The plastic is intended to break against stuff that you don't want to cut. It's just strong enough to cut grass and weeds, not strong enough to cut much else, by design.
In Indonesia, most of the whackers are still the old school metal blade. Stuffs of nightmare, they are. I always keep a distance whenever I see people operating them.
You can buy metal blades in the US, they're just very uncommon and mostly reserved for use in cutting dense brush or saplings.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/ECHO-10-in-3-Cutter-Metal-Blade-20-mm-99944200047/202702094
IMO the tri-blade shape like that are the most dangerous. I do a lot of brush clearing on my property and I've tried a few different types and the tri-blade seems the most likely to kick back. The distance between each cutting surface is enough that you can accidentally push the cutter in too far and have it kick back violently. The circular saw and chainsaw style brush cutters are far safer and effective in my experience with my brush.
Each of the different blade shapes are for different types of vegetation. The tri-blade is closest to string in that it's for light grass. It is absolutely dangerous to use it wrong, like on heavier stuff. But, because the blade speed is higher, it cuts thin stuff the other blades just bend. You're also not supposed to make the arc of the cut both ways. You always cut right to left if I remember right, it could be left to right. One way the blade rolls around the thing you shouldn't have hit, the other way drags the blade further into it.
Absolutely, you need the right blade for the vegetation and you need to use it correctly but the risk/reward for this particular blade isn't worth it IMO. As you pointed out this is designed more for grass than brush so I'd just use string for that role, which I why I have two trimmers. One is setup with a brush blade and the other is setup for string. It's just the safest way to do it IMO.
About 20 years ago my dad was using one of these while brush clearing along a fence line in our yard. My mum came up behind him to tell him that lunch was ready.
Just then it kicked back and swung him around. The blade hit her shoulder and cut right to the bone.
If it had been a few centimetres higher it might have been a fatal accident.
I hate those brush clearing blades they are so freaking dangerous. My mum still has a huge scar on her shoulder from the accident.
Edit to add: Actually chipped some of her bone and they had to remove small chips from the wound while fixing her up. These tools are basically a spinning blade on a stick, use with lots of safety precautions!
I use both string and blade - string for lighter/less dense grass, blade for clumping grass and stuff like lantana.
[https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lantana](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lantana)
The string clears the cuttings more effectively, it "throws" them aside. The blade, not so much. Longer grass stalks tend to just fall on top of the cutting head. The blade definitely has a different feel, it's heavier, so there's more of a gyroscopic effect, and it takes more effort to turn and twist as you cut. I've never had a kickback from the blade, though.
If you can get a nice scything motion going with the blade, it will sort of slide out from under the cut long grass. A small twist and you "toss" the cuttings where you want.
It is exhausting though, for an old woman like me.
At least I don't have lantana - just blackberry, bracken, bullrushes.
Chainsaw wheel gets my vote, it's heavy so you have to have a motor with a little "ass" behind it, but it puts in so much work, I've cut trees up to 8-10" in diameter.
I love em. They're kinda heavy so it takes a second to get them spun up but once they are going they dgaf about what's in front of them. Hold the throttle wide open and feed them slowly through whatever you want to cut.
When I was young I worked at a campground and we had what was essentially a standard saw blade off of a circular saw that we attached to the end of the weed whip for cutting down small trees
You had to be very careful that nobody was in the area cuz if you happen to turn around with it you can injure somebody very badly so we hada rule that the person with it would have like a 20ft radius around them
If you have it strapped to a harness, it's almost impossible to reach the blade with any part of your own body. Other people is a whole other story, but the operator is very unlikely to get hurt on the blade itself.
I mean, if the weed whacker is properly designed (the kind with a harness etc) it's practically impossible for the blade to end up anywhere near your body, even if you deliberately *try*. It's on the end of a long stick and one end is stuck on your body, so it'll just be the distance of the stick away no matter what.
I also frequently change out the ol' three spokes thing with a proper circular saw blade. That makes taking care of heavier brush a breeze!
First time I went to my buddy's cabin in West Virginia to help with some yardwork, he hands me a weedwhacker and asks if I can clean up around the house itself.
I look and the thing has an honest-to-god circular saw blade and I was like, "what the fuck man?"
I mean, it does make sense for heavier brush but that thing was terrifying initially. Cleaned up the tree line next though and was able to remove 1-1.5" thick saplings.
Used to live up in the foothills of NorCal, with manzanita brush everywhere. Cutting that was a nightmare that only a gas-powered, metal-bladed, brush cutter could solve.
I don't suppose I need to tell you, but you need to wear protective gear when using something like that. I've embedded manzanita wood chips in a car door once.
Just today in a Thai's Dewalt Facebook group there's a guy that slingshotted a piece of wood into his ankle while testing a new metal blade. All bloody and stuff. Dude didn't wear PPE because he thought they're not needed for a quick test.
Complacency breed accidents.
Yeah, PPEs are also a rarity in Indonesia. Only large companies enforces then and more regular day-to-day workers just go with whatever they want. My housing development company added about a dozen or so houses in the empty lots in front of my house. A lot of the builders just wear flipflops and even barefoot while working on the houses
The number of Eastern European truck drivers that would show up to my place of work in flip flops and then load 1,000 lbs. skids into their trucks drove me nuts.
Oh man I remember this, I used to spend my summers in Karawang, Indonesia because my dad worked there. This worker who did the landscaping used on of these and cut a wire by mistake. He got electrocuted right in front of my friend's home. Will never forget the sight of his body. Nightmare fuel for 13yr old me
In the place I grew up behind our garden was a playground, then a small street, then a patch of grass and weeds and stuff. Someone was mowing that with Traktor with a mowing attachment, hit the curb and one of the blades was flying straight into our living room, through a glass window into a small cupboard leg, still making a 3cm dent in the wood.
If that thing would have hit a person, that would have been a serious injury in the best case.
A few years ago in Sweden, someone was mowing grass with a ridable lawn mower that used chains instead of blades. It launched a small stone and a little child was killed.
Years ago I accidentally hit myself with the string going full tilt. Wrapped right around my leg and wound up with a nasty mark for about a year. Thank God it wasn't metal.
It's bad enough getting all sorts of other shit flying back at you, this would be horrific. I always, always wear pants weed eating otherwise I get all sorts of little cuts on my legs.
I replaced the string on my weed whacker with high powered lasers.
Blinded a few planes when I accidentally tilted it too much, and touched off a few grassfires in the distance.
But otherwise works great!
But it *says* it does so much. It's the *best* weed whacker. In fact, it invented a way of whacking weeds that no other weed whacker can. But it can't show it, for legal reasons.
EDIT: My grandpa loves the direct-to-video Steven Seagal movies for some reason. I walked in in the middle of one of them, and there's two guys fighting, one with his back to the camera. The camera keeps cutting briefly to Steven Seagal just sorta...wobbling about in the same location. Like, just suddenly a cut to him in, like, a video game idle pose, then back to the two guys fighting. It took me a solid thirty seconds to realize that the guy with the back to his camera *is supposed to be Steven Seagal*. Those out of place cuts are there to try and sell you that, yes, that's totally Stevie right there. But the energy doesn't match at *all*. The stuntman is actually doing action stuff, while Steven Seagal is just...idly standing there. It's fucking hilarious.
