[Yorkie]

Right, well, I blame Auntiemogs for telling me about the sale, but anyway ...

... I have quite a large garden which has quite a bit of lawn in it.  There's a fair amount of shade from some whopping trees that I can't do anything about (short of slightly illegal sabotage  ) and so there's also quite a lot of moss and thatch.

Having got blisters from trying to scarify and then aerate my dad's handkerchief sized lawn with his garden rake / fork, I've rather shied away from trying to do the same with my 60' version.

Which brings me to the point of this rambling post ...

What do you think of this scarifier?
http://www.greenfingers.com/superstore/product.asp?dept_id=340&pf_id=OS0258D

And either of these two aerators?
http://www.greenfingers.com/superstore/product.asp?dept_id=340&pf_id=LS5190D
http://www.greenfingers.com/superstore/product.asp?dept_id=340&pf_id=TE0275A

[Kleftiwallah]

I should look into renting a scarifyer (as you only use it once in a blue moon).  Look into getting a aerator that takes a plug of soil out of the lawn, rather than one that justs compresses the soil round the spike.

Blue moon this month.   
Cheers,     Tony.

[Yorkie]

Thanks Tony.  I thought I'd heard that about the aerator.

Aren't you supposed to scarify at least once a year?

[Gwiz]

If you've got a shady lawn then you will certainly need to rid yourself of the moss more often, and yes, you are supposed to scarify once a year (on what would be classed as "fine turf" or if that is what you are aiming for)
The hand scarifier does work on the pull rather than the push, but will also give you blisters the size of a ten pence piece if you're not careful.
You could, as Tony suggests, Hire the equipment to start of with, and then if you see good results, buy an electric or petrol scarifier (lots of electric versions around, I tend to "Plug" Alko as they seem well built.
As for the aerator, The newer ones (as in your post) tend to have the tines snap off in no time at all. Have a punt around for one that looks a little different, "Wolf" tools used to make a good one, or "Sheen" or "Graham"

[Yorkie]

Hmm, thanks Gwiz.

Back to the drawing board for some more research I think!