Recommendation? Best tool for Blackberry?

Quality, light, long machete! Good gloves and tough protective clothes. If you don’t wear glasses - add eye protection. Thorns will flying! Remember as you get into the patch to keep a eye on the canes above you. If one gets you it will on your head, ear etc! Deal with Alders on a second pass.
 
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This is what I use on blackberries. I can chop with it like a machete, or reach in with hooked tip to get an individual troublesome cane. The long handle lets me keep my hand farther away from the thorns. Because blackberries are very good at punishing you with their thorns.

The knife as I understand it, is a traditional work knife, of the Khasi tribe of northeast India.

O.B.
 
Thanks everyone for the great replies, I really appreciate the feedback and suggestions.

Good callouts on wearing eye protection. That's not something that I would have thought about myself. And, I'm not at all surprised to hear that a blackberry patch gave the would be burglar a hard time. Its certainly not fun stuff. I sometimes wonder how any of the larger animals in the area deal with walking through it.

I think for right now, I'll likely grab a machete first, as that seems to be the most recommended, as well as one of the cheapest options. The problem is there are so many different styles (mojarra, cuma, pata de cuche, panga, etc). Any feedback there?

And, the reason I'm doing this by hand, is actually to save money on a future excavator rental. I recently moved into a new house, and the lot/property is still a bit on the wild side. Last summer I graded the main yard areas, but the other areas I've never seen whats behind/under the blackberry. I want to get in there and see what the "lay of the land" is, so I can plan my work with the excavator, and save some machine hours (less days of rental).That way I can do more just pure earthmoving, and less brush removal.

This means that I'm not too worried about getting the roots /etc out, as I'll be handling that work with the Excavator. Which, is a good thing as I see it, as I hear they're near impossible to totally remove/kill the roots.

Thanks again everyone :).
 
With our blackberries that last thing you want is a hook. The blackberries are always too dense to cut all in your path of swing. What you don't cut gets hook and pulled toward you. You couldn't possibly understand unless you cut dense NW blackberries. A machete that slides off the last uncut vines is what you NEED.
 
I can't speak for NW blackberries, but we do get some high blackberry bushes here and corn hooks can be ground super thin and laid on the canes and pulled to sever in neat cuts rather than just flailing around with it. A slasher on a pole allows you to keep your distance to the point where it's a non-issue. Looking at pictures of Rubus ursinus online I'm not seeing anything I wouldn't be comfortable tackling with a slasher ground nice and thin. Like, a scythe-thin edge.
 
Square_peg said:
With our blackberries that last thing you want is a hook. The blackberries are always too dense to cut all in your path of swing. What you don't cut gets hook and pulled toward you. You couldn't possibly understand unless you cut dense NW blackberries. A machete that slides off the last uncut vines is what you NEED.
Click to expand...

Well I live and grew up in western Oregon. I have fought with those blackberries most of my 60 years. I got that knife for the purpose of cutting blackberries, because it has that hook. I use the hook to selectively target large vines and pull them out in one piece, instead of chopping them to bits. I use the hook to clear what I have chopped, so that I don't have to chop it again and again to get the vines below and behind it. I find that at the end of the day, I have fewer wounds than I used to get, using a machete.

O.B.
 
I spent several days clearing blackberries off of my dads 4 acre property. Skip the hand tools. I prefer hand tools usually but not for blackberries. You want a large weed whacker with a steel blade. Watch out for plants you want to keep as the steel blade will take out one inch saplings fairly easily. Also, consider herbicide once it’s cut or you’ll probably have to do it all over again next year. Blackberries are no joke in the PNW.
 
I've used a machete, Woodsman's Pal, kukhri, hatchet, bolo, hatchet... some just to play around with them.

However the best thing I've found are the limb cutters that look kind of like bolt cutters, these, http://images.esellerpro.com/2152/I/955/4/lrgGREGT021_1_1000.jpg

That and the handheld pruners have worked great as I slowly trim back the blackberry bushes in my back yard. http://www.survivalequipmentgear.com/uploads/8/4/2/4/8424411/s706160425404056057_p2272_i1_w2560.jpeg

I also have the cutter that is like the first one I showed, but on a 4 foot staff with a slide handle. I think it's made by Gerber. It works are pretty thick vines and small, 2 inch and under, limbs.
 
My recommendations based on clearing shelterbelts of all kinds of brush would be a combination of the Woodsman's Pal and the Fiskars long handled loppers with the gear teeth in them. If one buys the Woodsman's Pal, I strongly suggest getting the model with the D-handle. It will minimize profanity while clearing out larger brush in close quarters by saving your knuckles.

