I’m not the most adroit of do-it-yourselfers by any stretch of the imagination; in my considered opinion yards and gardens are places to snooze on drowsy summer afternoons in between sips of iced lemonade and a lazy swat at the occasional fly who deems it necessary to invade my immediate airspace.
Lightweight Rotary Blade Hedge Trimmer
All that green stuff found therein, some of it quite pleasant-smelling with ornately colorful tips, remained something of a mystery to me. “Gardening is a pastime fraught with peril!” I’d often vociferated with some exaggerated passion when my significant other deigned it necessary to include me in “a spot of light weeding”.
“Light weeding” generally seemed to involve unattractively-heavy manual labor, and not least among those aforementioned perils are the implements used to “lightly weed” said green stuff. Violently sharp, spinning blades on whirring electrical things did not generally punctuate my avenues of endeavor. I liked it that way. My fingers liked it that way. My lazy lemonade-sipping predilection liked it that way, and I used my fear of being dismembered to optimum effect in the excuse department. That was the case, however, until some bright spark invented the Lightweight Rotary Blade Hedge Trimmer from Hammacher Schlemmer.
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This thing won the UK’s Smart Award for safety, which has, in the eyes of those that make such decisions, scuppered my work-shy summer gardening exemption list. The thing is, I’m really not that bothered by my newly-emergent green thumb, because this tool is a joy to use.
The rotary blades spin at a whopping 2,700 RPMs, which not only make quick work of cutting hedges, they shred the clippings for easy disposal. And disposal couldn’t be any simpler thanks to the built in accumulation receptacle, which makes waste management a doddle.
The 12” blades can scythe through stems up to ¾” thick, and are never exposed so there’s no danger from flying debris taking out an eye or some such (I still wear safety goggles, though, just to be on the safe side), and the dome-like guard protects those all-important pinkies.
The sturdy, well-placed handles make for easy control despite the power generated by the 500w electrical motor, allowing for both vertical and horizontal operation. And it’s light, too – only 7¾ pounds.
Dimension: 25”/62.5cm long, 11”/27.5cm deep and 12”/30cm wide. Weight: 7¾ lbs/3.5kg. Price: $199.95. Shipping: Gift wrapping available.