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| Weed-whacker and Kaiser or "sling" blade |
This makes me chuckle because I really liked Billy Bob Thornton's character in the movie, "Sling Blade". And yeah, I can see how it could be used to kill a person.
It's a great tool for clearing brush. Our neighbors came out a couple of times when I was working with it, offering their gasoline-powered weed-eater, but the sling blade is quiet and much faster than a weed-eater. I use it to keep our trails clear so Rocko and I don't get surprised by rattlesnakes when we're walking.
This morning I took a picture of our sling blade along with the other tool, that I just call a "weed-whacker" because I don't know its real name. If anybody knows what the real name for that tool is, I would love to know.
The first time I saw one of those things was in a campground in eastern North Carolina. The owner was using it to clear small brush and the tool fascinated me. While clearing the brush he disturbed a cottonmouth moccasin, which he quickly dispatched. If it had been me I would have carefully removed the snake to a place well away from it's human enemies, but I understand how some people just hate snakes. That curved blade looked like a perfect tool to pick up snakes with to me.
ReplyDeleteI sure could have used one of these up in NY to cut down the old sweet corn stalks at the end of the season. I had to use my lawn tractor and the sling blade would have been more fun and good exercise.
ReplyDeleteWe have a lot of big, meaty weeds here, and the sling blade handles them with aplomb. It actually belongs to Lisa's mother but she let us take it. Now that I'm doing her yard work, I just put it in the car trunk with my other tools when we go over there.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw it in her basement last fall, I though it looked heavy and unwieldy. To the contrary, with a little it of practice it is very easy to use. Once you get it moving, it slices right through most stuff; it even cuts through multiflora rose stalks as long as it is kept sharp.