US Model 1910, T-Handle Trench Shovel, WW1 Vintage Entrenching Tool

Here is another wonderful, vintage shovel that I recently picked up.  I have been meaning to add one of these old WW1 trench shovels to my collection, but I had not been able to find a nice one with the right price, until the other day.

This shovel is a very nice example of the WW1, Model 1910, T-Handle shovel that was used by the US military from before WW1, through WW1, and then into the beginning years of WW2.  There were three production periods of this style shovel, the first was before WW1, the second during WW1, and the third run was in 1942-1943 for the early WW2 troops.  Only the WW2 vintage shovels are dated and marked with the manufacturer.   These T-Handle shovels were replaced with the introduction of the newer folding shovels in 1943.

The pre-WW1 shovels were produced at the Rock Island Armory (RIA) and were not stamped with US markings.  Some of these early T-handle shovels have the "flaming bomb" stamp on one end of the T-handle. 

There are three known manufacturers of the WW1 vintage shovels:  Ames, Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company, and Wood Shovel Company.

The WW1 vintage shovels are marked US on the wood and US in the shovel shank.  Another distinguishing detail on the old WW1 shovels, are the wood wedges on either side of the shank where the wood attaches to the shovel blade.  The WW2 versions often did away with these wood wedges.

Here is a link to the posting of a WW2 T-Handle shovel in my collection:
http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2016/03/us-model-1910-t-handle-shovel-dated.html

There must have been millions of these old shovels produced as they are still regularly encountered.  It is getting much tougher to find them at an affordable price and in good condition though.  I was lucky with this one.  I found it on eBay and purchased it from a woman who found it in the remnants of an estate-barn sale just east of Astoria, Oregon.  Who knows, maybe it was used by some of the garrison troops in the area in "the old days".  We will never know for sure.  What I can say for sure is that it has a new home in "The Bunker"!

Here are some additional photos of this vintage shovel.  Enjoy!

Note the wooden wedge next to the wood handle connection.