My son cut down trees up to 6" in diameter with his Woodsman's Pal, I think as a method of "stress release" or because young men like to chop stuff just to chop. I told him he could leave those for the chainsaw, but by all means chop whatever need to be chopped. (Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!)
 
Oh, I meant to update this thread with the results of what I actually ended up doing, and what I thought about my tool selection, the whole experience, etc.

I ended up buying a 24in weighted imacasa machete for my task. In hindsight, I may have wanted a bit longer and lighter machete for the areas that were more pure blackberry, but the "longer-ish" 24in weighted machete did pretty well on the saplings, and few small trees I ended up taking down. I figure the area I cleared was probably close to 1/8 acre.

Learnings/observations:
  • For these big PNW blackberry, I don't think I would have wanted anything with a hook on the end, unless it was substantially longer.
  • I'm not stretching the truth, when I say that areas were ~8-12ft tall (over my head, and couldn't reach with the 30in OAL machete)
  • Green blackberry canes weren't an issue ever, at least with this tool. They (and ferns) are pretty darn easy to cut.
  • Dead blackberry canes were much more picky about the angle used, and the blade speed. It was mostly because of the areas with huge clumps of dense dead blackberry cane that I considered buying a lighter 28in latin pattern machete (never did, but considered it).
  • If the machete was dull, you hit the (dead) cane at the wrong angle, or your tip speed wasn't high enough, it would sometimes pull the canes instead of cutting them, resulting in one cane pulling around the back of my neck like a chain on a chainsaw bar, instead of cutting cleanly.
  • Saplings of < 1~1.5in I could generally chop down in one stroke, occasionally two.
  • Saplings > 1.5 < 3in or so were just a few strokes to take down.
  • I could take down whole groups of saplings < 1in in a single swing, easily
  • The largest tree I took down with it, was maybe... ~6- 7in or so in diameter (guessing, from memory of this happening 3 months ago). It wasn't ideal in that situation, but it didn't take long enough to worry about hiking up the hill to go find a more appropriate tool.
  • I learned its easy to prevent the machete from sticking/binding in thicker wood by just not swinging as hard.
  • Large machetes are absolutely amazing at limbing downed trees/saplings.
  • If I'd been trying to cut things even with/flush to the ground, the machete would be much more frustrating to use. I was glad my game plan was to rip out the roots with an excavator instead of trimming them flush, or digging them out by hand.
  • A bank blade or the like probably would have worked, but would have been hard to wade through the denser areas, and been tiring.
  • I'm not very familiar with Scythes, but I don't think "I" would have gotten as much done with one in the same amount of time. Way too many larger saplings around, and the area was uneven, and most of it was on a pretty good angle (maybe ~15-25% degree angle).

I don't have any photos of the project handy at the moment, but I'll see if I can find an image hosting account that I don't have to sign up for, and post them here as well.

This is the stock photo of what I used. 24in Mojarra machete by imacasa.
Imacasa24InchMojarraMachete2.jpg
 
As far as machete patterns go, I'd suggest either a "sable" or a "guarizama" pattern. The blades are quite light and fast. Then sharpen them almost absurdly thin.
 
ocnLogan said:
Oh, I meant to update this thread with the results of what I actually ended up doing, and what I thought about my tool selection, the whole experience, etc.

I ended up buying a 24in weighted imacasa machete for my task. In hindsight, I may have wanted a bit longer and lighter machete for the areas that were more pure blackberry, but the "longer-ish" 24in weighted machete did pretty well on the saplings, and few small trees I ended up taking down. I figure the area I cleared was probably close to 1/8 acre.

