This spade is no joke! The blade is over 1/4 inch thick steel and will probably survive anything short of an atomic bomb blast. As another reviewer noted, the blade is also blunt. To a certain extent this is because of the thickness of the blade. This can be partially remedied by judicious use of a grinding wheel to sharpen it. I have the Milwaukee 5315-21 1-1/2-Inch SDS-max Rotary Hammer, and it drives the spade well. In hard packed clay, it takes about 5 sec to penetrate the full depth of the spade blade.... more info
descent:
I have used this bit for a good amount of digging but have retired it for a much better (and cheaper) DeWalt bit. Don't be fooled by the shape (thinking that a pointed one will dig better, cause this one won't), this is an ok bit but requires a large hammer to be effective (since its so big and BLUNT). My dewalt bit is way sharper and cuts through soil much better. This is a very heavy spade also and does not dig near as good/fast as others I have used I would recommended purchasing another spade... more info
great tool:
I have the more rectangular shaped Milwaukee clay spade and this Hitachi model and it's possible that this one will dig even faster because it's more pointed. In any case, all these clay spades are great and I highly recommend any of them.