example the blade 12 may be practically any useful width with a width from 18 to 24 inches being especially suitable the blade 12 is preferably formed from a metal which is thick enough to be fairly stiff providing only a small amount of give in use the housing weights and blade may be formed from any suitable materials such as are well known to those skilled in the art for example many of the components of the spreader may be formed of plastics various inexpensive metals may be used for durability and ease of cleaning it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the spreader can be used by pushing it rather than pulling although a pulling motion is believed to reduce operator fatigue and improve the spread of adhesive pushing may be desirable or necessary in some cases the described spreader can easily be used in the pushing configuration by simply adjusting the angle between the handle and the blade the weight applied directly to the blade may need to be decreased as there is a component of a downward force applied along the handle when the spreader is pushed experimentation has proven that the described spreader although it appears quite simple in concept to provide substantial advantages over spreaders previously available because the weight applied in the vertical direction to the spreader blade 12 remains constant being applied by the detachable weights 28 rather than a downward pressure of a user 39 s arm the thickness of the resulting adhesive layer is extremely uniform practice has shown that an individual spreading.