[site]

I'm looking for a replacement for the $10.99 plastic leaf rakes we use. I can usually make one last a couple of months if I'm the only person touching it, but they are only good for two or three days in my guys hands. Are there any durable rakes out there? if so, where?

[diginahole]

I like the heavy duty steel ones personally. I mainly use leaf rakes for cleaning up dirt off the lawn and fluffing up the lawn after heavy foot trafffic. I don't do much leaf raking. Garant pro model about 25 canuck bucks at Home Depot. My guess is that Garant would also make a good wide plastic one, I just never had a reason to look.

Quality hand tools are getting difficult to find. I would love to find a source for Spears and Jackson spades, I haven't been able to find a decent spade in quite a few years.

[dan deutekom]

I never look at leaf rakes as long lasting tools. Cheap ones or expensive ones seem to last about the same time. The big plastic ones break and the steel ones fall apart. I figure if I get 3 weeks of steady spring or fall clean up with one I am doing real well. Consider them a disposable item.

[Stonehenge]

Leaf rakes - we just use the cheapest ones we can find. Strangely, ours have lasted a few years (I think that says more about the effort applied when using them, not the carefulness of the user )

For spades we use a brand called Razorback - usually $20-25 per, and seem to hold up pretty nicely. They offer wood and fiber handle - I've tried fiber a few times but have never been happy with it - spoon breaks before handle, which is great, but then getting a new spoon on there with a good fit is near impossible.

[mdvaden]

We use spring leaf rakes every day for raking after every item we prune, along with old leaves under.

I get about 6 months to 1 year on the rakes.

Wood handled ones last from 1 week to 1 month. They usually break along the grain.

Aluminum tube handles seem as bad or worse.

Now I stick to the fiberglass handle ones that cost about $15, and always carry 2. I carry 2 of everything. 2 hand pruners, 2 springs for them, 2 shears, 2 chainsaws, etc..

Costco, and Lowe's is where I buy my rakes.

Plastic raking heads drag too much dirt and volume of mulch.

Spring rakes catch the bad stuff and leave the good behind. Spring rakes are tremendous for raking on fine gravel paths.