Excellent product for small digging. Even fits for bigger hands. Very easy to fold and carry along.
Quality is key word in this product. Can not compare to any cheap ones I have had before.

I picked up this shovel for lots of different uses ranging from digging out a stuck vehicle to garden work to having a little shovel my 3-year-old son can use. This tool is well-made and certainly worth the extra cost over the flimsy army-navy store shovels. It folds easily (even my son can do it!) and compactly into its durable sheath. Ergonomically, having the "D" handle is much nicer than a straight handle, and my second hand fits comfortably in the shaft/locking nut area. All in all, a great tool.

The Gerber folding shovel is really top notch. Its quality construction is much like any other Gerber/Fiskars equipment I've owned - it doesn't disappoint.

The shovel I have is actually a little more agressively pointed than in the pictures, so I'm not sure if Gerber has addressed this as an issue or if the pictures were off.

The top of the handle is high density polycarbonate plastic and has a horizontal design like a spade should have. You can still use the verticle part of the steel handle if you wish, but there isn't much of it. The plastic will absorb some shock compared to steel-only, and it won't freeze to your hands, etc. The polycarb handle folds down on itself, so that it actually has 3 segments (instead of several designs which have 2 segments). This means you can stow the shovel in the included cordura nylon belt pouch which is no bigger than the shovel head itself. The handle pivot point locks and since it's square, doesn't rotate or twist easily. The steel which connects the blade to the handle fits nicely inside the A angle cutout of the handle, so when collapsed it is really thin.

The blade is high quality steel with the hinged handle connected at the top. This does limit the depth of the shovel a little, but I don't believe it's much of a factor, except maybe in really solid soil where you lose a little verticle travel when the ground butts up against the hinge.

It's very compact, light, comes with a solid belt sheath (easily convertible to pack carry) and stows away easily since it's so thin. I can put it in the side pockets of my doors or in the very small space above my rear wheel well without any problems (Trailblazer 4x4).

I really can find no fault with this item, it delivers on all fronts: usability, quality, compact storage, and rugged design. I will almost certainly be keeping one in both cars and in my 72 Hour survival kit. They are even reasonably priced. 5 Stars.