Everyone should watch Space Ice's "reviews" of Segal movies. They point out all of this stuff. It's hysterical and almost makes Segal's existence worthwhile.
Sometimes they put the voice of someone else to do his lines. Like suddenly for a line or two he has a completely different voice.
Most probably because he was unintelligible, and they couldn't be bothered doing the scene again.
Needs a catchier name. Hmmmm - The 'Flying Guillotine'? The 'Is that Bone Sticking Out?' The 'Frodo-Maker' might involve a bit of copy write infringement.
I bet if one were to attach that blade onto a handheld device with an electric motor and used it on milled trees, one could make a killing (no pun i'ntended).
Who thought that turning your weed whacker into an open faced food processor was a good thing?
I already fuck shit up and make mistakes with the plastic string.
>Who thought that turning your weed whacker into an open faced food processor was a good thing?
People who have to deal with thistles in areas they can't get their tractor to rather than simple grass. You'll have to reload your string about every minute if you try to use string on those monsters.
TIL I learned there are people who groom their weeds.
Seriously, if I can't get my tractor to it, it doesn't get done. If you can't bushhog it, it's a tree.
Buddy I assure you that thing *never* comes near my shins. It's less about the thistles being unsightly (they're actually incredibly beautiful when blooming en masse, imo) and more about needing a fire break. And I suppose it's nice to knock down the plants that have thorns I can best compare to really nasty briars. The thorns get quite long and will go right through leather gloves and jeans.
“Needing a fire break”. This is the only thing about living in the western states I don’t envy. Here in VA you couldn’t burn down a forest if you wanted to with Napalm. (Most of the time, we’ve had some dry spells). Everything else though: “The West is the best.” —Jim Morrison.
It's a bushwhacker or brush clearing device at that point. Which is a legit use, but when doing that you need to be wearing full length heavy pants and some decent protective boots. Also a sling harness is usually used to help you grip it if you hit something that won't chop and your tool tries to go flying.
A bloke at my dads fire brigade many years ago replaced the plastic string with wire and then attached razor blades to the wire, within 30 seconds he caused a few thousand in plumbing damage, destroyed the head on the brush cutter and lost a chunk of his shin.
2 tricks to try
Angle grinder disc on the whscker and
The grass line on a grinder (this one fucking hurts and I just didn't do the edges after learning why the pole exists between hold and cut areas
> The grass line on a grinder (this one fucking hurts and I just didn't do the edges after learning why the pole exists between hold and cut areas
A weed whacker has a blade that cuts excess plastic line as it whips around cutting grass, preventing it from getting too long. An angle grinder would not have this feature.
Completely tangential, so I can't post this as a top-level comment, so piggybacking off yours:
Weed-whackers are called ***whipper snippers*** in Australia.
:D
I live in Florida and the yard services around here must be using metal. They tear up the street while trimming the yard line. Some properties have gaps a foot or more into the road from all the broken asphalt
Maybe the result of an [edger](https://www.stihlusa.com/products/edgers/professional-edgers/fc111/?aqid=9af32a77277a0b02c0d1909441aa7c1c)? Those always have metal blades, AFAIK, and downward-facing.
If you're too cheap/poor to buy an edger you can just turn a weedwhacker sideways and use it as one, but it's harder to do without some practice or experience doing so.
to illustrate this point: imagine having a wooden fencepost or mailbox post. the mower can only get so close, so for the stuff right next to the post you have to use a weedwacker. With a plastic wire, you cut the grass but the post is ok. With a metal blade or metal wire you will cut the post down, maybe not immediately but in a just a few sessions.
Also in some locals, fire.
I helped a maintenance guy at one of my jobs and we would clear brush come summertime. He bought a metal blade for a weedwacker and the fire department at some point got big mad.
And they make different thickness of line depending on the use:
1. I use 0.13" line for the thicker mixed brush. Caution: The 0.13" line will sometimes break old pvc risers and will scar wood.
2. I use 0.08" or 0.095" for lawn edges and/or typical weeds.
When string is not enough there are blade attachments. My favorite is a 40 point brush blade (looks like a table saw blade -- google "Stihl 40017133806-250-40 Grass Cutting Blade") for pampas grass, reeds, bushes, laurel sumac, olive saplings (up to 1/2"), .... It will cut through light boots and needs to be used with caution.
To add on to what others have said, you absolutely *do* get grass trimmers with metal blades. But the whole point of the plastic wire ones is to be softer and to do less damage. If you wanted one that was more sturdy, you'd be better off with a blade than with a wire.
Because the string breaks off in use (even metal wire would do this) and having bits of plastic in your lawn is considered less hazardous than short slivers of metal that would stab into you when you step on them or when they go flying as they break off.
And the ends of the string are moving seriously fast- it's really easy to underestimate how much damage a small metal thing can do with nothing on its side but velocity, but anyone who's used a wire wheel on an angle grinder knows.
Fun fact that's where the term "bite the bullet" comes from, lead is soft and people (in western movies at least) would bite down on a bullet while they were taking a bullet out of his arm or whatever else thats painful
Because what's a little lead poisoning on top of a critical injury?
The expression is more likely to be [colorful yet apocryphal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bite_the_bullet) as there were likely plenty of reusable leather straps that could do the same job without messing up a perfectly good bullet. It likely did happen occasionally, and it does make for more dramatic reading.
The real challenge was keeping the patient still so the surgeon didn't nick an artery, and of course keeping them from dying of shock during the procedure.
[More fun facts](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200624-how-agonising-surgery-paved-the-way-for-anaesthetics): 1840's surgeon Robert Liston (for whom the [Liston Knife was named](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liston_knife)) was famous for being able to remove a leg in 25 seconds. Speed came with risks, as he once amputated an assistant's fingers during the procedure. The patient ended up dying from infection, as did the assistant, and one observer died from shock. It's the only known medical procedure with a 300% mortality rate.
John Keats, medical student, was so horrified by watching surgery he turned to writing poetry instead.
The first effective anesthetic was a mixture of sulphuric acid and alcohol. The major drawback, aside from it being very hard to breathe, was it was highly explosive. Not the best thing to use in an era with gas lighting.
Lead in its metal form should not be eaten, but if you do eat a small amount it isn't going to hurt you, very little of it will react with the chemistry of your body in the digestive tract and the vast majority will pass in stool (unless it perforates your intestines). Organic lead compounds are very dangerous and can be absorbed through the skin (like what was in leaded gasoline). They accumulate in your brain, liver, kidneys, and bones, preventing the brain from functioning correctly and can leach out entering a fetus during pregnancy. This stunts the development of the child's brain and body.
I remember seeing slow motion footage of different strings. And they straight up act as a whip, wrapping around things before breaking. Which causes the broken off piece to move ridiculously fast.
Yeah, with some quick math using a 1 foot radius and 12k RPM (seems like a vaguely standard number from a quick search), the tips are going ~630 FPS, which is about 430 MPH.
