or multiple bars attached and a bar can be straight or curved fork portion 130 is contemplated to have a plurality of tines unless otherwise noted tines of the fork portion 130 can be described using the same criteria such as cross sections materials etc used for tines of the rake portion 120 preferred forks have at least 3 tines and could have up to 5 tines it is possible that a fork could have more than 6 tines but one of the differences between rakes and forks is that a rake has more generally shorter tines and a fork has fewer longer tines commercially available pitchforks with five tines are well suited for moving bails of hay or working with mulch and compost tines could be curved or straight and have a length of 15 30 cm preferred tines have a length between 20 25 cm and some tines could be as short as 10 15 cm or shorter or as long as 30 cm or longer in fig1 the rake and fork portions are coupled to a handle by virtue of a common member 140 manufactured out of metal or any other suitable material the rake and fork portion extend at approximately opposite directions 180 u00b0 from the handle and the preferred angle formed between the tines of the rake and fork could be between 180 u00b0 and 150 u00b0 or less most preferably the fork portion and the handle portion are offset relative to each other at a distance of at least 1 inch more typically at least two inches and more typically at least four inches in an alternative embodiment of fig2 rake 200 generally comprises a handle 210 a rake portion 220 and a fork portion 230 the handle rake portion.