Spent the last few hours digging a hole in the garden to accommodate my new Cantenna BTM50 style tilt mast support. Managed to get down to about 24 inches with the aid of an manual fence post auger, first foot or so was relatively easy with loose soil but as per usual clay, stones etc soon appear and makes things so much harder

Have another 12 inches to dig down and the auger is no longer worth using due to the clay etc. Any advice on best way to dig this last bit before I just call it a day and fill it back in ?!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283870897476

Can you hire a motorised auger?

Otherwise a 6' crow bar and hole shovel (two hinged together)

It is worth making it bigger than suggested, and that makes it easier to dig

What have you hit, granite?
Even if your auger takes an inch at a time you will get there soon enough

Okay cheers guys, the auger eventually turns with a lot of effort but very little seems soil / clay to move. Will keep at it !
Motorised auger...yep would do the job in minutes but guessing the hire of such a tool would be expensive .

Thanks for the tip also re. the 6” crow bar...that was an idea I thought about and will try tomorrow after a good nights sleep...honestly knackered with it !

If you do have rock, an auger won't touch it.
I had a post auger on the back of my tractor, with a hydraulic top link, and hit "iron rock" (don't know what it is, it is not granite), and pusshing it down would start to lift the back of the tractor.

Ended up digging large shallow holes and cementing the posts in where I could not make holes. (fortunately most of the poles were steel "I" section, only the straining poles were timber)

Okay thanks as I say will keep at it worth it in the end !

John, the ground here sounds similar to what you have through there in Fife. About 2 feet of soil,and sand followed by heavy clay down to the water table.

The only tools I use to dig narrow 4' holes are a pinch bar* and a long handled straight shovel. The first couple of feet are easy, but when you get to the clay what you need to do is break it up best you can with the pinch, and then shove the shovel down and wiggle it about to get as much clay as possible to stick to it (it sticks like sh*t to a blanket). Then lift it straight up out the hole and scrape the clay off. It's slow and laborious, but it works. It's been very dry recently so if the clay is not sticking then pour a SMALL amount of water into the hole to help the process. I can easily dig a 4 foot hole not much wider than the blade of the shovel using this method.

*Pinch or pinch bar - a long straight heavy steel round bar, used by fencers to make a hole for stabs and fence posts. Name might vary from area to area, but that's what they're called here.

Similar to what I call a crow bar (or gwala), crow bar is hexagonal, pointed on one end and flat on the other, very strong steel.

Serves exactly the same purpose here

Yes the long heavy hardened steel bar, flat one end, pointed the other, often hexagonal, also known here occasionally as a "Crow Bar", (but that tends to be used for the shorter twin flat end levering items mainly), it's also known by some builders as a "Pike", or "Ground Pike".

Is that the same as a pry bar or jemmy?

Yes also used for the shorter levering ones, the terms do get used and often misused by many folks, and interchanged, who all seem to have their own pet words for them.
I always call the big buggers Ground Pikes, or Pikes, most builders seem to know what you are talking about.

Perfect yep exactly that couple of feet of easy to deal with soil and then clay !
Thanks for the advice will see how I get on.

Was going to buy one of these seem to get decent reviews for the very job.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spear-Jackson- ... B0044TM5XS

The tool I referred to earlier looks like two of them hinged together, so you pull the handles apart and lift the soil out.

Noticed that particular tool on eBay. Don’t want to spend too much as it’s the type of thing that would probably lay in the garage for years after its initial use !
Showdown :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INuGAMD2KJs

Strangely enough the one that I thought would do the job the easiest ie. the motorised auger seemed the hardest to control !

The shovel I use is a bit longer than that...more like this one -

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/draper- ... lsrc=aw.ds

except it was made by Qualcast. I don't see the actual shovel I have listed any more, but I've had it for years and it does spend most of it's life in the shed, however when it comes to digging narrow holes it is invaluable.

The post hole shovels that Steve (Sangoma) mentioned are great in light soil, and great when it doesn't matter what width the hole is, but they are useless in heavy clay and because you have to open the handles wide to operate them, it becomes impossible to dig a deep narrow hole. You can buy a version of them which work in reverse, but they are still useless in clay and they are much more expensive.