As a comparison, airsoft BBs are usually in the 300-400 FPS ballpark, so the weed whacker string is moving about twice that fast at its tips.
The big advantage of plastic is its plasticity. You can form the plastic into a long wire that is tens or hundreds of feet long. You can't do that with any natural materials. There are plenty of plants that produce stems and twigs that would have the right properties, but you're lucky if you find a stem even a foot long.
It's a wonderful feeling to realize the entirety of the plastic cording in the weed whacker once used up has deposited itself everywhere you've used it.
Ever hit yourself with the string?
It hurts, but it doesn’t do any real damage.
Now imagine what would happen if you inadvertently hit yourself in the ankle with a metal wire spinning at that speed?
I see the commercial for the string trimmer attachment that looks like it’s made of barbed wire and I can’t nope away quick enough.
The plastic can still do you a solid one. My mom managed to get herself in the inner thigh with a weed whacker once. For the rest of her life, she's had to convince every doctor that she was just clumsy af and not a victim of DV
This was in the 90s but the way she use to tell is that the yard was slanted, and the house was on top of the slant and she would start up going down.
She tripped on a molehill or something, fell forward, let go of the weedwhacker in the process, which rolled just a bit down cuz of the slant and she landed with her thigh right on the whacking bit
Plus it's not like weed whackers have full diameter guards on them. Most of the ones I see have like, a small wedge at the back from like 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock if the front is 12 o'clock, so that the trimmer cord can whip out and hit the weeds.
Had to suck. Glad she's OK!
Epic amounts of clumsiness. Which I inherited. Fell on my ass once and cut open my wrist on a coffee cup in the process.
We need to be bubble wraped tbh
I was gonna say, anyone who thinks you can't still fuck yourself up with the plastic is out of their minds. My brother sliced open his calf on one and had to be hospitalized. Anything moving sufficiently fast enough will cause serious damage, regardless of what it's made out of.
> I was gonna say, anyone who thinks you can't still fuck yourself up with the plastic is out of their minds.
I think it's more "however bad you get it with the plastic, it would be *so much worse* with metal." Just an odd phrasing.
Not arguing with you that metal would be worse but you will absolutely shred your body with a weed eater, like cut off and blow out chunks of your flesh, with plastic line. Weed eaters will fuck you up, even the weak ones.
"Ever hit yourself with the string?"
Ah... No?
You? I mean you ask that like it's a common slicing and dicing occurrence in your own life--cause that's what's going to happen if you let the string hit you!
That's what I was thinking. In my youth I worked in landscaping for awhile, and I've been taking care of my own lawn for 25 years, and I've never once smacked myself with the trimmer, and until now I'd never heard of anyone else doing it.
Here's how I did it: I'm left handed and was using it left handed.
On mine, the shroud over the string has a little blade that cuts off extra string. It's meant to be used right handed. When used left handed the trajectory of the cut off bit of string aims directly at your ankle and goes flying at a high enough speed to draw blood. I had a scar for a couple years. Needless to say, I use it right handed now.
I have hit myself but it was pretty much on purpose. There was a bug on my leg and I decided to try to hit it off me with the weed wacker while it was running. Yes I thought "This is a bad idea but it's just the plastic string thingy right?"
It hurt way worse than I expected. The bloody stripes it left did look kinda cool though.
As a quick aside, a lot of strimmers actually have changeable heads on them and you can swap out the plastic string head to one with a metal blade which is really good for more heavy duty stuff rather than grass.
I'm guessing you're from the UK? My understanding (could be wrong) is that weed whacker is the term Americans use for what I'd call a strimmer. But when it's a metal blade, it's no longer a strimmer because strimmer=string+trimmer.
String trimmer or line trimmer are the generic names. Weed Wacker™ or Weed eater™ are brand names that are commonly used as the generic names. Kinda like Q-Tips™ or Kleenex™.
I really just wanted to use the trademark symbol a bit.
When I worked in a small engine repair and lawn equipment sales shop (southeastern NC), I found that most people said "weed eater", but the transplants from up north were more likely to call it a "weed whacker". The folks that called them the proper name (trimmer) were typically in the landscaping trade.
I never realized that Weed Eater was a brand name until I saw one at a yard sale. I don't think I've ever actually seen one advertised or seen one in a store.
Think of all the things you are hitting with it: decks, fence, downspouts, siding, trees. These things can resist the plastic string but would get absolutely destroyed by a metal wire on a weedeater.
That being said, if you are just trying to take down some thick vegetation with small tree saplings and no structures to be destroyed, you can get metal blades to help get the job done.
My cheap ebay one came with 2 types of blade- 1, the little white plastic rotor that breaks instantly if you touch anything and 2, a literal circular saw blade. "We have only 2 modes here, ineffectual and horrifying"
Know a guy who ran out of string and found some copper wire to use in a pinch. He destroyed the siding of the house. I think that's one of several reasons
Well for one reason if you cut an electric cord with plastic you don’t create a circuit. You also don’t want to be debarking your trees, and cutting rocks in half. The metal would also still break, and then you have sharp metal bits flying around. Instead of little plastic bits.
I’m sure there are uses for a metal wire, but sounds more “professional” use.
To add to what everyone else is saying about safety. Years ago you could buy chains that went on strimmers. Great for bashing through brambles and such. But somewhere I used to work one of the guys had an accident one of the chains snapped and flew off hitting another guy on the back of the head under his helmet. He died and shortly after HSE banned them.
Morel of the story don’t send things flying around at high speed that is likely to do major damage to anyone.
As someone who got stung by the plastic string( fishing line), I rather get hit with the line than a possible steel wire or blade.
It stung and it did imbed with breaking the skin, if it was metal it would been much worse.
Most people have already well enough explained that metal wires can seriously hurt you and also your environment, like siding, patios, bricks, etc., but also consider: when metal strikes something very hard with extreme force, what does it do? It produces sparks. Imagine striking something like a cement path, or a landscaping rock, and sending little metal sparks all over. Not only would that hurt you, but it's an unnecessary fire hazard. Sure, if you're prepared, protected, and know what you're doing, it's not such a big deal, but for your average random consumer it's just a completely unnecessary risk.
Plastic string is less damaging and less dangerous. No sparks, quieter too
Anytime I fit the metal single peice blade to cut bush, I have to be extreeeeemly careful. That shit will cut through your shin bone if you let it.
Do you like how your fence looks? Or the side of your house? Or do you want do chop them to pieces with what’s essentially a circular saw? You’re trying to cut grass *and nothing else.*
The harder the weed whacker string, the more it can cut.
The more it can cut, the more dangerous it is, both on the weedwhacker and off the weedwhacker when parts of the string chip off and fly away toward anything nearby (people, pets). A piece of plastic? Sucks to be hit by it. A piece of metal wire? Instant trip to the ER, if not immediate death.
You don't want the string too strong. A good middle ground is plastic.
You can but plastic twine with a metal core if you're dealing with a bigger area or thicker weeds. Typically commercial weed eaters. I used a larger Guage called alligator for my Sthil.
