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by Sergei UpstateNY, last time modified:
A few major manufacturers offer various types of shovels and digging tools of different shapes and sizes designed for a variety of metal detecting activities and digging conditions. While figuring out the optimal digging tool for oneself, one should keep in mind a basic principle that is reflected in designs of treasure hunting shovels: the more problematic the search area's terrain, the sturdier the shovel, and the narrower the shovel's blade.
Examples could be any terrain with rocky surface (in arid areas) or the hard clay soil which, if bone-dry, would not allow one to dig a hole unless a pickaxe is used. Another example could be the soil that is heavily mixed with large-sized stones. And another extreme case is the soil containing lots of tree and underbrush roots (in wooded areas), and one must use a one-piece, heavy shovel with a sharp, narrow blade featuring a serrated (saw-toothed) edge in order to cut the roots and extract targets from underneath them.
The ideal digging conditions usually exist at the ploughed farm fields after they are harrowed. The ground becomes soft, broken up and evened off. And the soil in the farm fields is usually free of large rocks. The lightweight shovels with wide, pointed blades are usually used for metal detecting on farm fields. To cut through the grassy turf on pastures, the lower edge of the shovel's blade must be sharp, and the upper edge on either side of the handle must have a rest for the detectorist's foot to drive the shovel into the ground.
Digging up targets on the manicured lawns around houses and in city parks would reasonably require usage of smaller implements such as single-hand digging/cutting tools and gardening trowels (also listed below). Recovering valuable targets in sand during beach hunting would require usage of sand scoops. In any case, your selection of the optimal digging tool should be based on the type of metal detecting activity you are planning to do, and on the digging conditions in your local search area.