Cut, rake, till, skim: the order of the work

Why the order matters

People write to us asking which single tool clears a shoreline. The honest answer is that no single tool does. A weed bed is stalks in the water, roots in the mud, and whatever floats loose in between. Each of those is a different job.

The good news is the order never changes. You cut first, you gather second, and if the bed keeps coming back, you work the bottom third. Skimming is a side job that shows up whenever the wind piles loose weed against your dock.

First the cut

A V shaped cutter on a rope opens the water. You throw it past the weed bed, let it sink, and pull it back through the stalks. The blades shear milfoil, pondweed, and lily pad stems near the bottom.

Our standard head cuts a path about 48 inches wide per pull. The Express runs narrower for tight slips, and the Pro adjusts from 30 to 62 inches so you can match the spread to the water in front of you. The cut itself is the quick part. Twenty minutes of throwing opens a swimming lane.

Then the rake

Everything you cut floats. If you walk away at this point, the wind gathers your afternoon of work into a mat and parks it against the neighbor's dock, or yours. Within a week the stalks get waterlogged and sink back down to rot.

So the rake follows the cutter the same day. The Razer Rake rides on snap-on floats to corral the surface drift, and the Weed Raker throws deep on a rope to haul what already sank. Pile the wet stalks on the grass, let them dry, then move them well back from the waterline.

Till when it returns

Cutting sets a bed back for weeks, sometimes the season. But the roots stay anchored in the sediment, and in fertile water the stalks return by midsummer. That is not a failed cut. That is what roots do.

The Muck Razer is the answer to the second round. The weighted drum rolls along the bottom on a handle, and its hooked teeth tear at runners and root crowns under the mud line. It works in passes over several days, not in one afternoon. Each pass loosens more of what the cutter cannot reach.

Skim as needed

Loose weed also arrives from elsewhere. A storm across the lake sends drift to your shore whether you cut anything or not. When that happens, the rake with floats on is the tool: throw past the mat, pull it home, fork it out.

Keep the rake rigged near the dock through summer. Skimming a fresh mat takes ten minutes. Digging out one that soaked and sank takes a lot longer.