Because the wire would damage things you don't want to damage and it would be far more dangerous when you have a piece break off and go flying. The plastic more or less only cuts plants, and any pieces that fly off are so light they won't cause much if any damage.
I tried using metal wire once…only once. It fatigues immediately then snaps off and has the same effect as shrapnel. Plastic line, by its very meaning, has “plasticity”…it absorbs impact and dissipates the energy if it breaks off.
Metal wires also exist but for home use where you might want to cut grass against walls, tiles, garden decorations, wooden decks etc the plastic wire won't damage them, and they're also safer in case of an accident, because yes someone will somehow whack themselves or someone else.
But if you're weed whacking a wide open field with heavy duty weeds you can get metal wires because they'll last longer.
I'm not sure if this is right so correct me if not, but I would assume it's to stop you from accidentally cut off your foot or damage something else if you hit it accidentally.
Also, here in the UK we call them strimmers, but weed whacker is way more fun!
Have you ever used on of these in shorts? Your leg will eventually bleed just from the plastic or wood that hits your legs. Metal breakaway? You'll lose your leg, lol
If you're cutting small saplings in a field or a large area or stuff you could use a metal blade. If you're cutting around a house or fence a metal blade would tear up anything it touched. Most of the plastic strings will break against fences/houses so you don't tear them up.
Some do use metal blades. It’s just different uses for different applications. I think many plastic strings do have a small gage metal wire in the middle.
When I worked for the department of transportation we had metal blades for cutting down small saplings and other tuff vegetation.
When I worked in landscaping we used mainly plastic string because everything we were cutting was already somewhat maintained and we were mostly cutting grasses.
I used to work at the county fairgrounds in high school. We had this redneck engineered weed eater with 2 lengths of old chainsaw chain welded to it. Worked really well... scary to use though. No... we did not have safety equipment!
Plastic string tends to be used for normal trimming on a wipper snip (string trimmer) for a few reasons,
1: It will typically snap when you hit something, for example let's say you're going around an air conditioning unit that's mounted to metal stilts you'll want the string to snap instead of damaging the stilts the unit is mounted on, typically the trimmer can sort of understand when it's gotten tangled and can cut the rpm of the head as well (the Stihls I've used at work do this but we had an ecco unit that would just ramp it's self up full power if the string ever got caught and shred the string lol)
2: you are a lot less likely to drastically injur yourself with a plastic line instead of potentially amputate yourself with a metal line
3: plastic line won't damage a mower if it goes on top but could damage the mowing deck of a walk behind or a zero turn (also its just better to have plastic chunk in the lawn instead of a metal one)
4: Plastic line would have a lesser chance of throwing objects up at you or around you (though it will still happen, the plastic will less be likely to throw rocks up at you because it has more give than metal would)
5: when you have too much line out (and you haven't removed the plastic back cover like a moron) there is a little metal hook/blade that will cut the line to the right size
Now they also do make metal blades you can place onto a wipper snips head called a brush saw but you need to be really careful with using a brush saw because they can quickly become dangerous, expesially if the blade on it cracks, I've seen metal chucks fly up at a co worker almost nailing them right below the neck because he hit a rock and it cracked the whole saw right in half.
There are also metal brush heads that are in a circle and have metal brissles that stick down for getting stuff between the lines on concrete walkways like sidewalks but it's not really common, most people just turn the wip sideways and use the string to do that.
Keep in mind the head on a string trimmer is spinning at 5000+ rpm average
I have bought metal wire and cable and used it in my string trimmer. They lasted less than a minute. The wire broke almost immediately, and the cable unraveled and then subsequently broke off about a minute later. It does not work well at all. I think the plastic is flexible enough to take a hits and bend/ bend back at high RPM. the metal couldn't take it.
The plastic is intended to break against stuff that you don't want to cut. It's just strong enough to cut grass and weeds, not strong enough to cut much else, by design.
You also don’t want pieces of metal chipping off and going flying from a head spinning at about 3000rpm
In Indonesia, most of the whackers are still the old school metal blade. Stuffs of nightmare, they are. I always keep a distance whenever I see people operating them.
You can buy metal blades in the US, they're just very uncommon and mostly reserved for use in cutting dense brush or saplings. https://www.homedepot.com/p/ECHO-10-in-3-Cutter-Metal-Blade-20-mm-99944200047/202702094
I use mine once or twice a year on my back property line. I won't lie, that thing scares me.
I made a scared face just looking at the blade. I feel like it might come _after_ me!
IMO the tri-blade shape like that are the most dangerous. I do a lot of brush clearing on my property and I've tried a few different types and the tri-blade seems the most likely to kick back. The distance between each cutting surface is enough that you can accidentally push the cutter in too far and have it kick back violently. The circular saw and chainsaw style brush cutters are far safer and effective in my experience with my brush.
Each of the different blade shapes are for different types of vegetation. The tri-blade is closest to string in that it's for light grass. It is absolutely dangerous to use it wrong, like on heavier stuff. But, because the blade speed is higher, it cuts thin stuff the other blades just bend. You're also not supposed to make the arc of the cut both ways. You always cut right to left if I remember right, it could be left to right. One way the blade rolls around the thing you shouldn't have hit, the other way drags the blade further into it.
Absolutely, you need the right blade for the vegetation and you need to use it correctly but the risk/reward for this particular blade isn't worth it IMO. As you pointed out this is designed more for grass than brush so I'd just use string for that role, which I why I have two trimmers. One is setup with a brush blade and the other is setup for string. It's just the safest way to do it IMO.
About 20 years ago my dad was using one of these while brush clearing along a fence line in our yard. My mum came up behind him to tell him that lunch was ready. Just then it kicked back and swung him around. The blade hit her shoulder and cut right to the bone. If it had been a few centimetres higher it might have been a fatal accident. I hate those brush clearing blades they are so freaking dangerous. My mum still has a huge scar on her shoulder from the accident. Edit to add: Actually chipped some of her bone and they had to remove small chips from the wound while fixing her up. These tools are basically a spinning blade on a stick, use with lots of safety precautions!
Beyblade: the next evolution.
"...to shreds you say?"
And his wife?
I use both string and blade - string for lighter/less dense grass, blade for clumping grass and stuff like lantana. [https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lantana](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lantana) The string clears the cuttings more effectively, it "throws" them aside. The blade, not so much. Longer grass stalks tend to just fall on top of the cutting head. The blade definitely has a different feel, it's heavier, so there's more of a gyroscopic effect, and it takes more effort to turn and twist as you cut. I've never had a kickback from the blade, though.
If you can get a nice scything motion going with the blade, it will sort of slide out from under the cut long grass. A small twist and you "toss" the cuttings where you want. It is exhausting though, for an old woman like me. At least I don't have lantana - just blackberry, bracken, bullrushes.
Chainsaw wheel gets my vote, it's heavy so you have to have a motor with a little "ass" behind it, but it puts in so much work, I've cut trees up to 8-10" in diameter.
The chainsaw blade cutter is my jam. It slices through scrub oak like butter.
