clearing undergrowth

[EdS]

So what do you ladies and gentlemen suggest for clearing undergrowth consisting of bracken, brambles, nettles and bits of tree - the usual woodland stuff.

Will it be billhook, kuhkri or machette?

The reason - spending most of the day getting tangled up on a missing person search, got me thinking about the best way of clearing some of the old tracks through the woods at home.

 

[swyn]

I would reccomend a long handled slasher. There are several types, some with long 's' shaped blades, short 's' shaped, some with blades like sickles and some with blades shaped like billhooks. Usual stuff, horses for courses. Each county evolved their 'own' style. It depends on the thickness of your undergrowth. My favorite is a long 's' you can do nearly all bracken, brambles and silver birch clearance with this and using the hook shape at the end lift the resulting debris out of the way. Most importand is that all this work is done without having to bend down. We still use this method for weeding around young trees.
I have found these tools are appearing in second hand tool stalls now as people are no longer making their living by using these. The 'whipper snipper' or strimmer has taken their place. You can do just as much with a slasher without the noise and HSE gear + it is light to carry onto the hilltop. Don't forget your long sharpening stone + it's holder which is called a c**t .
Hope this helps from Swyn

 

[led]

Yes, I agree. A long-handled slasher is what I've always used.

 

[Longstrider]

Yep, that sounds the tool for the job. Axmister sell a short version http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Ochsenkopf-Slashing-Hook-22834.htm

Mine has a less curved blade (more like a giant sickle blade) attached to a long (about 4'6") polypropelene type handle. It's not a tool to be messed with, it clears the sort of stuff you want to deal with virtually without slowing down.

Check out the sheds (B+Q, Homebase et al) in the gardening tools section as well as Agricultural Supplies stores and I'm sure you'll come up with the tool for the job.

 

[wingstoo]

I would go for one of these, quick, clean and easy to use...



Why struggle, when there is an easier way.

LS

 

[EdS]

just remembered I got an Irish hedge slasher thingy in the shed - rescued from a skip.

 

[British Red]

just remembered I got an Irish hedge slasher thingy in the shed - rescued from a skip.

I use a dashel basher - fantastic - think 3' long machete with the bottom curved over like a crook knife. Its double edged and only £9. Or a proper 2 handed scythe - these really chew through anything and keep you away from the stingy thorny stuff

Both available cheaply here (with slashers etc.)

http://www.ascott-shop.com/item1345.htm

Red

 

[Buckshot]

I would go for one of these, quick, clean and easy to use...



Why struggle, when there is an easier way.

LS

LS
Be very carfull with those. I've heard stories of people not tightening the blade properly and it comeing off and cutting thier foot off !

I have a long handled slasher that I use for stuff like that.
The other thing which I wouldn't have thought works but does is something that looks like a large, bent machette. The sharpe bit is one the side and you swing it in front of you while walking slowly.
Works surprisingly well, and is less hard work than swinging a slacher.

Mark

 

[bambodoggy]

it's holder which is called a c**t .

That's the old Anglo saxon word for a scabbard....it's were the word comes from originally although now it is just a slag word.

I was going to say something with a long handle to save your back too but as everyone else has said it I won't bother! lol

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[EdS]

same as for vagina in latin I believe!

 

[redflex]

Best tools I have seen for clearing under trees are pigs

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g137/redflex/

dont knock them till you seen the for yourself, will leave sapplings standing will removing nettles, bracken etc

 

[cubankopite]

are pigs any good with clearing brambles i'm in the process of clearing an old disused railway line at the bottom of the garden by billhook it's ok but hard work but if i could get piggies to do it for me it would save bramble rash

 

[redflex]

Pigs love to eat and destory brambles, in the pics there should be some showing bare patch next to brambles, the bare patch was brambles completely cleared with a few months.

 

[BOD]

Its still the name for a type of splicing though some modern books refer to it as a CUT splice.

Thankfully the Oxford book on Ships and the Sea is still not PC

That's the old Anglo saxon word for a scabbard....it's were the word comes from originally although now it is just a slag word.

I was going to say something with a long handle to save your back too but as everyone else has said it I won't bother! lol

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[falcon]

We've always called the long handled slasher a "brushing hook"......my grandad used to call the trimming of hedges "hedge brushing" which was another popular use. I think the long handle makes the tool more versatile...the two handed use means small diameter branches can also need to be trimmed with less effort.