Last winter when I used an old heavy gauge steel coal scoop shovel to chop up and clear some ice and snow on my driveway I properly cleaned and dried the shovel after using it. But I forgot to rewax it! When using it today to chop through three inches of sleet with as much more snow on top I noticed that the shovel has a faint covering of rust on it.
This shovel is older than I am and I’m almost seventy years old. This is the first time it has ever shown even a hint of rust all because I forgot to rewax it last winter.
My question is, is there an easier, better way to deal with this than scouring down the shovel all over with a brillo pad and after it is totally, thoroughly dry waxing it???
You could just leave the rust there and wax over it.
It was designed to be bare metal. It tends to rust a bit and stop because of the alloy used. Any wax just slows it down. Its lasted this long, I’d bet it outlasts us both!
I admit I was surprised to see any rust on it. My dad taught me that any job using tools isn’t finished until the tools are properly cleaned and put safely away. It’s why I still have good tools in good shape that were his and even a few that were my grandfather’s.
Between lifelong severe arthritis, “age and mileage,” and now months into dealing with long covid after almost dying from covid blood clots back in August, I admit that I am having to start relying on others to help me out with strenuous tasks. A kind young neighbor finished shoveling my driveway. He shoveled more area in a fraction the time it had taken me to shovel what I had. Amazing what young manly muscles can accomplish compared to my senior lady lack of muscles and stamina. I’m blessed with kind neighbors.
IMO removing the rust with steel wool or a scrubbing pad will require about as much effort as waxing it. Rinse after removing the rust then dry with a rag and then wax it.
The WD does stand for water displacement, or words to that effect.
Probably be okay. I have partial bottles of oil from my lawn equipment and boat motor.
I’ve never applied anything to a shovel at all, and never had one become unusable due to rust. Whatever they are made of is pretty tough, probably steel w/ a zinc coating. If a shovel or other garden tool becomes unusable, usual reason is a problem w/ the wood handle. I do try to store all my yard tools off the ground, dry & out of the weather. If a non-yard tool (like pliers, wrenches, etc) develops some surface rust I usually apply a thin coat of an anti-rust mixture, like pb blaster or a 50/50 mixture of acetone & automatic trans fluid. Usually takes several applications.
Yeah I hear you folks have quite a weather problem down there. I drove through St. Louis a couple years ago in glare ice. We got off the road in the first motel we could find.
My nephew in kc said he spread quite a bit of ice melt so that might be something to transition to instead of chopping. I’d just try a little vinegar or pb blaster to get the rust off and spray it with wd 40 or whatever you have and be done with it. Like said it’ll outlast us all and won’t bring more than a dollar at auction.
@bing
Vinegar!?! Oh, that I’ll try. So much easier than hard scrubbing.
As to the winter storm over the weekend, depending on which part of the metro area, some folks got over a foot of all snow, some like my area got lots of sleet topped by following snow, and other areas got freezing rain and sleet with accompanying power outages.
I pre-treated my drive and walk with plenty of salt so actually got the ice chopped up much easier than neighbors who didn’t. But with temps in the teens putting down salt on top of three inches of snow overlaying three inches of ice wasn’t going to accomplish much. So chop and shovel it was needed by whatever technique anyone used.
Unless my workplace is closed tomorrow, I’ll find out how good the snow/ice traction ofthe new tires on my car are. I replaced eight year old tires that still had tread but had become hard and with very bad traction a couple of months ago. The new tires are Michelin CrossClimate2 which have so far proven to be excellent handling and traction in dry and wet driving conditions. This week will prove the winter slick performance one way or the other. I plan to post a review here on the board once I know how they perform in the snow and ice. Most of the roads, including my street, are still badly covered in the deep slick mess.
I live in Indiana just on th northern edge of the storm area. We hsd 3 to 4 inches of snow. I was going to clear my driveway with my snowblower, but I had an appointment with my eye doctor and was able to get out of my driveway with no problem. I intended to clear my driveway when I got home, but.my neighbor already did it. It’s great to have good neighbors.
For a Christmas present in 1977, I bought my Dad a little Toro 2 stroke snow blower. It got a workout less.than a month later when the blizzard of 1978 hit our area of East Central Indiana. My parents moved into a retirement home in 1992, and I “inherited” the snowblower. I used it for about 10 years before it wouldn’t start when I needed it. There was no apark and it didn’t have much compression. I figured it needed an ignition module. I took it to a repair shop and the technician made the same diagnosis. He said “Was this snowblower used commercially? Nobody wears out a snowblower in this.area”. I thought about my Dad. He went around his neighborhood clearing driveways and sidewalks. He really wore it out. It wasn’t worth fixing. I went to Walmart and bought a cheap.2.stroke snowblower. It doesn’t get a lot.of use, so I use less than a can of 50:1 mixture. I don’t have to.mix up.gasoline and oil.and.then figure out what to with.the.extra gasoline mixture in the spring.
Forty-five years ago my mom and I gave my dad a two-stroke Toro snowblower. It was still going strong after he died and I used it until less than ten years ago when it finally died and parts couldn’t be gotten for it. I miss it!
Then I bought a new snowblower but not a Toro. My mistake. A part that is needed for the impeller to spin broke and no replacement part could be sourced to repair it. I gave it to the neighbor across the street who is a car mechanic. He and a buddy spent over a year trying to source or even make the needed part to no avail. So the machine got scrapped. That neighbor is the young man who hand shoveled much of my driveway today.
Depends on what use the shovel is for but I normally do not want a rusty surface on a shovel. Rust has “tooth” and will inhibit material from sliding off the shovel face. I would use a wire wheel in a drill to remove the rust scale until the surface is smooth and then if I wanted it to not rust again, apply some wax. Wax won’t stain fabrics if you’re storing the shovel where it can come in contact with carpet or other fabrics in your car. Oil probably will transfer…
My gas-powered snow blower has been getting less and less use over the past 5 years or so, as a result of warmer winters. And, if we get only 2 or 3 inches of snow, I just don’t relish the hassle of using that behemoth. So, last year, I bought a small-ish battery-powered snow blower from Lowe’s, and have relied on that machine almost exclusively for the past couple of years.
My driveway is ~80 feet long, and when I finished clearing light snow from the driveway this morning, the batteries still had 75% of their charge remaining. This battery-powered blower wouldn’t be good for clearing snow that is more than 7 inches deep, so I use the gas-powered machine if the snow is 7 inches or more.
