An alternative for the orange toilet trowel

I have posted an instructable for my version of the T Leaf.
Some have suggested to me to loose the thumb hole. As this tool can be used in a wide range of ways, you could alter it to suit your area.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-T-Leaf-aka-Toilet-trowel/

It looks like a good idea for those who feel they need a trowel. I have never had problems finding a suitable stick or rock to do the job. But your idea certainly is better than the orange trowel advocated by the FS

I also use it to dig a small fire trench.
Remove 2" top soil with grass etc. Place it out-of-the-way. Dig a small trench,slightly smaller than your pot diameter. The trench needs to be in-line with prevailing breeze. Light fire in trench. (Remember, small sticks burn quick and hot, thick sticks burn slow and bake) When you have finished cooking, extinguish fire, "no steam rising from wet ashes". Bury ashes with soil dug from trench. Then cover with topsoil disturbed earlier.

Just a note for others. If you do use a trench, or hole for a fire, be careful that the soil/ground is not such that you may start an underground duff fire. It is possible to put out ones main fire and not realize there is a smoldering fire traveling horizontally away from the the original fire. The best place to do a fire of this sort is in mineral soil. An easy place to find it (at least in the Northeast US) is at the base of an uprooted windthrown tree. An added bonus is the natural windbreak of the root wall (though it usually doesn't block the prevailing winds.

Looks good. I might try it.

I have an 0.4 oz. titanium trowel bought from someone on another forum. It can also double as an extra tent stake.
Titanium cathole trowel.

And another cottage industry starts up (the ultralight trowel industry).

Cottage industries starting up all over the place!

I left my trowel at home last year and used my trekking pole to dig. It worked well in the smokies, but you are digging thru allot of easy to move natural compost. Also depends on age, older I get the more I realise when its time to go Its Time! I will take the trowel agian if in say the rockies etc.
Happy Trails

This is what I use :

yes, it is a snow/sand peg. You use it like a pick not a shovel.
Franco

Just to add a side track to this topic, I recently broke my orange trowel this weekend. I have snow stakes and might go that route in a couple weeks. Besides, I will be high enough that I might need the snow stakes for their intended purpose anyways.

I do the same thing - did one of us steal the idea from the other?

I added a padded handle to mine: I usually carry 30 - 50 feet of cord (the kind MSR uses for its tent guylines) to hang my small food bag, or rig a makeshift clothesline - or even to make guylines for my tent. I thread the cord through the little hole where your index finger is, and tie a knot so it won't come back through. Then I wind the cord around and around and around the handle, about a hand's width down the stake, keeping all the turns pushed snugly against one another. There's enough cord for 3 or 4 passes, which builds up into a nice, comfortable handle for digging. (A real PITA to re-do if you have to unwind it every night, though.)

Even without the handle, it works great!

that's a nifty idea, thanks