Turns out I was cleaning my trowel wrong for a decade, a site in Ohio showed me

I used to scrub the face with water and a wire brush every night, thinking I was keeping it pristine. But a field tech on a dig near Columbus last fall told me to just wipe it dry with a rag and let the patina build, and now the soil practically falls off it, has anyone else been over-cleaning their tools this whole time?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_fiona21d ago

Wait, so all those years I spent chasing that shiny silver blade with steel wool actually made the dirt stick worse? That's wild, I didn't even think patina was a real thing for trowels, I thought it was just rust being lazy. Guess I owe my poor trowel an apology for all those harsh scrubbing sessions.

jones.anna23d ago

Lmao I was out here scrubbing my trowel like it owed me money for years, water, wire brush, the whole nine yards. Then some old timer at a field school just looked at me and shook his head like I was ruining my tools on purpose. Now I just wipe it off with my shirt and call it good, and honestly the rust patina makes it look like I actually know what I'm doing when I'm just as clumsy as ever. My trowel has more character than me at this point, but at least the dirt finally slides off instead of sticking like it's being paid to. So yeah, you are not alone in the over-cleaning club, we were all out here fighting our own tools for no reason.