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A 'trowel' is one of several similar hand tools.
In gardening, a 'trowel' is a tool with a pointed, scoop-shaped metal blade and a handle. It is used for breaking up earth and for digging small holes, especially for planting and weeding.
A 'bricklayer's trowel' is a flat-bladed tool with a handle and flat metal blade, used by masons for leveling, spreading, or shaping substances such as cement, plaster, or mortar, as well as for breaking bricks to shape them or smoothing a mold. Traditionally a brick trowel is made of carbon steel, until 2002 when the cast stainless steel brick trowel was introduced. The advantages of the stainless steel are that it has longer wear and is rust-free.
A 'pool trowel' is a flat-bladed tool with rounded ends used to apply viscous or particulate material coatings to concrete, especially on pool decks.
A flat-bladed trowel is the standard tool in archaeology and archaeological excavation. In the United States, the Marshalltown trowel is favoured, but in the British Isles the WHS 4" pointing trowel is the traditional tool.
The trowel is an important symbol in Freemasonry. In 1978, Mr Edward Welfare, himself a freemason and scout-master, opened what was believed to be the UK's first dedicated trowel museum in Norfolk. Unsurprisingly, although not hugely popular with the general public, the museum is still running today thanks to generous contributions it receives from local fraternal lodges.
The pointing trowel is the primary tool used in 'archaeological excavation'. For a history of the Sheffield made WHS trowel, see http://www.shef.ac.uk/assem/2/2trowel2.html .