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Humanitarian Demining

Part 5: Demining hand-tools

A very wide range of tools are used for prodding, scraping and excavation. Many may seem to be unsafe, but are usually used sensibly. However, if a tool can easily be used stupidly, sooner or later it will be.

The picture above shows typical demining tools - ranging from pickaxes and shovels to machetes, screwdrivers and garden trowels.

This is a typical toolkit for Afghan deminer's. Not every deminer has every part. There is an AK bayonet which is the post popular prodder and also a simple locally made probe with a side handle - the side handle allows both hands to be used to push. This has the advantage of keeping the left hand further away than it often is when it simply guides the probe shaft. And at the back is the ubiquitous hoe and pick-axe.

These are Afghan prodding tools. At the top is a thin mild-steel needle prod with a wooden handle. It is hard to see the side handle, but it is there. In between is a red marker flag. At the bottom is a bayonet and its sheaf. Deminers like to use a bayonet because you can prod and scrape with the same tool. The bayonet has been involved in many accidents when deminers lost fingers or their whole hand.

This locally made Afghan tool is used as a demining scraper - It was actually designed to be used in the building trade.

A demining toolset in Cambodia is shown above. There is a long thin probe and a long-handled trowel . Both have wooden handles that are separate from the mild-steel head. The disc is a speaker magnet used to find metal frgaments during excavation.

The long handled trowels vary from purchase to purchase with little consistency in manufacture. It has broken up in accidents.

This shows tools used by a demining NGO in Cambodia. These tools include locally made items. The prod is actually manufactured as a wood chisel. The tip has broken away and punctured body armour in one real accident.

This is a demining toolset in Bosnia. It includes a lump hammer, a decorator's scraper and a long probe. The decorator's scraper and the probe are the only excavation tools.

An NGO's toolset in Mozambique is shown above. The long screwdriver is their prodder. The handle is hard plastic. The trowel is a gardener's trowel with a separate hard plastic handle. The paint-brush is used to remove "sticky" earth from the side of something that has been uncovered. It really is much too soft to do the job well. The wooden sticks are laid in a cross on the ground to mark the centre of a detector signal. The secateurs are used to cut roots and tough vegetation. Trowels like this almost invariably break up in accidents and the parts have caused severe injury.

This is a demining group's toolset in Bosnia and Croatia. The prodder breaks down and the blade fits inside the handle for transport. The trowel is a builder's cementing trowel. The shears and secateurs are the usual gardener's tools.

A commercial group's tools for an entire demining team in Africa is shown above. The use of machetes, rakes, shovels and pickaxes is a little extreme, but many groups do so. The sickle is also common as a grass cutter. The panga is a machete with a bent end used for cutting grass while standing. This group's prodder is a bent piece of 12mm mild-steel reinforcing bar. It is the only tool that is made for the purpose. They have had several accidents with the prodder and have recently purchased a large number of thinner probes (AVS design).

Another commercial company's tools in Africa are shown above. The long prodder is one my early designs. The three tools, long glove and markers are all the tools a deminer was issued with by this group. The long trowel is locally made using mild steel. Those in use for a long time had worn down to half the length. Those involved in accidents have broken up and caused severe injury.

The picture above shows an NGO's tools in Mozambique in 1995. The bayonet blade is 18" (45cm) long. The trident was used as a fast probe. Both the trident and the rapier with a steel handguard were locally made, and commendably long. Unfortunately this group's tools have changed over the years.

The same group's tools in Mozambique in 2000. A sickle, secateurs, a scraper and a long bayonet. The long-handled trident and rapier are no longer standard equipment.

This is what their scraper looks like when new. It is locally made using mild steel.

A demining group does not use the same tools in every country. These are the same NGO's tools in Bosnia. The probe blade turns around and screws inside the handle for transport. Notice the builder's trowel employed as a scraper again.

The picture above shows a commercial company's tools in Kosovo. Note the builder's trowel, lump hammer and long probe (under the boot).

These are the tools used by the largest demining group in Mozambique. Note the long probe buried among the tools. Also a long trowel (AVS design). Both of these have rubber hand-guards made using off-cuts of conveyor belt - which is fibre-reinforced rubber.

Here are the tools used by an NGO in Iraq. Note the wire-cutters, needed because the mined areas are marked with barbed-wire. Other tools are locally made because importing was not possible until recently. Their quality is varied and their handles often loose.

The picture above shows a six man team's blast-resistant excvation/signal-investigation tools in Mozambique in 2005. The handguards are made using flexible aramid material and the tools stay together in AP mine blasts. These are my designs and I am frequently finding them in unexpected places when I travel, which is rather nice.

That is an introduction to the tools that are used around the world. They vary all the time - with many groups buying whatever they can get cheaply - and the tools they buy are frequently inadequate because they were not designed for the purpose.

See also, the Need for better handtools, Handtool design critera and Developing safer demining handtools.