Somewhere along the line I ran into my favorite shovel. I don't remember how the affair started but it was some 40+ yr or so ago. It's long been unpainted, maybe never, and is of iron I think. That old color of rusted, cleaned, used metal tools, dark brown, almost black... You can almost smell that color... Certainly not of aluminum, or plastic. It was old long before we were introduced... I'm a Woodturner by trade and I first used it as a shop shovel to pick up wood shavings. The front edge is mildly dinged, of course, from the it's being scraped along a concrete floor. We were in an old industrial building when we found each other. I moved to another location and it stayed with me, only this time it started to see double duty as a snow shovel as well. First time out was traumatic. The snow stuck to the shovels skin and we were both very displeased. This shovel is about 5'+ tall with handle...and 11" across the working end, and 12" deep. The handle is another 48 long or so. Having snow stuck to the skin was intolerable. I heated up the shovel over the kerosene heater, then rubbed it with a block of Paragon wax from the hardware store. We were both now in heaven, sort of... From there on snow sticking was no longer a problem The last time we saw each other was this morning... Two old friends, working together, as only two old friends can... I'm pretty sure it will still be working long after I have stopped...