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Old 22-06-2004, 10:02 PM
Ron Hardin
 
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Default New Toys (my new brushcutter)

madgardener wrote:

and they say women don't like power equiptment............GBSEG when yer
done, I have 1/2 acre that needs some brush work done..................
madgardener


New toys the other way...

Consider a scythe. I don't know about brush particularly but it's entertaining
on grass, if you want to stroll around after dinner with scythe in hand,
and decapitate any English Plantain coming up in the lawn - touch it
with the huge razor-sharp blade and it collapses into a pile of unconnected
leaves.

I may plant English Plantain so there are more of them to knock down next year.

There are brush blades for up to a half inch diameter, though I don't know
if it's a matter of touching or whacking. I have one but no brush needing
whacking at the moment. Next month I'll venture into the back.

Apparently you need the soft steel blades so you can put spectacularly sharp
edges on them. Seymour has high carbon steel, too hard; I got the soft
at www.scythesupply.com . The site has various essays that may appeal or may
not. Their blades fit the Seymour snath if you shim them with a bit of
wood to level the blade, from the hole being a bit too small for the knob.

This huge old scythe with the grass blade does a great job on grass next to
objects, to my surprise. Just insert the point between grass and object
(house, telephone pole ...) and move it forwards and away from object
and the grass falls over cleanly in a pile. I don't think you can beat that
in satisfaction.

There's also grass that doesn't fall over; I haven't figured it out completely.
You can take it out if it's tall, or if you make a slightly hard landing on it
(no need to whack at any time) apparently to hit it nearer the root than you'd
otherwise slide into it at. Other grass just falls over when you slide into
it at ground level.

You can actually mow the lawn with a scythe but it would be a little slow,
and involve going over again. Areas I've done that way have no grass
additionally cut by a reel mower when I run over them, so it really does it.

Just to say there's an entertaining alternative.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.