Learnings/observations:
  • For these big PNW blackberry, I don't think I would have wanted anything with a hook on the end, unless it was substantially longer.
  • I'm not stretching the truth, when I say that areas were ~8-12ft tall (over my head, and couldn't reach with the 30in OAL machete)
  • Green blackberry canes weren't an issue ever, at least with this tool. They (and ferns) are pretty darn easy to cut.
  • Dead blackberry canes were much more picky about the angle used, and the blade speed. It was mostly because of the areas with huge clumps of dense dead blackberry cane that I considered buying a lighter 28in latin pattern machete (never did, but considered it).
  • If the machete was dull, you hit the (dead) cane at the wrong angle, or your tip speed wasn't high enough, it would sometimes pull the canes instead of cutting them, resulting in one cane pulling around the back of my neck like a chain on a chainsaw bar, instead of cutting cleanly.
  • Saplings of < 1~1.5in I could generally chop down in one stroke, occasionally two.
  • Saplings > 1.5 < 3in or so were just a few strokes to take down.
  • I could take down whole groups of saplings < 1in in a single swing, easily
  • The largest tree I took down with it, was maybe... ~6- 7in or so in diameter (guessing, from memory of this happening 3 months ago). It wasn't ideal in that situation, but it didn't take long enough to worry about hiking up the hill to go find a more appropriate tool.
  • I learned its easy to prevent the machete from sticking/binding in thicker wood by just not swinging as hard.
  • Large machetes are absolutely amazing at limbing downed trees/saplings.
  • If I'd been trying to cut things even with/flush to the ground, the machete would be much more frustrating to use. I was glad my game plan was to rip out the roots with an excavator instead of trimming them flush, or digging them out by hand.
  • A bank blade or the like probably would have worked, but would have been hard to wade through the denser areas, and been tiring.
  • I'm not very familiar with Scythes, but I don't think "I" would have gotten as much done with one in the same amount of time. Way too many larger saplings around, and the area was uneven, and most of it was on a pretty good angle (maybe ~15-25% degree angle).

I don't have any photos of the project handy at the moment, but I'll see if I can find an image hosting account that I don't have to sign up for, and post them here as well.

This is the stock photo of what I used. 24in Mojarra machete by imacasa.
Imacasa24InchMojarraMachete2.jpg
Click to expand...

Yes, fast, light and thin are the keys to cutting blackberries, especially the dried canes. You never want to hook them. You need to cut them clean.
Try attacking this with a hook and you will quickly learn why. These were merely 10-1/2 feet tall. But 15 foot high canes are common in this area (PNW). Photos taken in Spring when they were just ready to branch out again.


Blackberries2.jpg


Blackberries3.jpg
 
I agree that you don't want to be hooking the canes, and can't help but think there's been a misunderstanding by what I mean when I suggested tools that have hooked blades. They're used with a slashing stroke, not a hooking one. And even when laid on a cane and tugged, it's in a direction away from the body that would keep it from coming back at you. Having the edge super thin is key, and using the blade in such a way that it creates an aggressive slicing action rather than a yanking, hooking one. The alignment of the hook of the blade with the arc of the stroke is what causes the slice.
 
if you're talking about a tool that is sharpened on the outside of the hook then yes, that outside blade could be used for blackberries. But simply dragging a cane along means dragging other canes it's tangled with and those other canes will snag you or come down on your head and shoulders.
 
I did totally misunderstand the hooked blades suggested then 42. Most looked like billhooks or the like, where the inside was the sharpened edge, and that was what I was referring to here as probably "less than ideal". But wouldn't a hook sharpened on the outside, just end up being a long trailing edge? Or are you talking still sharpened on the inside edge, but just cutting away from you?

The problem with "dragging" canes wasn't usually too big of a deal, except when I was quite literally "wading" into these tall thickets (where I couldn't reach the canes at the top of the arc, even though I'm ~6'1", and was holding a 30in OAL machete). I mean, I did my best to not literally be encircled/tunneling into the center, but even when I was working around the edges the best I could, it was in this scenario when dragging a cane was the worst/most likely to occur.

Most of the times when I dragged a cane, the one that hit me wasn't the one that I was trying to cut. Instead it was one I couldn't quite reach yet, and was either completely intact and long, or, was previously cut, but suspended/stuck above me by other canes.

The reason it typically wasn't the one I was cutting, was that usually I was cutting off 1 - 1.5 ft of cane at a time. If it drags then, its shorter than the length of the machete, so no big deal. But in the really tall areas, I couldn't always cut 1-1.5 ft off at a time, because it was out of reach overhead, so I'd have to go to where I could cut it next, and sometimes that left 4-8ft of cane coming down at once, which led to more tangles/snags, and why it was worst in those situations.

Fortunately, its really not a major problem. Its not like heavy tree limbs were coming down on my head. The canes do have some good sized thorns, but I wore a hat, and had a hoodie on (this was Feb/Mar in the PNW when I was doing this), so there weren't any real injuries, just scratches.

That said, I could have leaned the edges back on the machete more. And if I had a dedicated blackberry machete, and lots more blackberry to cut, I would go with a longer and lighter one, and sharpen it very acutely.
 
You're describing NW blackberry hacking perfectly. And you're dead on, long, sharp and very acute are the keys. Also, cutting the canes into short lengths as you describe is exactly what I do. That way thery can be safely trampled without climbing back up your trouser.
 
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