Bully Tools 92448 Steel Tamping and Digging Bar, 48-Inch

Amazing and versatile tool. Used it to break up some stumps. Works great on older stumps. Pretty good on fresh stumps but takes a lot more work. Cannot get as deep a removal as a stump grinder but still saves money vs. renting or hiring. Used it to pry up my septic lid which was stuck. Plunged into mole holes to push in dirt from the mounds instead of just packing down the dirt. I have a lot of barn stone to move so planning on using it to pry up stone for leverage. Should prove to be handy for a vast variety of uses. Imagination is the only limit. Seems very strong for the long haul.

We bought this to assist with digging in an area that had old tree roots and other obstacles to digging. This cleared the way nicely, and at 4', it's a good length. The other ones, you have to either be down in a hole already, or on a ladder, to tamp the top. It's a simple, well-made tool that does its job well.

Good quality welds and heavy! Works great to open up earth for planting and for tamping with the round top end. Just what I needed to plant 250 vinca plants in just a few hours. Will work well for tamping fence posts, too.

Update: they replaced it. Bully on them.Original review: October 2022, I purchased Bully Tools 92448 Steel Tamping-Digging Bar, 48-inch with a limited lifetime warranty on Amazon. It worked well for 8 months. This week, however, the tamping head broke off, so I wrote to the company to tell them that I need it replaced or to be refunded. I'll update this review to 5 stars if they stand by their warranty or lower it to 1 star if they shirk responsibility and rip me off. We'll see!

The bar is tough and punches through our soil of clay and rock. If you have tough soil, then I recommend you get this!

I had some 25' ornamental plum trees get damaged in a storm so cut 6 down. Most were still fairly live trees so roots still pretty strong. The trunks were cut leaving 4' above ground to push on, the trunks were about 8 - 10" round.My plan was to use this bar along with an 8# sledge to shear the roots, I planned to supplement with an axe. I found this cutting bar and sledge didn't cut the roots near as easily as I thought it would. If you end up having to hold both the bar and sledge with an arm each you don't get enough velocity and the cutting edge tends to not bite, I tends to bounce. If you can support the bar and swing the sledge with both arms it does cut but slowly. I sure wouldnt want to try and get up an oak stump with this. I ended up using the axe for 80-90% of the work, it just cut better, some might frown at throwing an axe into a muddy stump and dirt but it works well and you can sharpen back the edge.As far as build quality it's decent for the price. The steel thickness seems adequate and it has decent weight. The paint comes off quickly, the portion of the shaft right under the head really flakes off from the impact. The head is mushrooming a bit already from off center blows, I'm not a pro with a sledge so that didn't help, with a head this large in diameter I feel like it needs some little gusset braces to keep strong and help transfer the energy to the shaft. The little I used this the cutting edge is already showing wear, I have the feeling this tool could possibly be all mild steel which would help explain some of the lack of durability. My guess is you used this on a regular occasion it might only last a year or two.Decent tool for the cash but didn't quite work as well as I'd have liked on roots and not overly thrilled with the design and construction.

I grew up in NYC - I never heard of a "shale bar" until I moved to the country. This tool is great for anything to do with digging ground. This is an excellent quality tool - I use it here on our farm when installing posts and planting trees - breaks through roots and stone, works well, good design, nice weight.

I don't know what other people are complaining about with this thing. I dug 11 holes 12" diameter down to 4 feet and this thing was helping chew straight through roots and edging the sides of the hole after to align footings. Heavy enough to chomp up the roots, but still light enough to move all day long if you need to. Easily breaks up soil so that you can pull out with a post hole digger.