As much of the world plunges into the sort of deep freeze that may be the work of a clandestine global super villian, the trusty snow and ice scraper seems the perfect mid-winter Ernst Starvo Blofeld edition of Tool of the Week. Growing up in New England meant carrying one or more of these handy tools around for nearly six months out of the year, along with a childhood chock-a-block with scraping and shoveling. The archetypal Clunkbucket was in fact a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle. The heat exchangers had corroded into nothing long before the car fell for 500 bucks into the hands of this freshly licensed driver, who was more or less as old as whatever German ferrous materials the Vermont road salt had not eaten away. The car came already equipped with a scraper. This bonus snow and ice scraper served well to remove frozen crud from the outside of the window in this heatless automobile. The three-inch wide miracle of plastic injection and space age polymer technology was also very handy for scraping ice from the inside of the front windshield. Especially while driving. Heating and defrosting systems have come a long way since the rusted 1964 Bug, virtually eliminating the need for in cabin ice scraping. Snow and ice scrapers have been improved to wider and brush-equipped telescoping handle versions as shown here. Odds are good that any used car glovebox in the Northeast will contain one or more seventies-style Plexiglas models, making the vintage tools not only useful but collectible.
LOL. I remember coming across my ice scraper while unpacking shortly after my move to Phoenix. One of the aforementioned, seventies-style plexiglass models, complete with faded red handle boasting contact information for the neighborhood Allstate agent, I still don’t know why I had packed it. Perhaps it was habit.
In any case, I remember smirking like some sort of demonic miscreant as I doused it in charcoal lighter fluid and flicked my bic. As it blistered and began to melt around the edges, I felt no remorse. My heart was as cold and barren as all those mornings I spent trying to get the angle just right in order to chip away the frozen mess before I left for work. Only now does it strike me as ironic that it met with a melty fate at my hands. Had I just left it in the glovebox, odds are good it would not have fared any better.
Dude, wha?
Like, ice? It totally covers the windows of you cars? Radical!
//never seen it
//live in California
Justice, it is a truly awful way to start the day. Running late, throw clothes on and stumble out to your car, only to find that you have to spend the next 5 minutes cleaning ice off all your windows.
And do other drivers a favor, don’t be a douche and clear the snow from your roof.
-4 degrees this morning, Mike! With some lovely windchill. I’m a gonna go scrape now…Gotta replace a lightbulb, tired of driving around with the highbeams. Thanks for the humorous straight dope on scrapers!
I always found that all winter I would need a scraper and I never have one. But I would have one in my car all summer. Cassette tape boxes or an ATM cards where always an option. I miss having to unplug my car every morning. When I first moved to SF my truck still had the block heater cord hanging out front. Baffled the locals. As does the notion of racing on the lakes.
I friend of mine gave me one of the flat plastic cheapies as a joke when I moved to Florida. It has been worth it’s weight in gold over the years, as I have been able to just clear my windshield with ease as opposed to the rest of the neighborhood. The flat scraper is still my preferred style too, as you have one side with the ice breaker blade, another side with the sharp metal blade for fine work, the squeegee for slush and the two grooves for removing chunks of ice from your wiper blades.