This invention relates to rakes and in particular rakes that have been modified to facilitate picking up leaves and the like.
Gardening tools are well known and have been used for centuries. In particular rakes for collecting grass and leaves from a lawn are well known. Although conventional rakes are relatively efficient at gathering material into a pile it is still quite difficult to pick up the material and put it in a bag or other receptacle.
Accordingly a number of inventions have been suggested for improving rakes to facilitate picking up the material. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,484 issued to Cox on Sep. 5, 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,386 issued to Dirksen on Feb. 12, 1991 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,266 issued to Laughlin on Oct. 15, 1996 are all quite similar. These patents show two rakes pivotally attached together generally in the middle of the elongate handles. Accordingly, during raking, the user would have to hold too handles, thus increasing the weight and making the use somewhat more difficult. A somewhat different design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,250 issued to Lawrence on Sep. 3, 1974. This patent shows two rakes, each having a handle which is hingedly attached at opposed ends of a cross-handle. The three handles are arranged such that they may be held in axial alignment. It appears that the Lawrence rake would be somewhat difficult to use In both the rake mode, since the cross-handle looks awkward, and In the picking up mode, since the cross-handle looks like it might interfere.
Accordingly it would be advantageous to provide a rake that can easily move from a raking mode to a picking up mode. Further it would be advantageous to provide a rake that is easy to manufacture and easy to use.
The present invention is directed to a folding rake for facilitating the raking and picking up of the raked material. The folding rake Includes a first rake and a second rake that are releasably restrained relative to each other in a rake position and may be released and moved Into a folded position. The first rake has a first head portion and a first handle portion. Similarly the second rake has a second head portion and a second handle portion. The second handle portion is pivotally attached to the first handle portion. In the rake position the first and second handle portions are generally axially aligned. In the folded position the first head portion and the second head portion are generally adjacent to each other.
In another embodiment the folding rake includes a first and second rake that are releasably attachable. The first rake has a first head portion and a first handle portion. The second rake has a second head portion and a second handle portion. The second handle portion is releasably attached to the first handle portion. When attached the first and second handle portions are generally axially aligned.
Further features of the invention will be described or will become apparent In the course of the following detailed description.
The invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
Referring to
Each of the first and second head portions 16 and 18 is a generally V-shaped head with a plurality of tines 28. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that alternate head portions could be used that would still be within the scope of this invention.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that there are a number of variations of the folding rake of the present invention that would stay within the spirit of the invention. Hereafter some alternate embodiments will be described. Those features which are common to rake 10 described above will be not be described in detail.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
As used herein, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” are to be construed as being inclusive and opened rather than exclusive. Specifically, when used in this specification including the claims, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” and variations thereof mean that the specified features, steps or components are included. The terms are not to be interpreted to exclude the presence of other features, steps or components.
It will be appreciated that the above description related to the invention by way of example only. Many variations on the invention will be obvious to those skilled in the art and such obvious variations are within the scope of the invention as described herein whether or not expressly described.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
211855 | Kinzer | Feb 1879 | A |
2148772 | Olson | Feb 1939 | A |
2908131 | Ross | Oct 1959 | A |
3164945 | Spencer | Jan 1965 | A |
3350866 | Spencer | Nov 1967 | A |
3601966 | Kerry | Aug 1971 | A |
3688484 | Cox | Sep 1972 | A |
3692347 | Bixler | Sep 1972 | A |
3833250 | Lawrence | Sep 1974 | A |
4037397 | Fiorentino | Jul 1977 | A |
4378671 | Gascon | Apr 1983 | A |
4514970 | Wilson | May 1985 | A |
4730864 | Sample | Mar 1988 | A |
4991386 | Dirksen | Feb 1991 | A |
5564266 | Laughlin | Oct 1996 | A |
5564267 | Bricker | Oct 1996 | A |
5901540 | Vella | May 1999 | A |
6502381 | Crites | Jan 2003 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20040088962 A1 | May 2004 | US |