Useful reading
Rakes, hoes and ice tools: choosing garden kit you will not replace next season
A market-stall garden rake lasts one season: by autumn the tines splay out, the paint flakes and there is rust underneath. A cheap hoe fails faster still, blunt within a week and bent on the first tough root. At our works in Stebliv we have spent over twenty years welding stainless heating elements, and the garden tools come off the same laser and welding line, in the same two steels: stainless and 65G spring steel. This article explains what that changes in practice and what to look at before you pay.
Why cheap rakes bend and cheap hoes rust in a single summer
Two factory decisions decide the fate of the tool. The first is the steel. Mass-market tools are pressed from plain carbon steel and painted. The paint survives until the first stone, then water creeps under the film and the metal corrodes out of sight. The second is the joint. Tines are often riveted to the bar or spot-welded in two or three places. Under load the joint works loose, the rivet enlarges its hole and the tine starts to wander.
Stainless steel has no coating to lose: the metal is the same through the whole thickness, so a 12-tine stainless garden rake with a 1200 mm handle can sit out in the rain for a week without consequence. The joints are laser-welded along the full contact line rather than at points. The tines sit on two cross tubes instead of a single bar, and the second tube is what stops the head flexing and twisting when you drag matted grass or level soil for a lawn.
A hoe needs something else: to hold an edge and stay straight. For that we use 65G spring steel, the leaf-spring grade. Hardened, it gives on a root and returns instead of keeping a dent.
Metal or plastic rakes, and which shape does which job
A plastic fan rake has one argument in its favour, weight. It suits dry leaves on a lawn and nothing more: on wet grass the tines snap, on soil it is useless. Metal rakes are sorted by head shape, and the shape sets the task.
| Type | Job | In our range |
|---|---|---|
| Straight, rigid tines | Break clods after digging, level a bed, drag out roots | 43 cm, 12 tines, stainless — from 560 UAH head only, from 600 UAH with a 1200 mm wooden handle |
| Double-sided lawn rake | One side combs out moss and thatch, the other levels | 47 cm, stainless, from 680 UAH |
| Fan rake | Leaves, cut grass, debris between shrubs | Stainless, from 630 UAH; MINI version with 11 tines and a non-slip grip, from 460 UAH |
| Hay rake | Light and wide, for dry material over a large area | 60 cm, stainless, from 550 UAH |
A 43 cm head is the working standard: it passes between rows without dragging half the bed along. If the lawn is the main concern, the double-sided rake does both the combing and the levelling. The small MINI fan rake is for flower beds and under currant bushes, where a full-width head will not fit. The whole line is in the garden tools category.
Choosing a hoe: half-moon blade, 65G or stainless, and how wide
The half-moon shape is functional. The rounded blade enters the soil at an angle and cuts the weed below the surface rather than chopping it from above. The motion is a pull towards you, not a strike: the soil is loosened, the roots are severed, and your back does less. Anyone used to chopping finds it odd for half an hour, then stops missing the flat blade.
The two steels behave differently. 65G keeps a sharp edge longer and does not soften on dense clay. Its drawback is that it is not stainless: leave it wet in the grass for a month and a film of rust appears. A brush removes it, but the tool wants attention. Stainless holds an edge a little less well and does not care about water at all — for those who leave the hoe under a lean-to until next weekend.
- 160 mm, 65G, with handle — the greenhouse and raised-bed hoe. The wooden handle is 800 mm, short on purpose, because there is no room to swing a long one in a polytunnel. From 345 UAH.
- 160 mm, stainless — the stainless half-moon hoe, from 350 UAH, for those who would rather sharpen more often than clean.
- 200 mm, 65G — from 330 UAH, the everyday width for potato, onion and beet rows.
- 240 mm — from 340 UAH, for wide spacing and large plots where ground covered per pass matters.
Match the handle to your height: standing, the top should reach your armpit or a little above. Then you weed without bending.
Five things to check in your hands before buying
Wherever you buy, these take a minute to see.
- The weld. A continuous line with no gaps or blobs. Spots every centimetre mean someone saved on the process.
- The tines. Stand the rake on a flat table: every tip should touch at once. One crooked tine pulls the rest out of line.
- A magnet. Stainless grades used for garden tools are weakly magnetic or not magnetic. If a magnet grips hard and the label says stainless, ask which grade.
- The handle socket. Deep sleeve, tight fit. Play in a new tool becomes a crack within a month.
- Weight. Too light is a warning: thin steel flexes on a rake and bends on a hoe. You should feel the metal.
Winter tools: ice chisel, ice scraper and auger blades
Nobody looks for this shelf in May; they look when the first ice forms in the yard. Three tools, three jobs: break, scrape, drill.
The 65G ice chisel with handle is for paths, the area by the gate and a hole for a feeder on the pond. The blade is 150 mm high and 60 mm wide, welded to a 190 mm stainless extension, then a 1100 mm wooden handle. The extension is stainless because the lower part lives in wet snow and meltwater, where carbon steel rusts in one winter. The spring-steel edge does not chip on impact and works like a cold chisel. From 850 UAH.
The ice scraper handles thin crust and packed snow on concrete or paving. Blade 150 mm wide, 70 mm high, 360 mm overall; sold without a handle so you fit your own, an old shovel shaft will do. From 520 UAH. There is also an ice cutter supplied with a handle, from 550 UAH.
For anglers there are ice auger blades in 150 mm and 130 mm, hardened steel, two per set, from 360 UAH. They fit the augers common in Ukraine: Zhytomyr, Tonar, Leningrad and Aida. Hardening is the point — an unhardened blade dulls on the first sandy ice and crushes rather than cuts. Before ordering, remove the old blade and measure the auger diameter and the mounting-hole spacing.
Frequently asked questions
Which rake for a small plot?
One straight 43 cm rake covers beds and paths; add a fan rake if there is a lawn. The double-sided lawn rake earns its place when the lawn is large and needs combing every spring.
Is a metal rake tiring to use compared with plastic?
A 12-tine stainless head on a 1200 mm wooden handle feels heavier only side by side on the counter. In use the weight helps: the head bites the soil on its own.
Does a 65G hoe need any care?
Knock off the soil, wipe dry, and every few weeks run any oil along the edge — machine oil or sunflower oil both work. Sharpen with a file at the factory angle; keep a grinder away from it so the steel is not softened.
Which auger blades fit a 130 mm auger?
If the auger is a Zhytomyr, Tonar, Leningrad or Aida, the 130 mm set is listed on the same product card as the 150 mm. Augers of other designs may use a different mount, so compare the hole spacing on your old blade first.
Ice chisel or ice scraper for the yard?
The chisel strikes: a narrow heavy point on a long handle splits thick ice. The scraper pushes: a wide blade lifts thin crust and packed snow off paving. A yard often needs both; a pond only needs the chisel.