Lixada Titanium Shovel Review

Overview

The Lixada Titanium Shovel is a bare-bones cathole trowel aimed at backpackers who want titanium’s weight savings without paying boutique-brand prices. It’s a single flat piece of 0.7mm titanium sheet with a curved scoop and a lanyard hole, sold with a small storage sack and an aluminum clip for backpack attachment. If you just need something to bury waste and don’t need a specialized digging tool, this fits the bill at a fraction of the cost of name-brand options.

Key Specs

Spec	Value
Weight	40.0 g (1.4 oz)
Material	Pure titanium
Thickness	0.7 mm
Dimensions	70 × 205 mm (2.8 × 8.1 in)
Includes	Storage sack, aluminum alloy clip
Price	Roughly $7–10

Performance

Let’s start with the obvious comparison point: this is not a Deuce of Spades or a QiWiz Cathole Digger, and it’s not trying to be. Those two trowels dominate the ultralight trowel conversation for a reason — the QiWiz is one of the first titanium trowels to hit the market, and the “original” length comes in at just 0.4 oz, while the Deuce is a genre-defining backpacking trowel, and unquestionably the best selling model in most gear guides. Both of those tools were engineered specifically around digging geometry — pointed tips, serrated root-cutting edges, handle shapes that let you drive the blade with your palm.

The Lixada, by contrast, reads more like a flat titanium blank bent into a scoop shape. At 40g it’s noticeably heavier than the QiWiz original (0.4 oz / ~11g) and about on par with mid-weight aluminum trowels like the Deuce #2. You’re not getting the absolute lightest trowel on the market here, though 40g is still trivial compared to a Coghlan’s plastic trowel, which several longtime users have compared unfavorably. One backpacking forum poster summed up decades of trowel history by noting since the mid 80s I used the ol Coghlan’s orange trowel… but as I’ve continued to lighten up, I got a Deuce of Spades and I like it — that’s the trajectory most ultralight hikers eventually follow, and the Lixada is a reasonable stepping stone on that path.

In practice, a flat titanium sheet like this digs fine in loose, sandy, or loamy soil — it’ll scoop a 6-inch cathole without much fuss. Where it struggles is the same place every non-serrated, non-pointed trowel struggles: root-choked or rocky ground. Reviewers of purpose-built trowels consistently point to features this Lixada lacks — a genuinely sharp point for popping rocks, or notched edges for sawing through roots. Without either, you’re relying on the thin edge of a titanium sheet to muscle through obstructions, which works but takes more elbow grease and more time than a trowel designed for it.

Titanium’s real advantage here isn’t digging performance — it’s that the material itself won’t rust, won’t corrode, and won’t fatigue-crack the way a thin aluminum blade might over years of abuse. At 0.7mm thickness, the blade has some flex to it, which is normal for titanium sheet goods this light, but I wouldn’t expect it to bend permanently under normal cathole-digging loads. The aluminum clip that comes with it is the more likely failure point — clips on budget gear like this tend to be the first thing to snap or lose their spring tension after repeated on/off cycles clipped to a pack strap.

I couldn’t find much dedicated long-term user testing of this specific Lixada model on Reddit’s r/Ultralight, Backpacking Light, or BPL — it’s overshadowed in review coverage by the bigger-name trowels. That’s worth flagging: most of what’s out there is retailer listing copy rather than independent field testing, so take the “great for gardening, camping, hiking, backpacking, beach” marketing language with a grain of salt.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Titanium construction resists corrosion indefinitely — no rust concerns even if it lives in a wet food bag or hip belt pocket
• Very inexpensive relative to other titanium trowels on the market
• Storage sack keeps it (and your hands) away from whatever it just dug through
• Lanyard hole and included clip make it easy to hang off a pack

Cons:

• No serrated edge or sharpened point, so it struggles more than purpose-built trowels in rocky or root-heavy soil
• At 40g, it’s heavier than the lightest dedicated cathole diggers on the market
• Included aluminum clip is a likely weak point over time
• Little independent long-term testing or user feedback available online
• Flat sheet design offers less leverage than trowels with a more contoured handle

Who Should Buy This

This is a reasonable pick for casual backpackers and car campers who dig in soft-to-moderate soil and want a titanium trowel mainly for its rust-proof durability and low weight, without spending $15-20 on a dedicated brand like Deuce or QiWiz. If you regularly hike in the Sierra, Rockies, or anywhere with consistently rocky or root-bound ground, you’ll be better served by a trowel with a sharpened point or serrated edge — the digging geometry matters more than the base material once the ground fights back.

Verdict

The Lixada Titanium Shovel does the one job it needs to do — bury waste — competently in easy soil, and its titanium build means it’ll outlast the ground it’s digging into. But it’s a generic tool riding on a premium material rather than a purpose-engineered trowel, so don’t expect Deuce-of-Spades-level digging performance for Deuce-of-Spades money (which, to be fair, it doesn’t cost). I’d call it a 6.5/10: a fine budget option for mellow terrain, but frequent backcountry users digging in rocky or rooty ground will get more mileage out of a trowel built specifically for that fight.