The short northern summer and the abundance of berry lands brought about the mechanization of the berry picking process. For this purpose, a “grabilka” was used in the north.

Along with a spinning wheel and valyok, a berry picker is a tool used mainly by women and children. It is covered with carvings and painted green on the outside and yellow on the inside. The sides and handle of the picker are often covered with carvings, and sometimes even on the inside and on the back side. The geometric design features denticles, triangles, squares, rhombuses, lines, stripes, herringbones. Various rosettes (solar motif) with rays, petals, and curls are also common.

A berry-picker is a wooden scoop with tines, similar to a comb. When collecting berries, it is used like a comb too: it is run several times through the berry bushes so that the bush twigs slip between the tines, and the berries are torn off and stay in the scoop. From the scoop, the berries are poured into a basket or apron.

Berry-pickers are usually made of birch or aspen.

A berry-picker consists of three parts: the tines (“comb”), the middle part (“spoon”) and the grip (“handle”). The number of tines depends on the width of the tool: there are 8 or even 15 tines, while children’s tools have between 6 and 8 of them.

The tines have an elongated triangle shape in section, with the sharp end pointing downwards. This makes the tines stable and prevents the berries from getting stuck between them. But in general, the tines wear out quite soon. It is common to see repaired pickers with new tines attached with wire or thread.

The “spoon”, where berries roll down when picked, is between the tines and the handle, and is usually between 7 and 8 cm long. Its depth is determined by the height of the sides of the scoop. Some pickers have a cup-shaped depression at the scoop shoulders, in which case the depth of the spoon reaches 7 cm. This is done to prevent the berries from rolling out of the scoop with each new comb on the bushes.

Probably, the holes on the bottom of the berry picker in the form of circles and crosses are of practical use. Small, unripe, and dry berries, as well as small leaves and other debris, are supposed to fall into these holes.

The handle of the picker is usually 14–16 cm long, but there are also tools with grips of 7.5–8 cm long. The improved version of the tool has a groove for fingers on the handle.