Once it's cold enough, my favorite tool is the $20 floor scraper I got a couple years ago. If you're as fanatical about ice quality as I am, this heavy, telescoping glorified razor blade will shave off all the bumps and ridges in your rink, leaving you with a surface free of major bumps. Super important if you're having kids or rookie skaters over.

This is the model I have:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... J8BEPMCMAQ

Got it at Home Depot in the flooring section.

What's your favorite rink tool?

My "Hand-boni"! Hands down, this thing lays down the water just like the real thing, makes my outdoor ice as good or better than indoor....Now just need to get rid of this half-hearted weather!!

Two years ago I bought an 18" squeegee at Home Depot. I skate around with it at about a 45 degree angle clearing the ice. The more snow and ice you can get off, the smoother the ice is after you water it. Works great! "Keep your sticks on the ice!"

Not really a "must have" rink tool but I "must have" my skates on when I shovel.

My must-haves for the rink...

1) Home-boni or RinkRake... without this gem, I would never get the arena quality ice I have in my backyard.
2) Single-stage Snowthrower - a donation to the rink by a friend, this baby has gotten me out of some heavy snowfalls and wet snows. Just powerful enough to clear the rink yet light enough to haul it over my 3' boards.
3) Metal shovel - nothing cleans the snow off the ice after a heavy skate to get it ready to flood like a good metal shovel.
4) A good hose - I have yet to find one that will last a backyard rink season... non-kink my butt!

Cheers
Kevin

i have a big 36 inch wide snow shovel. we get lake effect snows almost every night/day and there are times when theres a good 8-10" of super fluffy snow on my ice. that big shovel is great to just hog it all to the edge and then i can come back and clean it up with a smaller shovel and broom.

I'm loving my home-boni as well! Last year was my first rink year and I filled late. It snowed while there was still water under my ice and the water pushed up the sides from the weight of the snow and froze it in awful bumpy crusty fashion. I was figuring my rink was a loss, but tried the home-boni on it anyway. after one heavy coating and one normal coating (one that night the next the next morning) my ice was like glass and had remained so throughout the season. If you dont have some form of home-boni, see to it that you make one! they save you TONS of time and give you better ice with less water!

I have two welded scrapers for after play. They are HEAVY and BIG which is the point. It gets down to the ice and clears the ice fast after a skate. The handle is 18" one inch steel connected to a "T" and tap welded tight. Then it is a 48" shaft connected to a 4 foot by 6 inch blade that is 1/8 inch thick. Not sharpened (think hockey skates). We used a 1X1" piece of angle iron to spot weld the blade to and give the shaft a weld spot. It clears a large rink fast and levels off any bumps. Did I mention it was heavy? We can clear a 51x71 rink in under two minutes. Then rink rake and it eliminates sweeping. They are NOT for clearing after a snow. Too big and heavy.

Would love to see a picture of this beast scraper that you made!

I just bought a small standard ice scraper this morning and couldnt believe how well it worked. I figured it would be a big chore considering how bumpy all the slush made about 1/3 of my rink and now its all smooth and clean...or it was until I skated on it. now it needs to be resurfaced to make it back to being like glass...I miss that look!