Make A Living Alongshore...Digging Clams

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Buy a spading fork (pitchfork) with tines that most nearly fit your needs. First have the blacksmith heat the tang of the fork and bend it so it is at slightly more than a right angle to the tines. Then saw off the handle to the length desired. Finally, grind down the tines at the points. Make them not narrow but flat . . . and be careful not to burn them and draw the temper. They don't have to be ground down to a knife edge . . . but remember that the thinner they are-up to an inch or so above the points-the more easily they will cut into the mud or sand.

A good clam hoe-shaped to fitis a tool no regular clammer allows anyone else to put his hand to carelessly. You don't have to buy a whole set of clam hoes, so to speak, at once. Buy the one most suited to your present needs, and then keep your eyes open for secondhand spading forks. The old ones seem to have better steel and better shapes.

TECHNIQUES

Now about the actual digging of clams. I expect that half the commercial diggers on the cost will laugh at me, but I have dug my share of three-barrel days ... and I'm presuming you are new at the business and want to know what to look for.

Let's take optimum conditionsa bar of firm, not-toowet sandand go from there. The tide is dropping and the clam holes are showing . . . but you will notice that the holes are in clusters: a bunch here, a gap there, then a long stretch where they're reasonably close together.

Figure out in your mind's eye where you are going to dig. Don't start with the first thick clump of holes, but back a foot or two in clear bottom. Make your hole three or four forkfuls wide at first. Take the top off the sand the first time across, then go deeper the next time, and just before you get to that thick fringe of clam holes, dig down until you are sure you are deeper than the clams. Take out a couple of forkfuls of sand so that the hole is deep enough and wide enough for you to put a boot inside on each side of the hole. That way, you won't have to bend your back so far . . . and if you go down on your knees-as you'll probably want to do before the tide is overyou're going to slow yourself down.

Now, push down your digger teeth beyond the first lot of holes. Hook the forkful back, using slightly more pressure on the top of the teeth than on the bottom. (This is the reason for the hook in the hoe's teeth: to make it hang in.) If you do it right, the sand will topple over into the hole and the clams will be left bottoms up. However, if you don't go deep enough the first time, scratch out any clams you can. Clean out the area where you have dug, take off a half forkful of sand and toss it between your legs, and then go down a full forkful. You'll find that most of the clams you want, the ones that are two inches long or more, are nearly all at the same level.

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