A spud bar, or in British English

British English

British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...

 usually crowbar or just bar, is a long straight metal bar used lengthwise as a hand tool

Hand tool

A hand tool is a device for performing work on a material or a physical system using only hands. The hand tools can be manually used employing force, or electrically powered, using electrical current...

 to deliver blows to a target, causing the target to move, break up or deform. It can also be used as a lever to move objects. Typical uses include breaking up clay, concrete, frozen ground and other hard materials, moving or breaking up tree roots and obstacles, and making pilot hole

Pilot hole

A pilot hole is a smaller hole drilled into a material prior to a larger hole being drilled, widening the hole to the desired width. Drilling a pilot hole prevents a larger drill bit from slipping on the material - a potential safety hazard, as well as an increased likelihood of the work being...

s for driving fence posts. It is often used where space would not allow the use of a pickaxe

Pickaxe

A pickaxe or pick is a hand tool with a hard head attached perpendicular to the handle.Some people make the distinction that a pickaxe has a head with a pointed end and a flat end, and a pick has both ends pointed, or only one end; but most people use the words to mean the same thing.The head is...

. A spud bar with a thickened end can be used to tamp soil.

Materials and construction

A spud bar is typically 5 to 6 ft (1.5 to 1.8 m) and weighs around 15 lb (6.8 kg). They are typically made entirely of cylindrical forged steel 1 in (2.5 cm) in diameter with a 1 to 3 in (2.5 to 7.6 cm) chisel

Chisel

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge in it.In use, the chisel is forced into the material...

 point at one end, and a 2 to 3 in (5.1 to 7.6 cm) diameter tamper

Tamper

Tamper can mean:*Tamp, a device used to compact or flatten an aggregate or other powdered or granular material, like ground coffee or gravel*A tool used to pack tobacco into a smoking pipe, as well as to flatten or scoop the ash; usually nail-shaped and sometimes combined into a pipe tool*Ballast...

 at the other end. Chisel points may be sharpened. In the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

, spud bars typically have a narrow unsharpened chisel point at one end and a simple point at the other, and are often thicker, up to about1.5 in (3.8 cm) in diameter; a tamper is usually a separate tool, with a blunt end opposite the tamper end, or with a different-sized tamper on either end.

In North America a spud bar is often sold as a "digging bar", "slate bar" or "pinch point".

Variations

Some spud bars are available with a fiberglass body and wider chisel ends, or rakes, for specific jobs such as roofing tear-offs (eg removing old shingles

Roof shingle

Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...

 and tar paper

Tar paper

Tar paper is a heavy-duty paper used in construction. Tar paper is made by impregnating paper with tar, producing a waterproof material useful for roof construction. It can be distinguished from Roofing felt:Asphalt-saturated felt. Roofing felt has been in use for over a hundred years...

). These spud bars may or may not have tampers.

Ice spuds

Fishing through holes in ice is common in many parts of the world. One of the earliest methods of cutting these holes was to use an ice chisel, or "spud bar" as it is known in the United States. These spud bars are chisels over 6 ft (1.8 m) long, usually made entirely of iron or steel. Many variations exist, some with jagged teeth on the bit, some with skewed edges, and many different grind angles and head sizes. Early ice spuds (before about 1925) often had wooden handles and a steel head fixed with a tang and collar or socket, like a carpenters chisel.

Spud bars are still carried by many ice fishermen as a means to test ice thickness and safety. A sturdy thrust of the spud bar will often penetrate unsafe ice.

Log peeling spuds

A spud can also be a device similar to an oversized carpenters chisel used to remove the bark from logs. Spuds in this form might have a wooden or steel handle from about 18 in (0.4572 m) to over 6 ft (1.8 m) long. This tool is also called a bark spud

Bark spud (tool)

The Bark spud, is an implement which is used to remove bark from felled timber....

.

Users

Spud bars are often used by homeowners

Home

A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...

, construction crews

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

, excavator

Excavator

Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...

s and others.