DeanF Posted April 13 Report Posted April 13 (edited) Stone makes for a very poor shovel material. It doesn't stand up well to prying or levering without snapping, a wide flat blade would be hell to knap, and unlike in an axe it's mass is of no benefit. In fact the extra mass is a liability in a shovel- you have to swing it around without it helping the shovel's function in any way. And the advantage of flint for knives, spears, arrows, etc. was sharpness, which also doesn't help a shovel very much. Well, except for some tasks some cultures reinforced a wooden shovel's blade with stone chips to make it sharper, like for peat cutting, but that is the closest there ever was to a practical stone shovel, and even then bone was more common. There were certainly stone adzes and hoes. But historically, primitive shovels were either wood or bone (bone shovels usually being made from an animal scapula)- well into the iron age, as a matter of fact. Stone shovels are essentially absent from the archaeological record, other than maybe some ceremonial objects. Edited April 13 by DeanF 12 1
Emeal Posted April 13 Report Posted April 13 This is historically accurate as far I know. You would use a big solid stick OR a boulder to pry soil loose.
cjameshuff Posted April 14 Report Posted April 14 Bone in general seems underused. Bizarrely, you can make a slightly better stone knife with a bone handle, but you can't make a metal-bladed knife with one at all. Not sure how that's supposed to work. 4
KahvozeinsFang Posted April 15 Report Posted April 15 No, they shouldn't be wood. If they were, you wouldn't be able to make a shovel till after you reach the copper age. Because you cannot punch trees. And seeing as how the player can dig up dirt by hand, it would be pointless to make shovels a copper age tool.
williams_482 Posted April 15 Report Posted April 15 9 hours ago, KahvozeinsFang said: No, they shouldn't be wood. If they were, you wouldn't be able to make a shovel till after you reach the copper age. Because you cannot punch trees. And seeing as how the player can dig up dirt by hand, it would be pointless to make shovels a copper age tool. You just chop down the trees with a flint axe? In game, there's no reason a wood shovel wouldn't be craftable with flint tools. The simplest implementation I can think of would be to use the existing wooden pan as the toolhead, combining with a stick to form a wooden shovel, but there are many other plausible alternatives. Out of game, wood and bone shovels predate metalworking by thousands of years. 6
KahvozeinsFang Posted April 15 Report Posted April 15 47 minutes ago, williams_482 said: You just chop down the trees with a flint axe? In game, there's no reason a wood shovel wouldn't be craftable with flint tools. The simplest implementation I can think of would be to use the existing wooden pan as the toolhead, combining with a stick to form a wooden shovel, but there are many other plausible alternatives. Out of game, wood and bone shovels predate metalworking by thousands of years. Yeah, I should have been asleep last night, my brain wasn't working properly I guess I was thinking it would be made used more than just an axe. Like some combo of axe, saw, chisel or hammer. 1
DeanF Posted April 15 Author Report Posted April 15 (edited) On 4/14/2026 at 8:10 AM, cjameshuff said: Bone in general seems underused. Bizarrely, you can make a slightly better stone knife with a bone handle, but you can't make a metal-bladed knife with one at all. Not sure how that's supposed to work. I kind of like that idea, actually. Perhaps we could have both wooden shovels and bone shovels. Bonus points if the bone shovel actually looks like a scapula. I'm not sure how functionally different they might be, though. Possibly not at all. Edited April 15 by DeanF
Zx573 Posted April 17 Report Posted April 17 On 4/15/2026 at 6:44 AM, williams_482 said: You just chop down the trees with a flint axe? In game, there's no reason a wood shovel wouldn't be craftable with flint tools. The simplest implementation I can think of would be to use the existing wooden pan as the toolhead, combining with a stick to form a wooden shovel, but there are many other plausible alternatives. Out of game, wood and bone shovels predate metalworking by thousands of years. In addition to the pan idea, I don't see why there couldn't be a woodcarving mechanic, something like a cross between flint knapping and chiseling. Place wood on the ground, hit with a piece of flint just like in normal knapping, and make a shovel. It preserves the same limited crafting menu method while increasing historical accuracy. It's definitely a step away from video game norms, which usually just stick with the same material for tool tiers, but it is also a fun way to improve accuracy. Also, we just recently found the oldest wooden shovel on record at 3500 years old, which is cool. 1
DeanF Posted yesterday at 12:42 AM Author Report Posted yesterday at 12:42 AM On 4/17/2026 at 1:44 PM, Zx573 said: In addition to the pan idea, I don't see why there couldn't be a woodcarving mechanic, something like a cross between flint knapping and chiseling. I really like the wood pan idea, though. It is an easy lead-in to a new player learning the game. Because let's face it, Vintage Story is going to attract Minecraft players, and one of the first things they will want is a shovel. So they open the handbook and see the recipe for a shovel- a wooden pan and a stick. Ok, so they follow the link to find out how to make a wooden pan and see that- holy cow, we can pan for minerals? There, they just learned something obscure about the game that would have taken them much longer to stumble upon otherwise.
Recommended Posts