True Temper 2942600 Grass Whip with Double-Edged Serrated Steel Blade and 22 in. Hardwood Handle

Very good tool

This is an excellent tool for clearing weeds and light brush growing in shady areas of your property. You will be very happy with the speed and ease with which you can clear knee-high annual weeds, small vines, young thorny briars, and first-year saplings with this tool. It is easier than breaking out a gas-powered brushcutter for small tasks. This is not a scythe, however, and thus it is not ideal for mowing or cutting tall, thick grass growing in full sun.How to use:You should wear gloves and eye protection when using this sort of tool. Keep spectators back as, obviously, you are swinging a blade around and could inadvertently sling objects.Prepare your work area by clearing fallen limbs and cuting up thick diameter woody vines (over a few millimeters) growing in the area. Make sure that there are no hidden rocks, stumps, metal, or similar non-cuttable items present that could damage your tool and cause you to strain or injure yourself.Hold the tool like a golf club with the blade parallel to the ground and make smooth (not aggressive) pendulum-like swinging motions, as if you were practicing a golf stroke with a sand wedge. Do not reel up as if you were driving a golf ball; keep it below the hips. Slowly advance forward (small steps) and you will clear a two to three foot swath. Overlap tracks slightly for an even cut. The tool's momentum will do the cutting, and if you are forcing it you are encountering too-thick brush or you should raise your cutting height.The tool will sling the brush to the left and right of the user, as it cuts on both the forward and reverse stroke.As you work, pause and keep an eye out for fallen limbs and similar objects as you uncover them from the brush. If you hit them, you will strain your shoulders and wrists. It is best to work briefly and then rest and inspect the area; fatigue will cause operator strain or potential injury. Patience and well-planned operation will yield good results.Note:Check the bolts and nuts on the tool after purchase and the first use, then periodically thereafter. The nuts on the handle of my tool needed to be re-torqued after the first use. The nuts on the blade are lock nuts and they were fine. It is unlikely that the blade could separate from the unit and become a projectile even if one bolt failed (you would notice), but you don't want to lose parts or risk hurting somebody.I have a long-term shoulder injury and found that I was able to use this tool successfully provided I did not overexert myself and was cautious so as not to hit fallen branches or try to cut tall thick grass growing in full sun. A true scythe is what you should use for tall grass in full sun.Beware that Amazon.com may ship this tool in a very large box (see my photo).If you appreciate the information I have provided in the review, please click the helpful button so that Amazon will rank and display my content where everyone can see it. I was NOT provided a free tool for this review. Thank you!

I didn't know what a "grass whip" was -- I had actually been searching for "scythe." But I found this and decided to give it a shot. Turned out to be a good purchase.The blade is not sharp. At all. You could probably drag your tongue across it and be fine. This worried me at first. But it does have dozens of narrow gaps between those round bumps. So if you swing fairly hard, you get some cutting action, and then grass and weeds get stuck in those gaps, and get pulled out by the force of your swing. And it's 2-sided, so you can go back and forth and do some good damage pretty quickly.I've had good success with all soft plants, including 6-foot tall pokeweed that has a 1-inch trunk at the base. It won't work with anything even slightly hard, like tiny maple saplings, etc. But I only need to clear soft stuff. You have to swing pretty hard at times, so you'll get an arm workout, but I need the exercise anyway. So this purchase was a good fit for me, and it seems very durable. Thanks to everyone involved in getting it to me!

I have big fireweed growing along the edge of my grass. The forest wants to take over my yard. The weedeater works fine for chopping down but this tool is so much more fun. I practice my golf swing! Like golf, I’ve found if you swing fast, not hard, the swing speed increases TJ effectiveness. I cut through saplings smoothly if I swing right! Great tool!

Okay, I'm no stranger to hard work. I know this required some elbow grease and I was fine with that. I am going to share that I am left-handed. Why would that even matter? I have learned the hard way that most tools from scissors, knives (I have the cutest butter knife that is tooled on the wrong side for me), and garden tools are designed and tooled for the right-handed among us. I am quite handy and love DIY-ing but tools with blades often aren't my friends. The angle and sometimes position of the blade is wrong for me.This grass whip is okay. I tried to take all the lefty stuff into account, but it still has some major drawbacks. It has a weird grip. Like, I couldn't keep it gripped. It flew out of my hands a couple of times. This was better when I bare-handed it but I was left with torn skin because the handle design is *not* ergonomic...at all. When I wore gloves, I couldn't get a good grip for the life of me. So, I went with blisters...The blade is dull. I didn't try to sharpen it. It does cut, but takes a *lot* of swings to get the job done. I had to work hard even on light grass density. I didn't even bother with the back areas of my yard that are much more overgrown and where I was hoping to use it.I did get some grass cut, but it was waaaaaay too hard and uncomfortable to use. Guess I'll just keep saving up for a proper old-time grass sickle.