What is the world's best garden shovel?

It's not exactly a shovel, but the hori-hori is my most-used digging tool in the garden: http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Garden-Landscaping-Digging-Carbon/dp/B00004T2KB/ref=pd_sbs_lg_5

They come with stainless or carbon steel blades - go for the carbon steel for strength. You can pry out rootballs with this thing.

A garden shovel is such a general purpose tool its hard to give any a worlds best label. Personally any well made round point shovel with a fiberglass handle will handle 90% of any digging tasks adequately. However, if you are hard on your shovels I recommend a metal handle whether its pre-fab like Fiskars http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-9668-Handle-Digging-Shovel/dp/B000B6Q6BA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top or you can replace a broken wood or fiberglass handle with a piece of steel pipe. These are heavier making them great for digging dense or rocky soil, not to mention cutting through roots. They will also handle prying better than any wood or fiberglass I have found.

Regardless of what shovel you buy, you can improve its performance by sharpening the edge with a bastard file. Sharpening garden tools once a year (or more for heavy use) can make a world of difference.

If I had the choice I would choose an Auva Phosphor Bronze

Benefits are listed here as well as a review from an English magazine

http://www.kupferspuren.at/en/kupferwerkzeuge/large-tools/auva.html

The Walden Effect recommends a Trake.

The Fiskars looks like a good choice. (The bronze shovel looks ridiculous, and the others are hand tools.)

If you want a D-handle, or different sizes and shapes, this looks interesting.

http://www.garrettwade.com/professional-gardeners-tools/p/79W04.01/

All cro-moly steel. Probably not 100% rustproof, but that is probably preferable. One model has a built in root saw. Another is only 3" wide, for trenching and planting bulbs.

Bulldog tools by Rollins Bulldog in the U.K. once sold by the late Smith & Hawken and at retail locations. I have two spades and one garden fork from the 1990s that have served well in hard clay for over 20 years. Yes, perform regular sharpening, cleaning and oiling of the handle, and any other respect you can offer the tool.link text

For planting bulbs and small plants, the ProPlugger is nice. Easy on the back. It's not exactly a shovel, but it works great for what it does.

There is no better shovel in world. All shovels do same kind of works.

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