Cordless Hedge Cutter becomes Sickle Bar Mower attached to wheelbarrow

I decided to try using my long reach hedge cutter for mowing. It proved to be much better than the one attached to the wheelbarrow, for doing really tall stuff on difficult ground.

The Stihl model is variable speed, so I was able to give lots of power when needed and barely run it through light areas. It worked great on mowing down broom and berry bushes.

Below is a before and after shot of about 150 feet of the road. It took 12 minutes. Some areas were cut 5 feet from the traveled portion. I also used it overhead, to clear little branches that were reaching for the vehicles. I did about a quarter mile of road on both sides in 2 hours. Most of that time was spent on taller material. Grass and weeds under a foot long, probably took half an hour in total.

I have been doing the same thing as Dale plus trimming back my grapes to expose the fruit ; only I have been using a gasoline powered Stihl.
I am also well into my hay cutting. I use my scythe blade that I call a Wauna Blade that I sharpen with a round file so that each tooth is a scythe. When mowing I do not hold it as a trimmer but as one would hold a scythe. After decades of cutting with a scythe I can swing an eight foot arc with a 250 mm blade cutting 5 inches with each swing. Because the scythes are always moving at a constant speed my swing can be as fast or slow as appropriate for conditions. Three cups of gasoline with Amsoil 2-cycle oil mixed 100:1 one hour = 15,000 square feet mowed.

I have had my hay drying in a rack on the field.  I'm not crazy about how the rack worked, I might modify it.  It seems to hold quite a bit more hay, than I was lead to believe.  But, building something based on a single measurement, and pictures of young girls using the hay rack isn't quite as information dense as one would like.  

I suspect my hay is drier than it needs to be.  Further drying (of a test sample) in a microwave produced very little mass loss.  So, I rolled my US Park Service pine straw (long leaf pine) baler over to the hay rack, and proceeded to make my first square bale of hay.  The hay rack was only half full, and to produce this first bale I only unloaded hay from one end extension.  As an ex soccer player who's been injured too many times, I am still quite muscular and heavier than I should be.  I would probably make a good forward in rugby, well over 120kg.  In any event, I compressed the hay well.  I noticed the door was bowing at the bottom, and to get the bale chamber open later I had to tap at the latch with a hammer (while pushing against the door).  I reinforced the door at the lower hinge location afterwards.  Supposedly a 12x16 bale, I will guess it is 30 inches long (I didn't measure it).

As I am not making many bales (I thought it was going to be 1, it may be 5), there was no sense buying a spool of baler twine.  I bought some 3/32 multi-coloured cord (275 pound breaking strength) to be distinctive.  I had read of people putting wood toggles on bale strings, but never seen how that worked.  But, after entirely too much work, I am the proud owner of 1 square bale of hay.

The bale is sitting under cover (in the pickup).  After an 20 minutes or so, I opened the tailgate and the bale smelled quite nice.  Mostly pale green, with some patches of sunbleached yellow.

I have done quite a bit of mowing,  since first posting this. Almost all of it has been done freehand. I tend to do it along pathways and stairs at my customers homes. Most areas would not accommodate the wheelbarrow contraption. The guard teeth protect the machine from rock faces and concrete. I often advance slowly down garden pathways that are overgrown with weeds. Heavy growth like this tends to bog down the weed wacker. After going through with the hedge cutter, I often still use the weed wacker, to finish things off. My cordless Milwaukee angle grinder does an excellent job of sharpening all of my hedge cutting equipment. I was given a price of $60 to sharpen one unit. It took 10 minutes for me to do it myself.

On Monday, I went to a friend's house who has foolishly introduced many invasives to her once well-kept garden. I used the Long Reach unit. I tried using it like a scythe. It was awkward and hard on the elbow. Then I tried holding the bar so that the teeth point on an angle towards the ground and walking backwards. This worked pretty well.

A brick patio had been allowed to grow up in weeds more than a foot tall. The cutter slides along the brick and shears everything at half an inch long. Not quite as good as pulling them all by the root, but much faster.

A rather late reply, but it is now 2024 and I am looking for basically a handheld, powered sickle mower. Imagine a hedge trimmer mounted at a right angle at the bottom of your weed whacker.
Why does no one make such a thing??
I want to cut tall grass in confined spaces, such as in between fence posts and trees, then collect said grass and feed it to my cows, before I can let them out on pasture. I just spend about an hour on Google and came away totally frustrated. The closest thing I could find are itty bitty little shear blade edge trimmers – useless!
There's not enough room to swing a scythe, or to use a walk-behind sickle mower (besides, the BCS I have is too heavy for me to handle, I want something I can carry around and can use even if there is no strong man around).
End of rant – if anyone has ever come across such a thing or MacGyvered something together, I'd love to hear from you!

Jacqui Ehninger wrote:..... if anyone has ever come across such a thing or MacGyvered something together, I'd love to hear from you!

Is this more along the lines of what you are looking for?  I don't know how adjustable the angle on the trimmer is for the desired use, but maybe..??

