Abstract: A spiking tool for spiking high voltage underground power lines includes a safety shield to protect the operator of a shotgun stick from the flame and heat emitted when a hot power line is spiked. A first embodiment of the tool includes a tubular sleeve for encasing a length of power line. The tubular sleeve has a slot therein through which a power line can be introduced into and encased within the tubular sleeve and a spiking assembly with a grounded spike made of an electrically conductive material for penetrating the insulating casing of and making contact with wiring within a power line housed within the tubular sleeve. A second embodiment of the tool includes a shield plate mounted on and extending outward from the shaft of a shotgun stick intermediate a first end of the stick which engages a spiking clamp and a second end of the stick held by the tool operator.

Abstract: A tubular shield for exposing underground electrical power lines (especially high voltage power lines), telecommunication lines, cable television lines, fiber optic lines and the like, housed within tubular conduits, has an external diameter less than the internal diameter of the tubular conduits with which the shield is to be used and, for most applications, is provided with a longitudinally extending slot that extends for the entire length of the shield and provides an opening greater in width than the diameter of the line(s) housed within the tubular conduit. To expose a power, telecommunication, cable TV, fiber optic line or the like, that is housed within a conduit, a longitudinally extending slot is cut into the tubular conduit. The tubular shield is then inserted into the tubular conduit through the slot and underneath the line(s) within the tubular conduit to provide a shield between the line(s) and the tubular conduit.