I am wondering whether I can use a landscape rake to spread
compost / top soil when I am top dressing the lawn.

I cannot imagine how I can use a regular rake (for cleaning
leaves) to spread top soil evenly into 1/4" layer. I would
think that the excess top soil will simply leak out from the
holes in the rake, and I will have to go over the same area
repeatedly and I probably will still cannot spread top soil
evenly. This seems to be quite time consuming and not very
nice.

I am thinking of using a landscape rake to spread top soil.
Landscape rake is very wide that can cover a lot of area.
The soil contacting area of a landscape rake is around 5"
tall -- this means I can move a lot of top soil around.
The downside is that the teeth in a landscape rake is quite
long, like 3". This means it will only be good for spreading a
even layer of 2" thick top soil. If I want it to spread an
even layer of 1/4" top soil, I will need to modify it. I am
thinking of screwing in a long piece of hard board in the
inside of the landscape rake to cover most of the 3" teeth to
expose only 1" of teeth. I am hoping that I can use it to
spread an even layer of 1/4" top soil or compost. Will this
work? I don't want to try this unless I am sure this will
work because the landscape rake costs $40 and I will not be
able to return it if I have screwed holes in it.

Is there something else in the market that can evenly spread
1/4" layer of top soil or compost? I don't think I am the
only one in the world has this need, right?

I tried spreading top soil / compost by hands using the
technique shown in a TV show. But that was quite time
consuming and very tiring. I am hoping that using a rake is
faster and easier.

Thanks for any suggestion.

Jay Chan