Hatchet or Axe

[bczoom]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I would offer one caveat about the loppers. People tend to bend over at the waste and cut off the tree or growth. Because of the angle you wind up leaving a perfect little sharp spike in the ground pointing up at you. Do enough small saplings and you leave a field of "pungee sticks".

Phil )</font>

Phil,

I wholeheartedly agree. Your point should be taken for whatever means/tool is used to remove this brush.

 

[slydog]

I bought a black and decker brush hog about 4 years ago and it has been a big blister saver around my home here. Of course it does require electricity, but they may make a gas powered model, I'm not sure. Mine has a large hedge trimmer type blade that will cut a 3/4 inch sappling very quickly. For the larger ones, there is an additional pruning saw blade you can attach. It works great, but as I said before, you are limited by the availability of electricity. If you have a generator, and a 100' extension cord, you could do a lot of cleanup very quickly. Watch out for the fence wire though. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif I have had to straighten a few cutter teeth after contacting my chainlink fence with the trimmer bar.

Ken

P.S. Here are several models, they have a cordless but I imagine with what you are cutting the battery wouldnt hold up long. Hedge Hog

 

[goodoleboy]

Thnak you for the replies and all the ideas which are good. I figure ill probaly use a the bow saw since it is the cheapest option or anvil pruners.

 

[Bird]

I've had a fair amount of experience with this type of project and the machete is cheaper, faster, and easier. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Besides what I did on my place, a neighbor hired me a few years ago to drive my tractor, pulling a trailer, for 3 days while 2 other hired hands cut little mesquites in his pasture, and a variety of saplings in the fence rows, and loaded them on the trailer for me to haul to a central location for disposal. And it was all done with machetes.

 

[goodoleboy]

Bird, I priced a few machetes @ $6 and they were within my spending limit of $10 I could probaly do $12 but ill need approval from the wife.. kidding

Ill have to go to the hardware store see how those anvils work though.

thanks

 

[1bush2hog]

I use my trimmer with a brush blade(not the saw type) WITHOUT using the bicycle handles. It works fine. Takes a few whacks and the brush is cut. Good up to about 1.5-2 inches.

Saves the ol' back too.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

If some sort of a power saw is out of the question, I agree with Gatorboy based on the information I've seen.

ANVIL loppers are better used for hard wood, dead wood or dry wood. (1 blade and one flat surface that come together) Anvil loppers snap the wood as the blade crushes through it. Using anvil loppers on green wood will work if that is all you have.

BYPASS loppers are designed for green wood. (2 blades that slice together and pass each other) Bypass loppers slice the wood which is why they are a much better choice for green wood.

They cut much faster than an axe with much less human effort, especially the better quality units with ratchet assist gearing for added force.