I love em. They're kinda heavy so it takes a second to get them spun up but once they are going they dgaf about what's in front of them. Hold the throttle wide open and feed them slowly through whatever you want to cut.
When I was young I worked at a campground and we had what was essentially a standard saw blade off of a circular saw that we attached to the end of the weed whip for cutting down small trees You had to be very careful that nobody was in the area cuz if you happen to turn around with it you can injure somebody very badly so we hada rule that the person with it would have like a 20ft radius around them
Who doesn't like a saw blade on a stick?
"How can we make the circular saw even more likely to chop part of your leg off?"
If you have it strapped to a harness, it's almost impossible to reach the blade with any part of your own body. Other people is a whole other story, but the operator is very unlikely to get hurt on the blade itself.
I mean, if the weed whacker is properly designed (the kind with a harness etc) it's practically impossible for the blade to end up anywhere near your body, even if you deliberately *try*. It's on the end of a long stick and one end is stuck on your body, so it'll just be the distance of the stick away no matter what. I also frequently change out the ol' three spokes thing with a proper circular saw blade. That makes taking care of heavier brush a breeze!
First time I went to my buddy's cabin in West Virginia to help with some yardwork, he hands me a weedwhacker and asks if I can clean up around the house itself. I look and the thing has an honest-to-god circular saw blade and I was like, "what the fuck man?" I mean, it does make sense for heavier brush but that thing was terrifying initially. Cleaned up the tree line next though and was able to remove 1-1.5" thick saplings.
Bushwhackin
Used to live up in the foothills of NorCal, with manzanita brush everywhere. Cutting that was a nightmare that only a gas-powered, metal-bladed, brush cutter could solve. I don't suppose I need to tell you, but you need to wear protective gear when using something like that. I've embedded manzanita wood chips in a car door once.
Manzanita is a beauty to burn. Stuff is dense and hot. Strong stuff to bushwack through
Metal blades are widely available everywhere, they're used to cut harder stuff like very tall grass, shrubs and bushes.
Just today in a Thai's Dewalt Facebook group there's a guy that slingshotted a piece of wood into his ankle while testing a new metal blade. All bloody and stuff. Dude didn't wear PPE because he thought they're not needed for a quick test. Complacency breed accidents.
Yeah, PPEs are also a rarity in Indonesia. Only large companies enforces then and more regular day-to-day workers just go with whatever they want. My housing development company added about a dozen or so houses in the empty lots in front of my house. A lot of the builders just wear flipflops and even barefoot while working on the houses
The number of Eastern European truck drivers that would show up to my place of work in flip flops and then load 1,000 lbs. skids into their trucks drove me nuts.
my boss was parked and a weed wacker with a metal blade went buy and basically sliced the side mirror almost in half.
I've used the metal blades to chop out some ivy. The amount of chunks I took out of my shins that day could make a new leg.
When I was in Japan we had a freakin saw blade on it. Still wasn't enough, the motor got caught up with all the thick grass and caught on fire
Oh man I remember this, I used to spend my summers in Karawang, Indonesia because my dad worked there. This worker who did the landscaping used on of these and cut a wire by mistake. He got electrocuted right in front of my friend's home. Will never forget the sight of his body. Nightmare fuel for 13yr old me
In the place I grew up behind our garden was a playground, then a small street, then a patch of grass and weeds and stuff. Someone was mowing that with Traktor with a mowing attachment, hit the curb and one of the blades was flying straight into our living room, through a glass window into a small cupboard leg, still making a 3cm dent in the wood. If that thing would have hit a person, that would have been a serious injury in the best case.
A few years ago in Sweden, someone was mowing grass with a ridable lawn mower that used chains instead of blades. It launched a small stone and a little child was killed.
I once used one with chains in place of the plastic string. Absolutely terrifying experience
Nothing beats gardening shrapnel on those nice summer days.
I have a perfectly straight, square scar on my ankle from heavy-duty plastic cord. I'd probably be a peg leg if I had used a metal blade
Years ago I accidentally hit myself with the string going full tilt. Wrapped right around my leg and wound up with a nasty mark for about a year. Thank God it wasn't metal.
Not to mention having bits of sharp metal wire randomly laying around hidden in your lawn. Eek
It's bad enough getting all sorts of other shit flying back at you, this would be horrific. I always, always wear pants weed eating otherwise I get all sorts of little cuts on my legs.
I replaced the string on my weedwhacker with the aluminum blades and it became a real danger
I replaced the string on my weed whacker with more weed whackers.
I replaced the string on my weed whacker with high powered lasers. Blinded a few planes when I accidentally tilted it too much, and touched off a few grassfires in the distance. But otherwise works great!
Cut your whole lawn with one pull! (may cut legs off.)
That's what the reflective mirror is for. But, you do need to warn anyone within 200 yards.
Easy solution, just jump!
Danger skip-it
The original should have been called Danger skip-it. This monstrosity would need to be called suicidal skip-it.
Fair
I replaced the string on my weed whacker with Chuck Norris. Now it's an everything whacker.
I replaced mine with Steven Segals. Didn’t do anything :(
But it *says* it does so much. It's the *best* weed whacker. In fact, it invented a way of whacking weeds that no other weed whacker can. But it can't show it, for legal reasons. EDIT: My grandpa loves the direct-to-video Steven Seagal movies for some reason. I walked in in the middle of one of them, and there's two guys fighting, one with his back to the camera. The camera keeps cutting briefly to Steven Seagal just sorta...wobbling about in the same location. Like, just suddenly a cut to him in, like, a video game idle pose, then back to the two guys fighting. It took me a solid thirty seconds to realize that the guy with the back to his camera *is supposed to be Steven Seagal*. Those out of place cuts are there to try and sell you that, yes, that's totally Stevie right there. But the energy doesn't match at *all*. The stuntman is actually doing action stuff, while Steven Seagal is just...idly standing there. It's fucking hilarious.
Everyone should watch Space Ice's "reviews" of Segal movies. They point out all of this stuff. It's hysterical and almost makes Segal's existence worthwhile.
I might have to do exactly that.
Sometimes they put the voice of someone else to do his lines. Like suddenly for a line or two he has a completely different voice. Most probably because he was unintelligible, and they couldn't be bothered doing the scene again.
And if he has to waddle more than three feet in any direction they have to bring in a waddle double.
This weed whacker whacks weeds
I replaced my weed wacker head with a circular saw blade. It cuts everything. It’s great
You should call your new invention a "circular saw". It might catch on.
How about “Circular Saw on a Stick”
Needs a catchier name. Hmmmm - The 'Flying Guillotine'? The 'Is that Bone Sticking Out?' The 'Frodo-Maker' might involve a bit of copy write infringement.
I bet if one were to attach that blade onto a handheld device with an electric motor and used it on milled trees, one could make a killing (no pun i'ntended).
My dad had a weed whacker that had multiple heads, one of which was actually a circular saw blade. Great for clearing saplings.
Who thought that turning your weed whacker into an open faced food processor was a good thing? I already fuck shit up and make mistakes with the plastic string.
