Romanian Border Police Folding Shovel, circa 1980's

Today we'll be taking a look at a second version of the Romanian Border Police folding shovel.  

My last post covered an earlier version of these folding shovels, from the 1950's-1960's era.  

http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2017/07/romanian-border-police-folding-shovel.html
 
This latest shovel most likely dates to the 1980's era.  There are no dates on the shovel, but it is stamped with an  "import stamp" on the wooden handle.  The imprinted stamp reads "MADE IN ROMANIA".  During the 1980's and early 1990's, military surplus imports were required to have the "made in" country origins printed on them,o most of the surplus that found its way into the US during this period had an importers item origin mark printed on it.  This shovel seems to fall into that import category and time frame.

This particular folding shovel has the hinge mount welded on, as opposed to being riveted.  This style of "Cold War construction" became quite common in the later years of the Cold War era, in the Com-Bloc countries.

This shovel is very well made with a very unique tightening nut.  The nut is heavy, machined steel, with a unique spiral grooving on the surface.

The wood handle has a heavy coating of gloss varnish and is shaped in the style of the old WW2 German shovels, with the "bulb end".

The blade is painted in the standard Romanian Border Police style and color.

There is not much more to say about this shovel, as there is very little information available about them.  My research is continuing.  Hopefully I will run across a photo or two, and maybe some documentation to share at a later date.

Here's the photo album of this beautiful little Romanian folder:

To finish things up, let's take a side-by-side comparison of the old and new versions of this shovel.

Romanian Border Police Folding Shovel, circa 1950's - 1960's

Today we'll be taking a quick look at one of my newest shovels in the collection.

This shovel is a veteran of the Romanian Border Police and dates to some time in the 1950's or 1960's.  
There is not much documented on these folding shovels, and I have not found any photos of them in service, so this posting will mostly be a "show and tell" view of this shovel.

This shovel is modeled off of the WW2 German and US folding shovels.  The blade and hinge portion closely mimics the US version, and the handle portion mimics the German version.

Overall this is a very well made and heavy duty shovel. 

The shovel is painted in the classic Romanian Border Police green and silver paint scheme.  
From what I can tell, looking at photos of these shovels, is that they were all painted in the same green and silver combo, with a natural wood handle.

This particular shovel has a very interesting tightening nut.  The nut is very heavy, galvanized, steel.  I am not sure if it is original to the shovel, or if it was a later replacement.  If it was a later replacement, then it is most likely an adapted galvanized pipe union fitting.  The notation "3/4" can be seen on the side of the nut, which leads me to believe that it is a pipe fitting.  No matter what, it fits nicely, and works perfectly.

The research continues............  I have a second shovel on the way, so stay tuned!

So for now, here's a closer look at these interesting Cold War Classics:

Hungarian Army Entrenching Tool - Shovel, With Cover, Model 1950, M-50

Since I have been adding a number of new shovels and tools to the collection lately, I figured I ought to do a quick inventory to see if I have missed any for the blog.  Well, I found one!

I added this shovel and cover to the collection several years ago, and never got around to showing it off, so here it is.  This is a Hungarian Army entrenching tool, from the early post-war, Cold War era.

I originally picked this shovel up without a cover.  I later had the chance to pick up another post-war, Hungarian shovel, with a carrier, so I jumped right on that.  You can never have too many shovels and with the added bonus of a hard to find, original cover included, I just couldn't say "No".  The shovel ended up being a wonderful, Austro-Hungarian shovel from the WW1 era, that came with an original post-war Hungarian cover.  A big score on two fronts:  I got a rare WW1 shovel and a cover for my post-war Hungarian shovel!  You can read about the Austro-Hungarian shovel story here:

http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2015/10/austro-hungarian-ww1-trench-spade-model.html

Now that you have a bit of the background story, let's take a look at my post-war, Hungarian shovel.
This shovel is known as the Model 1950, or M50 shovel.  In 1950, Hungary redesigned and updated most of their uniforms and equipment for the Army.  The field shovel was reworked and given a shorter, and thicker handle, that was carved thinner in the mid section for gripping.  The blade stayed the same shape, and a new style cover was adopted.  

The cover for this new Model 1950 shovel was patterned after the Soviet style of covers, and is nearly identical in every respect.  You can compare the Model 1950 to the older Model 1910 shovel by viewing the link I posted above.

The blades on these post-war shovels all have the same number code.  The stamped number is often mistaken as a date, but it is actually just the "stock number", or something like that.

The Hungarian Army used these shovels into the 1970's to 1980's, when a new style of folding shovel was adopted.  Like most communist block countries in the area, the old gear was placed into long term storage for the "Apocalypse".  For the last 10 years or so, the old Hungarian surplus has been finding its way onto the market, and into bunkers like mine!

Let's take a look at this shovel and cover.