Blade suggestions for cutting down pampas grass?

T

Tom831

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Jun 13, 2016
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In a couple of weeks I'm going to help a friend cut down several large stands of pampas grass to about ground level. Not trying to take out the roots, for now.

Any suggestions on the best blade to use?

My budget is about $50.00. A heavier blade is OK.

Thanks.

Tom
 
Maybe I'm wrong but wouldn't this be perfect for a machete?
Pretty much any decent brand would do.

Cold Steel has some well within your budget. A 24" goes for under $15.
Now you have $35 left for a Rat 1, Byrd, Rough Rider etc.
 
Get a machete ( Ontario,condor / marbles El Salvador made machetes, tramontina...ect )

Or a fiskars billhook.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I've read that pampas grass is very tough, so I thought that some machetes would be preferable to others - weight, length, etc.
 
The reviews I see for the cold steel 18" and 24" say that they were chopping branches up to 1" thick.
I'm sure that folks here will have more hands on experience than I do but I think I'd start there or fiskars based on some of the reviews I've seen. Good tools for the price and unless you'll be doing this often they should hold up and be easy to sharpen back to new.
 
Pampas grass is TOUGH Around me landscapers use chain saws to cut it down. I do my own and have tried various techniques. What works, of what I have available, is a large serrated kitchen knife used in a sawing action.
If burning is an option it's quick, easy and requires little cleanup.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
Yeah, for the actual clumps, I'd suggest a toothy saw and a machete backup. My favorite is the Condor El Salvador machete which runs in the area of your budget. Be good to have in a person's arsenal of yard blades anyway. They cut branches and trees pretty well too. For me, about 2" is the limit unless it is soft wood. Lots of oak, hickory, and cherry in my yard.
 
I work for a rental company and we suggest a weed-trimmer with a saw-like blade, makes short work of stuff like pampas grass
 
The Milwaukee Hackzall with a sharp 12" bimetallic blade is good. Tool is cordless and balanced so it is comfortable to use one-handed. Use the other hand to bend the stalks away from the sawblade so the saw is cutting tissue that is in tension. Either the 18 volt tool, or the 12 volt "Fuel" brushless will do a great job. The older 12 volt version (still sold) is much weaker.

If you just have to use a knife, the bending trick remains super useful.
 
I'd go with a weight forward grass machete if you were just looking to have fun with a knife, to get the job done quickly and with less sweat definitely a brush blade on a sawzall or chain saw.
 
hangmanshammer said:
I work for a rental company and we suggest a weed-trimmer with a saw-like blade, makes short work of stuff like pampas grass
Click to expand...

This should take care of it in short order-most likely the 8 tooth blade would work best. Multi tooth (like circular saw)works better on small trees. Soon you will be on to the more important things in life like having a beer.
 
There's a reason that landscapers and gardeners are hardly, if ever, seen using a machete for landscaping/gardening type of work.

There are more effective tools are there designed for this type of work, like the aforementioned.

Use a tree pruner, gardening/landscaping saw. Save your energy and time, unless you only have a machete or just want one. If that's the case, hack away.
 
Never had to cut that before but imagined myself using a kukri style blade if ever needing to cut down grass like vegetation taller than I.
 
I tie it up with rope and use a chainsaw below the rope. When we had a good bit of it we burned the old growth off every year, it grows back fast.
 
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