trail maintenance – keeping gorse and brambles at bay – tools?

Try and keep local loops clear, doesn’t mean carrying around tools all the time but resort to secateurs, folding saw and the like if I notice trails are overgrown or have fallen trees.

Gorse is a right pain though, nothing clears it very easily — cutting, sawing, its all painful. Can someone point to a sickle type tool that could be used to slash away at gorse and brambles overgrowing trails?

It’s either that or laborious use of secateurs or sawing away at the gorse roots which will take bloody ages. Strimmer isn’t really an option, trails are a bit far away and not necessarily on public land – well used by walkers …

Naginata?

billhook, but legality of wandering around with one highly dubious

he he — had to look that one up, something like that would – possibly – be pretty ideal.
The more so as my surname is Sword… 🙂

I’ve got a folding scythe from B&Q. When I’m off out trail building I take it with me.

This is the boy for Gorse, get down on yer knee and slice right through the base, also brilliant for hacking through spruce forests for quick singletrack clearance.

Fiskars

That Fiskers thing looks just the job. My B&Q thing was dirt cheap and basically using it as a rake hasn’t really helped its longevity.

Might invest in one of those…

A decent sized machete is the business for gorse. A few swipes will expose the thick woody parts and then it’s easy to cut them too.
If your machete is sharp it will cut branches too. And just about anything else.

I tend to take pictures of my work just in case I get pulled on the way home.

That Fiskers thing looks just the job.

It really is the business, is a nice weight, length and keeps an edge pretty well.

shins and forearms?

Believe it or not, some gorse is protected. My brother gets environmental compensation to maintain gorse on some of his farm.

Pay attention to the safety instructions. Had my first lesson at hedge laying a fortnight ago, first time using a billhook, first time in A&E, first time having stitches… 🙄

You need a hedge knife, sometimes called an edge slasher. Let’s you chop thickish stuff without ripping your skin to shreds. Downside is it’s not hideable in a rucksack.

A Billhook is pretty decent but you have to bend down quite a lot, the tool 2nd in from left is better as you can get a decent swing and it deals with branches quite well

Everything fits in the duff bag but the hoe does stick out a fair bit so you need to be mindful and you can pedal and stop/clear as you go along the trails

Rogue hoe and brush cutter bought from here

Bush-cutter, it’s even named after the job it does.

Downside’s:
£££ (the cheap ones simply don’t have the ommph to go through small trees)
Noisy (as a result of the above, bigger engines are better)

Upsides:
Adjust your harness to take the weight and you can work all day without getting tired.

I’d use one of these clearing axes

That Brush Hook from Fiskars is pretty decent with Gorse, although I’d recommend some good gloves as you contact the Gorse most likely, well… I do.

Yeah it’s best to be careful and wear thick gloves/long sleeves when clearing low lying gorse as farm/wild animals may have rubbed against it or under and through it, speaking from experience it’s quite easy to get nasty blood infections from gorse needle scratches or if stuck under the skin.

Aye, and the worst of the gorse is the wee dead needles at the base, ended up with loads of them last time, took days to get em out.

https://www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk/grass-slasherweeder-p13
My gorse technique is to just stand on it, bend it and cut with a saw

I’ve got one of those John, fine for bracken, but won’t look at gorse or brambles. The bracken on some of my local stuff just makes them a 3 season trail tbh, they become completely engulfed from june til september, 8′ high and tick-tastic.