Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within gear Search permies
Advance search Google search
Register / Login
GMC website Purchase PIE (Permaculture Inner-Circle Elite) Better Wood Heat DIY Rocket Mass Heater DVD Better wood heat - rocket mass heaters SKIP kickstarter underground house
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
SKIP=SKills to Inherit Property PEP woodworking Permaculture Experience According to Paul Better Wood Heat DIY Rocket Mass Heater DVD GMC website Permaculture bootcamp with people wielding tools rocket mass heater manual FREE!
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Looking for a grass whip of better-than-usual quality

 
Trace Oswald
pollinator
Posts: 3756
Location: 4b
1358
I like...
dog forest garden trees bee building
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Does anyone have any information on a high-quality grass whip?  I don't want a "made in China, replace often" kind of tool.  I want a good quality tool I can use to cut down weeds over a fairly large area.  I want it to be a super-sharp, or able to be made super-sharp, tool that will last.  I don't want a scythe.  Maybe someday, but for now I want some sort of long-handled tool for chopping through tall grass, briars, thistles, burdock, and the like.  I want a manual tool, not gas or electric.  A little heavier than the normal crap tool you find at the big box store is fine.  Great even.  The normal lousy version costs $$25-$35, so I wouldn't mind paying $75 or so for a good one. I can't believe I'm having this much trouble finding a simple, quality tool like this.   Any help would be very much appreciated.

A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series

 
Travis Johnson
pollinator
Posts: 4958
1195
I like...
transportation duck trees rabbit tiny house chicken earthworks building woodworking
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If I cannot find what I am looking for, in the quality that I like, then I just build my own.

A custom made Grass Whip would be really easy to build with standard tools and some files.
 
Trace Oswald
pollinator
Posts: 3756
Location: 4b
1358
I like...
dog forest garden trees bee building
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Travis Johnson wrote:If I cannot find what I am looking for, in the quality that I like, then I just build my own.

A custom made Grass Whip would be really easy to build with standard tools and some files.



I guess I may have to.

A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series

 
Dave de Basque
pollinator
Posts: 351
Location: Basque Country, Spain-43N lat-Köppen Cfb-Zone8b-1035mm/41" rain: 118mm/5" Dec., 48mm/2" July
143
3
I like...
purity personal care books cooking food preservation writing
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
For high-quality permaculture hand tools, I usually start with Danial Lawton's (yes, Geoff Lawton's son) business Permaculture Tools.

I don't offhand see what you're looking for there but I'll ask him. I assume they ship internationally but don't know, prices might be reasonable or prohibitive. I think the prices on his webiste are in Australian dollars.

Tiny garden in the green Basque Country

 
Trace Oswald
pollinator
Posts: 3756
Location: 4b
1358
I like...
dog forest garden trees bee building
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks Dave, I'll check it out.

A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series

 
D Nikolls
pollinator
Posts: 1781
Location: Victoria BC
315
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Travis Johnson wrote:If I cannot find what I am looking for, in the quality that I like, then I just build my own.

A custom made Grass Whip would be really easy to build with standard tools and some files.




Ya, this. I'm short on blacksmithing tools and skills, but this one would be a pretty basic project. If you could find the pieces you wanted for handle, shaft, and blade, a smith could get it together pretty quick.

'Theoretically this level of creeping Orwellian dynamics should ramp up our awareness, but what happens instead is that each alert becomes less and less effective because we're incredibly stupid.' - Jerry Holkins

 
wayne fajkus
gardener
Posts: 3073
Location: Central Texas zone 8a
818
2
I like...
cattle chicken bee sheep
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I did a quick google search to see what this thing was. I used them as a kid and we called it an idiot stick. I dont know why. That was the name.

Tru pro brand came up on a list of better ones. Amazon has it for $33. The blade is only connected on one side of blade. I remember that style being junk as a kid, but it may have been a junk brand. Not sure.

I know that the style pictured worked well for me. Connected on both ends so it didnt bend

31yz8z9FkAL._SX425_.jpg
[Thumbnail for 31yz8z9FkAL._SX425_.jpg]

Sometimes the answer is nothing

 
Dave de Basque
pollinator
Posts: 351
Location: Basque Country, Spain-43N lat-Köppen Cfb-Zone8b-1035mm/41" rain: 118mm/5" Dec., 48mm/2" July
143
3
I like...
purity personal care books cooking food preservation writing
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Danial Lawton of Permaculture Tools says:

If its steel blade with a wood handle i can have anything made.

I ship globally



So if you want to get a real good one made, that is at least one possibility. (PS - this is not an affiliate link, I don't make any money off this, and I haven't purchased tools from him. But I figure he must know what he's doing.)

Tiny garden in the green Basque Country

 
Colby Tyson
pollinator
Posts: 130
Location: KY
42
I like...
hugelkultur forest garden foraging food preservation ungarbage homestead
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A year or so ago I was in Home Depot browsing and bought this weed whip  (price was right ) and it has actually been a great buy - The edges look pretty difficult to sharpen though, its like a serrated roundish design. Thing is, I've never tried to sharpen it - even with some of them damaged/folded over, the thing still works great for trail/brushy areas. It did work better on grass when it was newer, but still does get the job done.

I do hope you find a better quality one, and wish I had a "good" one to compare it to...but it's one of those cheapo things I decided to gamble on and so far has paid off.

It's also a great shoulder and forearm workout!

The handle is robust and bracing/bolts move around slightly after hard use, but easy enough to keep tight. I may begin looking around for a replacement blade this summer just in case, but I have been happy with it so far.

If I can eventually figure out how to post my own pics, I'll show some close ups of what the blade looks like now after some good use.

Just let it grow already

 
Chris Kott
pollinator
Posts: 3847
Location: Marmora, Ontario
593
4
I like...
hugelkultur dog forest garden fungi trees rabbit urban wofati cooking bee homestead
posted 5 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
We had an old one of those at the cottage that I loved to use to practice my golf swing. No, I've never been any good, and probably because I liked to practice my swing with the idiot stick.

I would target these wonderfully useful bushy tufts of grass when they were tall enough to look like grain ready for harvest, and then I'd take aim and let fly. I loved to watch the wind take the fragments and disperse them.

As it turned out, this spread those wonderfully tufty patches all over the place, so I had no end of targets.

I never figured out why my family was always so cross with me after those practice sessions.

-CK

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

 
Trace Oswald
pollinator
Posts: 3756
Location: 4b
1358
I like...
dog forest garden trees bee building
posted 5 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Dave de Basque wrote:Danial Lawton of Permaculture Tools says:

If its steel blade with a wood handle i can have anything made.

I ship globally



So if you want to get a real good one made, that is at least one possibility. (PS - this is not an affiliate link, I don't make any money off this, and I haven't purchased tools from him. But I figure he must know what he's doing.)



Thanks for checking, I'll contact him and see if that would be feasible.

A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series

 
This tiny ad is guaranteed to be gluten free.
the permaculture bootcamp in winter (plus half-assed holidays)
https://permies.com/t/149839/permaculture-projects/permaculture-bootcamp-winter-assed-holidays
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...