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-40-Volt-Max-20-in-Dual-Cordless-Electric-Hedge-Trimmer-1-Battery-Included/1001415984?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-sol-_-ggl-_-CRP_SHP_PLA_SOL_Online_C-D-_-1001415984-_-online-_-0-_-0&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwo6GyBhBwEiwAzQTmc1Pak4PCii0PB5wTLj-NVetQXjZ2OTdZ9xOYGfmp2l027VcYwceIHBoCQ3QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Posted here before
I have some of these blades that are smaller in diameter to get into smaller places. The rotation means the little scythes keep cutting without needing to swing so I can cut verry selectively to weed around shrubs and fences.
The hedge trimmer bar does not cut grass that well unless it is tall stems which is what it is designed to cut.  I have tried to do it with the pole mounted bar trimmer and electric hand held on and neither worked well and tended to just get jammed up  with grass blades between the oscillating cutters.

Hans Quistorff wrote:Posted here before
I have some of these blades that are smaller in diameter to get into smaller places. The rotation means the little scythes keep cutting without needing to swing so I can cut verry selectively to weed around shrubs and fences.
The hedge trimmer bar does not cut grass that well unless it is tall stems which is what it is designed to cut.  I have tried to do it with the pole mounted bar trimmer and electric hand held on and neither worked well and tended to just get jammed up  with grass blades between the oscillating cutters.

Thank You Hans! Darn – I was hoping to use exactly that (hedge trimmers), but your experience does not sound promising. I have a weed whacker with a blade, which is what I think you're recommending?
I just don't want the grass all chewed up, I'd like to keep it long, so it's easy to pick up and feed.

John Weiland wrote:

Jacqui Ehninger wrote:..... if anyone has ever come across such a thing or MacGyvered something together, I'd love to hear from you!

Is this more along the lines of what you are looking for?  I don't know how adjustable the angle on the trimmer is for the desired use, but maybe..??

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-40-Volt-Max-20-in-Dual-Cordless-Electric-Hedge-Trimmer-1-Battery-Included/1001415984?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-sol-_-ggl-_-CRP_SHP_PLA_SOL_Online_C-D-_-1001415984-_-online-_-0-_-0&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwo6GyBhBwEiwAzQTmc1Pak4PCii0PB5wTLj-NVetQXjZ2OTdZ9xOYGfmp2l027VcYwceIHBoCQ3QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for – thank You! I guess I'll simply have to try and see if the hedge trimmer, help upside down, would to the trick for me. Unfortunately Hans, who commented below, did not have a great experience with it apparently.

I just don't want the grass all chewed up, I'd like to keep it long, so it's easy to pick up and feed.

The little minnie scythes filed int a saw blade will cut gras and winnow it exactly like a long scythe. With the advantage that whether you swing it fast or slow the scythe blades are always going fast enough to cut evenly.  Mowing light grass the scythe is just as easy and quiet but with heavy grass the power scythe is more productive.  It cuts on both the outward and inward swing if you wish and still leaves the grass long.  Most blades sold have large square or pointed teeth so that they are reversable but they tend to catch the grass and throw it back at you.
File the hook of the tooth like one would a chainsaw tooth with the sharp edge toward the ground.  Try to get the tip of the tooth the same shape as a chain saw tooth which will make it cut through brushy material as well as the grass.
In the 1950's two or three family members would take the truck out to fill it with gras for our dairy goat herd.  With the power scythe I could do it by myself.

Hans Quistorff wrote:

I just don't want the grass all chewed up, I'd like to keep it long, so it's easy to pick up and feed.

The little minnie scythes filed int a saw blade will cut gras and winnow it exactly like a long scythe. With the advantage that whether you swing it fast or slow the scythe blades are always going fast enough to cut evenly.  Mowing light grass the scythe is just as easy and quiet but with heavy grass the power scythe is more productive.  It cuts on both the outward and inward swing if you wish and still leaves the grass long.  Most blades sold have large square or pointed teeth so that they are reversable but they tend to catch the grass and throw it back at you.
File the hook of the tooth like one would a chainsaw tooth with the sharp edge toward the ground.  Try to get the tip of the tooth the same shape as a chain saw tooth which will make it cut through brushy material as well as the grass.
In the 1950's two or three family members would take the truck out to fill it with gras for our dairy goat herd.  With the power scythe I could do it by myself.

Thank You Hans! Is there a make or model number of what you are using that you could give me? Or did you build this thing yourself?
Given my personal situation, I just need to be able to buy something off the shelf. Unfortunately I have neither the skills nor knowhow to rig anything up.

Thank You Hans! Is there a make or model number of what you are using that you could give me? Or did you build this thing yourself?
Given my personal situation, I just need to be able to buy something off the shelf. Unfortunately I have neither the skills nor knowhow to rig anything up.

I have good success with this one It will work initially as it comes but I recommend sharpening it with a round file to gradually change the teeth into the scythe shape.

Hans Quistorff wrote:

Thank You Hans! Is there a make or model number of what you are using that you could give me? Or did you build this thing yourself?
Given my personal situation, I just need to be able to buy something off the shelf. Unfortunately I have neither the skills nor knowhow to rig anything up.

I have good success with this one It will work initially as it comes but I recommend sharpening it with a round file to gradually change the teeth into the scythe shape.

THANK YOU! :-)