The rakes that the maintenance people for our building use to rake up fallen leaves don’t come from OBI (equivalent to Home Depot in the US), they are home-made. They have the usual wooden handle but the raking part is a bundle of branches from a tree (without the leaves) which are lashed to the handle. The branches I’ve seen look like they come from the same type of trees. I’m guessing they are flexible yet durable. At first you think they look like they come right out of the middle ages but when used properly they actually do a very good job.
Rakes that I’ve used in the US require a forward and backward action to bunch up the leaves. The Russian type uses a side-to-side sweeping action that moves a large number of leaves per stroke and gives the ground a tidy swept up (almost polished) look. You see the rakes used all over Москва so they don’t seem to be unique to our maintenance people.
I’ve tried to find out the origin of these home-made tools but thus far people I’ve talked to don’t know the answer. Since most people I talk to are English speakers from the US, UK or Canada, I guess this shouldn’t be surprising although a good many Russian speakers from Москва don’t know the answer either.
When (really if) my Russian improves to the point I can hold at least a minimal conversation (don’t hold your breath) maybe I’ll go directly to the source but at the moment I don’t know what they’re saying and they don’t know what I’m saying – welcome to the life of an English speaking foreigner.
I’m thinking that if you’re a maintenance person in Москва you may be required to supply their own tools. Store-bought rakes are probably relatively expensive so it may be that home-made rakes are cheap, easy to use and easily replaced when the branches wear out.
Доследующегораза,
Борис
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