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Hacking

Richard Parsons

Richard Parsons

Senior Member & Supporter
Not of the www or digital variety, but the best tool for clearing undergrowth and accessing swims.
What do you recommend? A machete, or is there something better?

Thanks
 
Hi Rich,

These are far from cheap, but made for the job, I have had mine three years, its superb
and designed for lower clearing of nettles and balsam.

Fiskars XA3 on ebay for around £35.

Super light and balanced.
Hardly any extra weight to pop in the rod bag.

Machetes are also I read going on the future banned list due to the bad lads
chasing each other up and down the streets with them!
 
Look no further Richard ... I call this my 'Persuader' and it will chop or saw down trees, or scythe grass. It's a beast.


20220618_121215.jpg
 
I have a 2 ft Machette hat my eldest lad made for me a few years ago, fearsome beasty with an edge that would cut your arn off ,it clears undergrowth with a few swipes.

I was going to buy one but he produced it after an hours work in his workshop.

David
 
Dave Taylor said:
I’ve been using this for years Richard. Mine is by Martindale but there are similar makes out there,…
cheap,.. lightweight and fits into a quiver long outside pocket easily .
Best to use with a backhand swing,… good piece of kit IMO.
View attachment 19777
Click to expand...
I agree with Dave , have cleared many miles of stingers and thistles with one of these . Very cheap on Ebay.
 
Dave Taylor said:
I’ve been using this for years Richard. Mine is by Martindale but there are similar makes out there,…
cheap,.. lightweight and fits into a quiver long outside pocket easily .
Best to use with a backhand swing,… good piece of kit IMO.
View attachment 19777
Click to expand...
That has a very useful look about it, Terry’s Persuader looks good but also looks like an invite from Mr Plod after some well meaning person reports your “zombie knife”.
 
Risking a tale from a decade ago that will probably make your eyes glaze over ,… but it’s cautionary advice.

One late close season Sunday morning a good mate and I checked out one of our club owned stretches of river,.. we were both committee members at the time, and having served as a secretary of the club I was well aware of the club’s rights of access etc.
l was using my reed/ weed slasher ( shown in this thread) to take out a few nettles in overgrown swims when we were confronted by a stable-maid who told us we were trespassing. I calmly explained that my club owned the fishing rights and that we had legal access along the bank,..to which she became worryingly hysterical,.. then proceeded to run back across the meadow to the stable block and soon returned with a woman who looked as she could have given Mike Tyson a hard time !
We ( again) calmly explained that we were within our rights to be on the stretch of river. We were both subjected to a few ff’s ( water of a bailiff’s back) and were informed that we were to be reported to the landowner.
I immediately phoned the club secretary to pre-empt any crap.
Sure enough,.. he received an email from the landowner to say his tenants had been threatened by me with a machete! ( a serious accusation)
The land owners knew we had legal easement of access and were told that it wasn’t a machete but a purposeful ligit tool for our riverbank management and it was us who were threatened. That was the end of that.
My point is that if I’d been holding any one of the big threatening sharp tools available and was photographed,.. things may have been different,… although I had my mate as a witness .
It pays to be careful of folk with phones who are looking for offence where none was intended nowadays.
 
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the good old weed whacker been using one for years cheap as chips on ebay
 
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