Clearing Saw

[NoDipNoMore]

Hey All...This past summer I moved onto an 11 acre lot, all wooded and way overgrown with black berry brambles, scrub and who knows what else. It was like a jungle towards the end of last summer. I've been looking at one of the 45cc clearing saws from STIHL, Husky, EFCO to fight back the jungle. Any tips or recommendations..Do they work ok??

 

[MasterBlaster]

Whatever saw you decide to buy, I just have to say be sure to be familiar with the safe operation of it.

Don't get bit, know what yur doing.

 

[Justin Garrison]

What is a clearing saw. Bow bars on chainsaws are for clearing brush, but quite dangerous to use. My stihl owners manual says to never run a bow bar on the saw.

 

[NoDipNoMore]

Its a heavy duty weed whipper with a circular saw blade in place of the string

 

[sedanman]

http://www.stihlusa.com/trimmers/FS450K.html

 

[Justin Garrison]

I expected thats what it was, Small garden tractor with plow works too push it in a pile and leave, or burn it.

 

[Crofter]

I have done a few properies that were grown up with stuff like that using a tractor and brush hog. It mulches most of the brush so you have much less to pile and burn. If you root it out, unless you have a place to bury it, you get enough soil that it is hard to burn and you soon get a big pile. I think there are some smaller brush hogs or flails that wil go on a skid steer. Mine is 5 ft wide which might be a bit much.

 

[Pacific]

The best way is tear out the brambles by the root so you are better off trying to scrape the ground with a machine. A mini excavator with a clean up bucket and a blade should to the job pretty good. You should look for a minimum 6000lb machine.

I have spent hours and hours and hours fighting rotten black berry brambles I have cut them by hand I have cut them with a chainsaw and I have tried a clearing saw. I burned them too by piling brush and wood waste ontop of the blackberries and burning them that lasts for a year then the rotten god d*mn things grow back

A rotoslasher on a good sized skid steer would probably the easiest if you can find a old flail head mower they work good its what the highways dept uses.

To sum it up you maybe wasting your money buying a clearing saw I know the one I rented was a big waste of time for me. I do own a straight shaft Stihl FS-85 that I run heavy string on for hacking down the light growth. I have ran a blade on it but the dual line head works just as good.

The Husky Clearing saw I rented was HEAVY my god I was so sore and stiff from using it.

 

[Bill G]

all wooded and way overgrown with black berry brambles, scrub and who knows what else.

I see you are in Michigan. You state it has blackberry bushes on it. I would assume it also has some multiflora rose and more than likely Honey Locust. The previous posts have given some good advice about getting rid of the existing growth but unless you do not care what it looks like next year then you need to take a different approach. It does not matter if you cut it, shred it, yank it, dig it, doze it, burn it, or even pee on it you will not eliminate the problem. It will be back next year. It must be killed. DEAD. If you cut the trees spray the stumps with Tordon. That will take care of most of them in the future. Tordon is awesome but is nearly impossible and futile with multiflora rose and other bushes. They will need to be sprayed early the next spring when the new growth comes back and it will even stronger tahn the old. Some thing digging it out by the rooots will kill it. Well sorry but it will not as you rarely ever get all the roots. It is amazing how in some of our timber fields we have nice berry bushes back ever year in the corn. This is after chisel plowing each year. We doze ground off all the time. It does not matter what you do the crap will still come back. the only effective control is a combination of removal and spraying. As stated earlier Tordon is a wonderful thing for trees. There are general brush sprays for the bushes. Do not use Roundup if you want to save the grass.

Bill

 

[DirtTroll]

Rent a small tractor with a brush hog. Quick, easy, safe, and super clean.

 

[Skip Tooth]

Efco is the best kept secret in the power equipment business. For clearing some general "scrub" I would go with the Efco 8735BAV. This is a 34cc unit with a solid steel drive shaft and bike handles. It will come with three different cutting attachments as well, a bump-feed string head, a four-tooth grass blade, and a circular brush blade. In terms of durability and quality I don't know of any other line that can compete with Efco.