I bought a stainless steel gardening trowel from Tractor Supply for $2.99 and modified it to cut through sod. Cuts ok but the problem is the stainless rod going into the molded rubber/plastic sleeve that creates the handle. It's not holding up to tough digging and I'm finding it to bend the more I'm using it. Gotta Lesche ordered and coming my way, should of done it right the first time.
Don't go the cheap route because you will get what you pay for and when it fails you will be out of business...
Not that it says anything like this in the paperwork that I know of but this company guarantees their tools for life...as long as you don't mod them.
These are tough tools but not indestructible.
I pry way more than I should, my first Lesche I bent trying to pry up a piece of frozen dirt trying to hunt in the Kansas winter.
A few months later I caught it under a big branch and broke it at that bend point.
This one I put cuts on the opposite side of the regular ones thinking it would help.
It didn't but they wouldn't do anything for me because I modded it.
My second I broke trying to pry up a big piece of iron in rock hard dirt during a drought...that was stupid and totally my fault...again.
On other forums I have read about some hunters that bent the heck out of their Sampsons doing the same thing and asked about what they should do.
I told them all the same thing about my experience on that second one I broke and they all did the same and had the same exact experience.
Call them up and and ask the nice lady that answers the phone what you should do.
She never asks how old it is, how you broke it, nothing about any warranty cards or receipts, just the same reply to everyone...
"Send it to us and we will replace it."
And they do.
You are responsible for shipping one way and they pay the freight coming back.
Quickly too, they must get these things in the mail the day they receive the broken one.
The Predator company might do the same thing but you would have to call and ask them about that.
This is not like Craftsman either where you take in a well built tool from decades ago and they trade you out for some modern Chinese junk instead.
What you send to them you get back in return.
Well worth the money spent on these tools for me, when I use them they do what they are designed to do better than any others I have ever used and if I screw up again I know I am protected as long as that company stays in business.
Spending money one time on a tool that make my job easy...that is value to me and why these tools have such a good reputation.