BLACK+DECKER 20V MAX* POWERCONNECT Why we review lawn tools.Worx WG170 GT Revolution 20V 12 Inch Grass Trimmer and Edger.Greenworks 40V 13″ Cordless String Trimmer and Edger.Want that for your yard? Well then, keep reading.
Trimmers handle a significant portion of the work, but edgers separate the nice lawns from the “stop and take a picture” lawns. Mark Clement is a home-improvement expert, licensed contractor, and host of the MyFixitUpLife show.But to get those crisp, clean lines, these two have to do a little shake and bake team action. Too sharp an angle and the string can't hit enough of the plant base to cut evenly. But be careful: Angle the tool too shallow and you're just eating string and not cutting effectively. Tip the tool so that the string tips are just glancing off the pavement, then move into the weed's base, cutting flush to the hard surface. Screeding: For grass and weeds growing in driveways, paths, and sidewalk cracks, it's fast and effective to do what I call screeding. Overlapping the scythes evens out the cut. Scything: When up against an obstruction I can't easily walk along or working in tall grass, I like to "scythe." This means bringing the tool into and out of the work in a shallow U motion. Instead I'll cut more lawn each week until I "sneak up" on the edge I want. In yards that haven't been edged before, I don't try to cut a crisp edge all at once.
I then walk the tool into the cut path so that it can eject material where I just cut.Įxpect to pull up dirt, rocks, and other debris doing this. I turn the trimmer so the string is vertical. On the other hand, when you pitch the string tips toward the object you're trimming against, you're cutting less grass and leaving a tight, tapered edge, and also blending the edge with the height of the mowed grass for a clean look.Įdging: Where surfaces are essentially parallel-say, between grass and driveway or walkway, I like to edge. One telltale sign that a person didn't taper is a channel of grass the trimmer clearly cut shorter than the mowed grass.
EDGING WITH A STRING TRIMMER FULL
The problem with not tapering, or holding the tool so the string is parallel to the ground, is that the entire diameter of the string has to cut a full swath of grass. This means that I hold the tool so the string strikes the grass at a slight angle. Along a curb, retaining wall, fence, or tree, I like to taper. Tapering: I treat the lawn's edges in two ways: by tapering or edging. The faster and freer these move, the easier lawn life is. Before you begin with them, it helps to understand one thing: The ends of the string are where the cutting power is. To turn an unruly tool into a precision machine that gives the cut I want, I rely on a few important techniques. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play But this isn't the best approach, and in fact will lead to some serious scalping. It seems like trimming your grass evenly should be simple-just hover the string trimmer above the grass and the whirring strings will cut it to length.
It piles up along your cut line, bogs down the trimmer, and makes scalping (cutting too much of the blades of grass) inevitable. If you go the opposite way, you'll eject material into the cut path, and there's nowhere for it to go.
So if you're moving along a walk, curb, or low fence, keep the right side of your body closer to the work, which will position the head of the tool so it can cut and eject to the left. If your trimmer spins counter clockwise, it ejects material from the left side of the tool and cuts best with the right side. Just as a circular saw needs to eject sawdust as it works, a trimmer needs to eject debris from its cut path. The biggest thing I see people struggling with when they use a string trimmer is spin direction. Plus, you can get it under things like shrubs and small trees more easily than with a curved tool. While curved-shaft string trimmers may be the best tool for some users, I find that a straight-shaft tool is far easier to control and much more effective.
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