Shovels?

Mean Machine

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Sep 25, 2010
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In my snow removal arsenal, I have a "professional" snow shovel (that's the way they marketed it....) The metal blade is about 21 inches wide, and maybe 10 inches high and it curves out from top to bottom. It's like a small snow plow on a stick.
 

KJMClark

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May 5, 2010
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We have four snow shovels, and the one "Mean Machine" just mentioned is my favorite. It's big and heavy, and not meant for picking up snow. My wife prefers one a lot like it, but a little smaller, with a D-handle and everything very light. That's made primarily for picking snow up. We also have a smaller metal curved one, like those but with a smaller aluminum head. The kids use that one to both push light snow and pick it up. Finally, we have one with a large, square head on it, that's made for picking up 2-3" snow falls.

I use the first one like a plow, for lighter snow falls. First I make a pass down the sidewalk, never picking up the blade, keeping the head tilted at a slight angle. This plows the snow to one side. Then I make two or three more passes with the head tilted even more, to keep pushing the snow toward one side. At some point, the snow won't stay on the side of the head that I want, and I make a few sweeping motions as I go, that make piles on the side. Then I or someone else come through with the second shovel I mentioned, and pick the now piled snow off the sidewalk and push it to the tree lawn.

For the driveway, I use that same plow shovel like a push broom. Works great.

It may sound like more work, but the first passes with the plow shovel are about one minute per pass, and then the scoop shovel makes quick work of the remaining snow. Using the two shovels that way, we clear up to a two inch fall in 5-10 minutes on our 75' sidewalk and short driveway. The only ones who do it faster are the folks with snowblowers.
 

monica123

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May 14, 2010
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I like the wide "pusher" shovels, where you push the shovel and the curved head curls the snow up and over like a snow plow. It's hard to find a good one that will curl the snow properly, and many of them that curl well are narrow. For some reason the very best ones have an orange head.

Those are the ones my husband likes too but to find a good one is like hard to do. The one we had was old, we got it from someone else, but we definitely need to find a new one before we get too much snow.
 
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