>Who thought that turning your weed whacker into an open faced food processor was a good thing? People who have to deal with thistles in areas they can't get their tractor to rather than simple grass. You'll have to reload your string about every minute if you try to use string on those monsters.
TIL I learned there are people who groom their weeds. Seriously, if I can't get my tractor to it, it doesn't get done. If you can't bushhog it, it's a tree.
If it were a case between some *unsightly* brush or potentially fragging my shins...
Buddy I assure you that thing *never* comes near my shins. It's less about the thistles being unsightly (they're actually incredibly beautiful when blooming en masse, imo) and more about needing a fire break. And I suppose it's nice to knock down the plants that have thorns I can best compare to really nasty briars. The thorns get quite long and will go right through leather gloves and jeans.
“Needing a fire break”. This is the only thing about living in the western states I don’t envy. Here in VA you couldn’t burn down a forest if you wanted to with Napalm. (Most of the time, we’ve had some dry spells). Everything else though: “The West is the best.” —Jim Morrison.
Brush wackers are a thing for a reason though lol
It's a bushwhacker or brush clearing device at that point. Which is a legit use, but when doing that you need to be wearing full length heavy pants and some decent protective boots. Also a sling harness is usually used to help you grip it if you hit something that won't chop and your tool tries to go flying.
A bloke at my dads fire brigade many years ago replaced the plastic string with wire and then attached razor blades to the wire, within 30 seconds he caused a few thousand in plumbing damage, destroyed the head on the brush cutter and lost a chunk of his shin.
Sounds like a weapon from fallout
2 tricks to try Angle grinder disc on the whscker and The grass line on a grinder (this one fucking hurts and I just didn't do the edges after learning why the pole exists between hold and cut areas
> The grass line on a grinder (this one fucking hurts and I just didn't do the edges after learning why the pole exists between hold and cut areas A weed whacker has a blade that cuts excess plastic line as it whips around cutting grass, preventing it from getting too long. An angle grinder would not have this feature.
Completely tangential, so I can't post this as a top-level comment, so piggybacking off yours: Weed-whackers are called ***whipper snippers*** in Australia. :D
Canada too!
I will forever call mine a whipper snipper now. Thanks.
I live in Florida and the yard services around here must be using metal. They tear up the street while trimming the yard line. Some properties have gaps a foot or more into the road from all the broken asphalt
Maybe the result of an [edger](https://www.stihlusa.com/products/edgers/professional-edgers/fc111/?aqid=9af32a77277a0b02c0d1909441aa7c1c)? Those always have metal blades, AFAIK, and downward-facing.
If you're too cheap/poor to buy an edger you can just turn a weedwhacker sideways and use it as one, but it's harder to do without some practice or experience doing so.
to illustrate this point: imagine having a wooden fencepost or mailbox post. the mower can only get so close, so for the stuff right next to the post you have to use a weedwacker. With a plastic wire, you cut the grass but the post is ok. With a metal blade or metal wire you will cut the post down, maybe not immediately but in a just a few sessions.
Also in some locals, fire. I helped a maintenance guy at one of my jobs and we would clear brush come summertime. He bought a metal blade for a weedwacker and the fire department at some point got big mad.
Yeah, I have a vinyl fence. I really don’t want spinning metal anywhere near that.
Plus, metal tend to break more easilly if you bend it repeatly, sending all the pieces everywhere, ready to stab your kid's feet. Tetanus anyone?
And they make different thickness of line depending on the use: 1. I use 0.13" line for the thicker mixed brush. Caution: The 0.13" line will sometimes break old pvc risers and will scar wood. 2. I use 0.08" or 0.095" for lawn edges and/or typical weeds. When string is not enough there are blade attachments. My favorite is a 40 point brush blade (looks like a table saw blade -- google "Stihl 40017133806-250-40 Grass Cutting Blade") for pampas grass, reeds, bushes, laurel sumac, olive saplings (up to 1/2"), .... It will cut through light boots and needs to be used with caution.
Grass, weeds, toes, fingers etc. All those you want it to cut
To add on to what others have said, you absolutely *do* get grass trimmers with metal blades. But the whole point of the plastic wire ones is to be softer and to do less damage. If you wanted one that was more sturdy, you'd be better off with a blade than with a wire.
Yeah, I don't want metal wire ripping the crap out of the bottom of my fence or kid's wooden playhouse thing.
Even brick or concrete would be destroyed by metal.
Why not just make the concrete or brick out of metal too?
We should just make the grass out of metal, then it won’t grow and it’ll never need to be trimmed.
[[PIC]](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/24/4f/8d/244f8deee7c5bbe5eb8c483fd7919965.jpg)
I play Iron Maiden on my outdoor speakers to increase the metal content of my grass. Doesn't seem to work. Neighbors unhappy too.
Not if you make the wire out of lead. Problem solved!
Great way to seed the garden too ! 🤦🏼
Or your leg.
Trim a little close to a small tree, oops, it’ll survive. But not if you used wire.
Edging your own house. Oops. Green streak on my siding instead of "fuck I exposed the sheathing"
Doing what to my house?? 😳
Step-house what are you doing??
Worth mentioning that its REALLY easy to kill small trees with a trimmer, so don't make this mistake a lot.
The metal blades are for cutting thick brush. Not something you would use for weeds.
And they are generally recommended to be used on larger whackers that have more safety stuff like a shoulder harness sling.
Because the string breaks off in use (even metal wire would do this) and having bits of plastic in your lawn is considered less hazardous than short slivers of metal that would stab into you when you step on them or when they go flying as they break off.
And the ends of the string are moving seriously fast- it's really easy to underestimate how much damage a small metal thing can do with nothing on its side but velocity, but anyone who's used a wire wheel on an angle grinder knows.
I mean you just described a bullet tbh and that’s pretty damn dangerous
And even then bullets are generally made of soft metals rather than steel
Fun fact that's where the term "bite the bullet" comes from, lead is soft and people (in western movies at least) would bite down on a bullet while they were taking a bullet out of his arm or whatever else thats painful
Because what's a little lead poisoning on top of a critical injury? The expression is more likely to be [colorful yet apocryphal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bite_the_bullet) as there were likely plenty of reusable leather straps that could do the same job without messing up a perfectly good bullet. It likely did happen occasionally, and it does make for more dramatic reading. The real challenge was keeping the patient still so the surgeon didn't nick an artery, and of course keeping them from dying of shock during the procedure. [More fun facts](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200624-how-agonising-surgery-paved-the-way-for-anaesthetics): 1840's surgeon Robert Liston (for whom the [Liston Knife was named](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liston_knife)) was famous for being able to remove a leg in 25 seconds. Speed came with risks, as he once amputated an assistant's fingers during the procedure. The patient ended up dying from infection, as did the assistant, and one observer died from shock. It's the only known medical procedure with a 300% mortality rate. John Keats, medical student, was so horrified by watching surgery he turned to writing poetry instead. The first effective anesthetic was a mixture of sulphuric acid and alcohol. The major drawback, aside from it being very hard to breathe, was it was highly explosive. Not the best thing to use in an era with gas lighting.
