I picked up this old 13-inch pointing trowel at a thrift store for a dollar. It was so encrusted with mortar that I didn't even realize at the time that it was a Marshalltown. I thought maybe it would be worth it to cut it down to 5 inches, my preferred size to start off with--anything more seems too unwieldy--so I traced out the blade size using my other trowel, then cut it down using an angle grinder. If you don't have an angle grinder, you can always use a hacksaw, a file, and some coarse-grit sandpaper. It's time consuming, but these days, most archaeologists could stand to save a few bucks.

 




The larger trowel has a substantially thicker blade and shank then the 45-5 model. I would expect these attributes to make it less prone to the fatal blade *snap* you sometimes encounter when popping up large chunks of dirt (or stabbing at the dirt, too). It also feels about twice as heavy. I'm not sure yet if that's a good thing or not.






This can be done with any trowel. I have a hard time finding a 5-inch trowel locally, but the 6-inch model (45-6) seems to be everywhere. If I ever need to replace my trowel, this one should be easy enough to grind down.



Now, if I could only find some fieldwork...