovel, the head of which is roughly the same as a garden hand trowel, not massive and it will take a while to dig your way out of a snow drift with, but it isn’t designed for everyday use, it is designed for emergencies.The segregated edge on the shovel is neither use nor ornament.The ice pick head is good and strong.The folding mechanism locks securely and didn’t wobble or fail during use.It did have a very strong paint/aerosol type of smell to it, so needed airing out but that doesn’t have any influence on its usefulness.For a small emergency item to keep in your car boot it’s ok, so three stars from me.

This looks very much like it is designed with a wild camp in mind. I absolutely love wild camping, and it is useful to have a shovel around for digging a small latrine. This does the job well, and is sturdy and heavy, which means it is easier than expected to dig the hole.But the heaviness is also its downfall for me - on a wild camp where I am carrying everything, I would not take this. I would prefer to dig with something I already have to hand (stones, sticks etc), and not have to carry the extra weight. It's weight, the very thing that makes it useful, means that I doubt I will get much use from it.If you are wild camping (say with a van) and aren't concerned about weight, this would be great. But it doesn't suit my needs.

I hike a lot and have been on several trips where we carry all we need for the entire trip and where a small shovel would come in handy e.g. for digging a small hole for a fire place or latrine or otherwise. This shovel is handy for that as it is sturdy and folds well. Unfortunately the materials chosen, whereas they make it sturdy, also means that they make it quite heavy at around 500 grammes. Half a kg is a lot when you're already carrying sleeping bags, airmats, clothes, food, cooking gear, tent etc., so this one will only come along for camping where I don't have to carry the gear - which will not happen often.It might be useful in a car, but then again I'd take something bigger and more useful for e.g digging out the car.It kind of falls between two chairs for me. It's a good product, but just not fully useful for any of the uses I can think of.