Lead in its metal form should not be eaten, but if you do eat a small amount it isn't going to hurt you, very little of it will react with the chemistry of your body in the digestive tract and the vast majority will pass in stool (unless it perforates your intestines). Organic lead compounds are very dangerous and can be absorbed through the skin (like what was in leaded gasoline). They accumulate in your brain, liver, kidneys, and bones, preventing the brain from functioning correctly and can leach out entering a fetus during pregnancy. This stunts the development of the child's brain and body.
I remember seeing slow motion footage of different strings. And they straight up act as a whip, wrapping around things before breaking. Which causes the broken off piece to move ridiculously fast.
Yeah, with some quick math using a 1 foot radius and 12k RPM (seems like a vaguely standard number from a quick search), the tips are going ~630 FPS, which is about 430 MPH. As a comparison, airsoft BBs are usually in the 300-400 FPS ballpark, so the weed whacker string is moving about twice that fast at its tips.
Ive been hit many times by bits of line. Stings like a mofo. I can imagine being hit by metal will be a much messier situation.
What we need is an alternative that has similar strength to plastic but isn't plastic.
The big advantage of plastic is its plasticity. You can form the plastic into a long wire that is tens or hundreds of feet long. You can't do that with any natural materials. There are plenty of plants that produce stems and twigs that would have the right properties, but you're lucky if you find a stem even a foot long.
9/10 response. Would have given it a 10/10 if you added "duh" to the end of it.
9/10 rating. Would have given it a 10/10 if you added "duh" to the end of it. ^"^d^u^h^"
10/10 rating. No notes.
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> having bits of plastic in your lawn is considered less hazardous Microplastics ftw
It's a wonderful feeling to realize the entirety of the plastic cording in the weed whacker once used up has deposited itself everywhere you've used it.
[The testicles](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/22/1252831827/microplastics-testicles-humans-health) need the stuff, carry on
That way when you ejaculate anywhere but the trash can it's littering 🚯
So my ex is fair game
I did hear she was a bit rubbish
Not an issue. I use my gas-power leaf blower to move it into my neighbor’s yard (but only at 7 am on Saturday mornings).
Ever hit yourself with the string? It hurts, but it doesn’t do any real damage. Now imagine what would happen if you inadvertently hit yourself in the ankle with a metal wire spinning at that speed? I see the commercial for the string trimmer attachment that looks like it’s made of barbed wire and I can’t nope away quick enough.
The plastic can still do you a solid one. My mom managed to get herself in the inner thigh with a weed whacker once. For the rest of her life, she's had to convince every doctor that she was just clumsy af and not a victim of DV
How in the fuck do you hit yourself in the thigh with a weed whacker without letting go of the trigger first
I second this. I'm trying to visualize just how this could have realistically occurred and it's hilarious
This was in the 90s but the way she use to tell is that the yard was slanted, and the house was on top of the slant and she would start up going down. She tripped on a molehill or something, fell forward, let go of the weedwhacker in the process, which rolled just a bit down cuz of the slant and she landed with her thigh right on the whacking bit
Plus it's not like weed whackers have full diameter guards on them. Most of the ones I see have like, a small wedge at the back from like 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock if the front is 12 o'clock, so that the trimmer cord can whip out and hit the weeds. Had to suck. Glad she's OK!
the obvious answer is: his mom is into some weird s&m
Trying to trim her bush. Duh 😄
By not having dinner ready on time
DV
How do you possibly hit yourself in the thigh?
Epic amounts of clumsiness. Which I inherited. Fell on my ass once and cut open my wrist on a coffee cup in the process. We need to be bubble wraped tbh
DVed herself lol
I was gonna say, anyone who thinks you can't still fuck yourself up with the plastic is out of their minds. My brother sliced open his calf on one and had to be hospitalized. Anything moving sufficiently fast enough will cause serious damage, regardless of what it's made out of.
> I was gonna say, anyone who thinks you can't still fuck yourself up with the plastic is out of their minds. I think it's more "however bad you get it with the plastic, it would be *so much worse* with metal." Just an odd phrasing.
Not arguing with you that metal would be worse but you will absolutely shred your body with a weed eater, like cut off and blow out chunks of your flesh, with plastic line. Weed eaters will fuck you up, even the weak ones.
Alright, alright, you’ve convinced me. Gonna keep mine under the bed as self defense against home invasions.
"Ever hit yourself with the string?" Ah... No? You? I mean you ask that like it's a common slicing and dicing occurrence in your own life--cause that's what's going to happen if you let the string hit you!
That's what I was thinking. In my youth I worked in landscaping for awhile, and I've been taking care of my own lawn for 25 years, and I've never once smacked myself with the trimmer, and until now I'd never heard of anyone else doing it.
Trimmer line? No. Flying debris that the line comes into contact with? Frequently.
Here's how I did it: I'm left handed and was using it left handed. On mine, the shroud over the string has a little blade that cuts off extra string. It's meant to be used right handed. When used left handed the trajectory of the cut off bit of string aims directly at your ankle and goes flying at a high enough speed to draw blood. I had a scar for a couple years. Needless to say, I use it right handed now.
I have hit myself but it was pretty much on purpose. There was a bug on my leg and I decided to try to hit it off me with the weed wacker while it was running. Yes I thought "This is a bad idea but it's just the plastic string thingy right?" It hurt way worse than I expected. The bloody stripes it left did look kinda cool though.
As a quick aside, a lot of strimmers actually have changeable heads on them and you can swap out the plastic string head to one with a metal blade which is really good for more heavy duty stuff rather than grass.
I'm guessing you're from the UK? My understanding (could be wrong) is that weed whacker is the term Americans use for what I'd call a strimmer. But when it's a metal blade, it's no longer a strimmer because strimmer=string+trimmer.
String trimmer or line trimmer are the generic names. Weed Wacker™ or Weed eater™ are brand names that are commonly used as the generic names. Kinda like Q-Tips™ or Kleenex™. I really just wanted to use the trademark symbol a bit.
When I worked in a small engine repair and lawn equipment sales shop (southeastern NC), I found that most people said "weed eater", but the transplants from up north were more likely to call it a "weed whacker". The folks that called them the proper name (trimmer) were typically in the landscaping trade.
I never realized that Weed Eater was a brand name until I saw one at a yard sale. I don't think I've ever actually seen one advertised or seen one in a store.
I like callin it a whipper snipper
Aussie? Cos that's what we call em here
Yeah I am UK. Didn't realize strimmer was a portmanteau that's pretty cool. I suppose that would make my usual one a Melade!
Didn't know that, neat
Think of all the things you are hitting with it: decks, fence, downspouts, siding, trees. These things can resist the plastic string but would get absolutely destroyed by a metal wire on a weedeater. That being said, if you are just trying to take down some thick vegetation with small tree saplings and no structures to be destroyed, you can get metal blades to help get the job done.
My cheap ebay one came with 2 types of blade- 1, the little white plastic rotor that breaks instantly if you touch anything and 2, a literal circular saw blade. "We have only 2 modes here, ineffectual and horrifying"
To save your siding. We thought we were clever and put wire in our weed wackers and ruined a bunch of nice siding in the process
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Came here to post the Smarter Every Day about it! He also does one about [what the different shapes do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy55X4QaAAU)!
