It's called a transplant shovel, and it's manufactured by Sneeboer, a company located in Holland. If you want to buy a garden tool from Sneeboer, you get on the virtual line, and then wait until your number comes up. Worth waiting.
I have a weakness for well-made garden tools. This one might be the best I own, my favorite, although the Felco #2 hand pruner is also a work of art.
Note the construction. The V-shaped blade is one piece of solid steel. It's not screwed or bolted to the ash shaft, but rivetted, twice. The "D-handle" itself is carved out of a single solid piece of hardwood, so it can't fall apart.
I use the shovel to dig plants from crowded areas of the perennial garden to transplant or to separate. It's also ideal for poaching ferns from the forest. The shovel is the only tool that lets you easily divide a woody clump of Siberian irises (or any other clumping perennial). With a standard spade, when you try to get a little purchase, you fall to left or right or to the ground, endangering your cranky old vertebrae. It's a superbly balanced tool, a pleasure to use. It's going to be around for many more years.
We call it the "magic shovel."
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