Ash rake?

I bought a Wood Stove set from Northline Express. The rake works perfectly. Perfect size for a wood stove. I use the rake more than any other tool.

It is the same one in the original picture actually. Maybe 14 inches long, perfect size for wood stoves.

I had one of these laying around that I was not too fond of as a yard implement:

http://www.amazon.com/Unknown-2-Section-Adjustable-Rake/dp/B000VW0J9O/ref=pd_cp_hi_0

I decided an ash rake might be a good idea, but could not find one easily. So, I cut about 18" off the handle of this here adjustable width rake, and then put the rubber handle cap back on it. It's now a shorty, but will still adjust from about 8" wide to 24" wide. This seems to be a good feature for raking coals to the front and leaving ashes behind for scooping. I think I paid something like $10 for it at an Ace Hardware.

Best thing is that it got the dear wife to think that tossing a log on in the morning on a bed of coals was better than completely burning the coals down and then emptying all the ashes out before starting a new fire (every day!).

Putting it back to "narrow mode" makes it look a little better by the stove, as well.

I have the same one in your picture. I use it quite a bit-as much as I use the poker.

Homemade from the younger years. It was built as a joint effort one fine evening between me and some of my partying buddies. It’s outlived several stoves, but we originally designed it for an old barrel stove. I still use it now, but I have to hide it in the ash bucket behind the wood box. I’m told it’s too ugly to have it prominently displayed, but to me it’s a work of art filled with good memories! And fully functional too.



The fancy handle, recycled from a broken pitchfork. Note the equally impressive cotter pin securing it to the metal rod. Also, it has a hole for hanging by the stove, through which we originally looped a leather shoelace.



The working end, with exceptional quality welding. The holes serve no purpose; they were already in the piece of scrap metal we used to make it.

I went to see a blacksmith yesterday, as a matter of fact! I brought the tools I have and told him why they basically suck. He nodded in agreement, showed me a very large (probably rather old) Jotul in his office and his stove tools. In about two weeks I should have a modified pokertype rig and an ash rake along with a rack and a "bumber" that I'll mount to the side of the chimney near the stove. No more bumbing along with tools I hate or wasting time looking at overpriced crap I don't want anyway. Shoulda done this a couple of months ago, huh?

I bought a single ash rake from NorthlineExpress.com last
year. Should have had one years ago.

It works great. About 14" and very well made.
Even made in Poland. No jokes!

You'll like the rake once you get used to using it. Please don't use it without gloves though. I can't count the times I tumbled a big coal out of it and had to catch it with my welding gloves on. You've got to get those coals to the front to get them to burn down. I'm not going to show my rake because I got it from an old knitting mill who used it to clean out a boiler. It's a piece of long handle steel with a nice curved stainless welded on it. Way uglier than the homemade rake posted above. But it gets the job done till I find one somewhere.

drdoct said:

I'm not going to show my rake because I got it from an old knitting mill who used it to clean out a boiler. It's a piece of long handle steel with a nice curved stainless welded on it. Way uglier than the homemade rake posted above.

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Aw come on! Let's see it.

No ash rake here...have seen the wisdom in a 'less is more' attitude. Bent poker and shovel serves all our wood stove needs.

I just use a poker. When I clean I do it in the morning after the night burn. I keep stirring everything around a few times and than shovel it out. I start at 7 and clean out at 10. Thats what I'm doing this morning.

I took the melted broom off from the tool set and made it into a coal rake / ash hoe. The handle is too short to use without gloves.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nX0X4MOKcKI/SwhknrNNM9I/AAAAAAAAAic/BPjcRapf42Y/s640/100_0411.JPG

I just flip the shovel over and use it like a rake. then when i need to clean out the ash i flip it back over to shovel mode and scoop. works every time!

BucksCoBernie said:

I just flip the shovel over and use it like a rake. then when i need to clean out the ash i flip it back over to shovel mode and scoop. works every time!

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Ja, I use my shovel more than I use the ash hoe. It's a daily ritual. Pushing everything to the back with the shovel upside down works well. The large coals automagically work their way to the top. I then take a corner of the shovel to bring the coals forward.

The only time I use the coal rake is when there is hardly any coals left and I want to salvage enough coals for a restart after removing ashes. That hardly ever happens anymore. Since I switched from paper to Super Cedars, I let the coals go out with the ashes.

I sometimes use my poker to separate the ashes from the coals. Running the poker through the bed raises the coals to the top and a sidways sweep brings them forward. What method I use depends on what I'm trying to acheive.

tickbitty said:

How many folks regularly use an ash rake? I have an insert, so no ash pan, and I have been told an ash rake might come in handy. I have a poker (left by the previous residents for the fireplace) and a $3 ash shovel. Do I need a rake? It does seem to be a regular pc of equipment, but I have not done a whole lot of cleaning out the stove yet - in fact I have left most everything so far, but hubs has scooped several times.

If you have a rake and love it, can you post some pics, descriptions, or hopefully some specs as to size etc? The only ash rakes I see online for sale that are not in a set have a rippled bottom, while I was assuming flat would be better. I have a blacksmith who could make me most anything, but I don't have any specs to request.

Thanks in advance!

this is the only one I have seen, it's $30 and I don't think it looks that great... what do you think?

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That's the ash rake I have. It actually works really well for moving the coals around and leaving the ashes underneath when digging through an old coal/ash bed. I got it for $18 on sale with free shipping a few months ago.

So a combination shovel, poker and ash rake will serve all needs.

How about a "shoraker" or a "rakokerevel" or even an
"pokelake?"

It was much too cold last night... Sorry for the frigid humor.

"Bumber"=bumper... sometimes my ageing fingers miss a key, Tick.. When the tools are done I'll put up a shot of them. The blacksmith was a very cool guy... listening to classical music and had a shop kitty, too. I really liked that!

this is for sale at Sears

Copperfield Chimney 61279 Woodfield Ash Rake

Sold by: UnbeatableSale.com, Inc.

Sears item #SPM173749015
Mfr. model #61279
$24.10

They also list the Minuteman WR-21H Shepherd s Hook Hoe at $25.24 with what appears to be a longer handle.

http://www.unbeatablesale.com/minm394.html?srccode=cii_28285374&cpncode=22-42650555-2

you may want to check this thread

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/46325/

I bought a fireplace set from Northline Express. It didn't come with a rake but found one under their single tool category that matched the set I picked out. If I knew what I knew now I would not have got the set as the only thing I use from the set is the broom occasionally. The only tools I find that I use is a shovel that came with an ash bucket, the rake and a tool I found at the Plow & Hearth, I think it is called a fire dragon. It is a tube about 3' long with a mouth piece on one end and the tube splits into two to form a fork at the other end. I use this as a poker and what it's designed for, you blow into the mouth piece to stoke the coals. I use this when I get home from work after we've had an overnight burn and didn't add any wood in the morning. By late afternoon there are some small coals still left to get kindling going again with the help of the fire dragon.

Northline Express seems like a good reliable inter-net company. Their prices are pretty good and ship fast.

Get yourself a rake, you won't know how you lived with out one in the past.

Brian