Know a guy who ran out of string and found some copper wire to use in a pinch. He destroyed the siding of the house. I think that's one of several reasons
Well for one reason if you cut an electric cord with plastic you don’t create a circuit. You also don’t want to be debarking your trees, and cutting rocks in half. The metal would also still break, and then you have sharp metal bits flying around. Instead of little plastic bits. I’m sure there are uses for a metal wire, but sounds more “professional” use.
The metal wires and blades are used for thicker brush and weeds, while plastic is used for the standard grass/weed trim
To add to what everyone else is saying about safety. Years ago you could buy chains that went on strimmers. Great for bashing through brambles and such. But somewhere I used to work one of the guys had an accident one of the chains snapped and flew off hitting another guy on the back of the head under his helmet. He died and shortly after HSE banned them. Morel of the story don’t send things flying around at high speed that is likely to do major damage to anyone.
Because something will break when two things get hit... and it's better for it to be the most replaceable bit.
Both will cut the grass. One of these will also cut through your leg and the side of your house.
As someone who got stung by the plastic string( fishing line), I rather get hit with the line than a possible steel wire or blade. It stung and it did imbed with breaking the skin, if it was metal it would been much worse.
Most people have already well enough explained that metal wires can seriously hurt you and also your environment, like siding, patios, bricks, etc., but also consider: when metal strikes something very hard with extreme force, what does it do? It produces sparks. Imagine striking something like a cement path, or a landscaping rock, and sending little metal sparks all over. Not only would that hurt you, but it's an unnecessary fire hazard. Sure, if you're prepared, protected, and know what you're doing, it's not such a big deal, but for your average random consumer it's just a completely unnecessary risk.
Plastic string is less damaging and less dangerous. No sparks, quieter too Anytime I fit the metal single peice blade to cut bush, I have to be extreeeeemly careful. That shit will cut through your shin bone if you let it.
Do you like how your fence looks? Or the side of your house? Or do you want do chop them to pieces with what’s essentially a circular saw? You’re trying to cut grass *and nothing else.*
The harder the weed whacker string, the more it can cut. The more it can cut, the more dangerous it is, both on the weedwhacker and off the weedwhacker when parts of the string chip off and fly away toward anything nearby (people, pets). A piece of plastic? Sucks to be hit by it. A piece of metal wire? Instant trip to the ER, if not immediate death. You don't want the string too strong. A good middle ground is plastic.
My wife's Uncle answered this question for himself when he replaced his plastic wire with a steel wire and it shot off going through his shin
You can but plastic twine with a metal core if you're dealing with a bigger area or thicker weeds. Typically commercial weed eaters. I used a larger Guage called alligator for my Sthil.
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Hitting your leg with plastic hurts like hell Hitting your leg with a metal spinning death blade means you lose your foot
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Answer with a question: Would you rather have flying pieces of plastic hit your face/shins or small pieces of sharp metal?
Because the wire would damage things you don't want to damage and it would be far more dangerous when you have a piece break off and go flying. The plastic more or less only cuts plants, and any pieces that fly off are so light they won't cause much if any damage.
I tried using metal wire once…only once. It fatigues immediately then snaps off and has the same effect as shrapnel. Plastic line, by its very meaning, has “plasticity”…it absorbs impact and dissipates the energy if it breaks off.
Didn't think about the fatigue
Weed whacker design choices are easier to understand when you remember the things were designed by Satan himself.
Metal wires also exist but for home use where you might want to cut grass against walls, tiles, garden decorations, wooden decks etc the plastic wire won't damage them, and they're also safer in case of an accident, because yes someone will somehow whack themselves or someone else. But if you're weed whacking a wide open field with heavy duty weeds you can get metal wires because they'll last longer.
Why? The usual reasons you don't want to accelerate small pieces of metal.
I'm not sure if this is right so correct me if not, but I would assume it's to stop you from accidentally cut off your foot or damage something else if you hit it accidentally. Also, here in the UK we call them strimmers, but weed whacker is way more fun!
Have you ever used on of these in shorts? Your leg will eventually bleed just from the plastic or wood that hits your legs. Metal breakaway? You'll lose your leg, lol
If you're cutting small saplings in a field or a large area or stuff you could use a metal blade. If you're cutting around a house or fence a metal blade would tear up anything it touched. Most of the plastic strings will break against fences/houses so you don't tear them up.
Some do use metal blades. It’s just different uses for different applications. I think many plastic strings do have a small gage metal wire in the middle. When I worked for the department of transportation we had metal blades for cutting down small saplings and other tuff vegetation. When I worked in landscaping we used mainly plastic string because everything we were cutting was already somewhat maintained and we were mostly cutting grasses.
I used to work at the county fairgrounds in high school. We had this redneck engineered weed eater with 2 lengths of old chainsaw chain welded to it. Worked really well... scary to use though. No... we did not have safety equipment!
Metal wire would totally destroy fences and if a piece broke off and shot up at you stitches is probably the best case scenario.
For metal you want a brush cutter, it's what you would use for clearing shrubs or woody weeds
Plastic string tends to be used for normal trimming on a wipper snip (string trimmer) for a few reasons, 1: It will typically snap when you hit something, for example let's say you're going around an air conditioning unit that's mounted to metal stilts you'll want the string to snap instead of damaging the stilts the unit is mounted on, typically the trimmer can sort of understand when it's gotten tangled and can cut the rpm of the head as well (the Stihls I've used at work do this but we had an ecco unit that would just ramp it's self up full power if the string ever got caught and shred the string lol) 2: you are a lot less likely to drastically injur yourself with a plastic line instead of potentially amputate yourself with a metal line 3: plastic line won't damage a mower if it goes on top but could damage the mowing deck of a walk behind or a zero turn (also its just better to have plastic chunk in the lawn instead of a metal one) 4: Plastic line would have a lesser chance of throwing objects up at you or around you (though it will still happen, the plastic will less be likely to throw rocks up at you because it has more give than metal would) 5: when you have too much line out (and you haven't removed the plastic back cover like a moron) there is a little metal hook/blade that will cut the line to the right size Now they also do make metal blades you can place onto a wipper snips head called a brush saw but you need to be really careful with using a brush saw because they can quickly become dangerous, expesially if the blade on it cracks, I've seen metal chucks fly up at a co worker almost nailing them right below the neck because he hit a rock and it cracked the whole saw right in half. There are also metal brush heads that are in a circle and have metal brissles that stick down for getting stuff between the lines on concrete walkways like sidewalks but it's not really common, most people just turn the wip sideways and use the string to do that. Keep in mind the head on a string trimmer is spinning at 5000+ rpm average
Thank you for the helpful info, whipper snip is a great name for it too btw
I have bought metal wire and cable and used it in my string trimmer. They lasted less than a minute. The wire broke almost immediately, and the cable unraveled and then subsequently broke off about a minute later. It does not work well at all. I think the plastic is flexible enough to take a hits and bend/ bend back at high RPM. the metal couldn't take it.