The mower does the easy ninety per cent. What beats you is the rest — the fence line, the strip along the path, around the clothesline pole and the letterbox, the grass under the trampoline that has been there since winter. You can do all of that with a pair of shears on your knees, or you can do it standing up in twenty minutes. This battery whipper snipper is the tool for that last ten per cent, and because it takes three different blade types it keeps going when the grass stops being grass and starts being woody weed.

Why It Stands Out

• Three blade types in the box — five nylon blades for lawn edges, two steel blades for thick grass, and an alloy saw blade for woody stems. One cordless line trimmer that covers three jobs instead of one.
• The shaft extends from 80 to 125 cm — set it to your height and work upright, rather than stooping over a tool built for somebody else.
• The front handle slides anywhere on the shaft and locks with a knob, so you set the balance point for your reach instead of accepting where it was bolted.
• It folds — the handle collapses down and it hangs on a shed wall or lies in a car boot, which is not something a two-metre petrol brush cutter will do.
• Cordless — no lead across the lawn, no extension cord to the back fence. Nothing limits where you take it.
• A stainless steel shaft — the part of a cordless grass trimmer that lives in wet grass and gets leaned against the shed wall is the part worth having in stainless.
• Light enough to hold out at arm's length — the whole tool is a handle, a shaft and a head, which is what makes a lightweight whipper snipper usable for a full afternoon.

Where to Use It

• Along the fence line, where the mower deck can't reach and the grass always wins by December.
• Around trees, stumps and garden beds — a battery line trimmer gets right up to a trunk without barking it the way a mower does.
• Down the edge of a path or driveway, turned on its side, as a lawn edging tool that gives you a clean line.
• Around the clothesline, the letterbox and the tap — the three places in every Australian backyard the mower goes around and never through.
• Under the trampoline and behind the shed, where nothing has been cut in months.
• Through long grass on a nature strip or a back paddock fence, with the steel blades on.
• Into woody weed with the alloy blade fitted — lantana canes, blackberry runners and the saplings that come up along a back fence.

How It Works

1. An 18 V slide-on battery clips into the base of the handle — it slides on, locks, and pulls off again with the catch.
2. The motor in the head drives the blade directly — the cutting head is at the bottom of the shaft, so the weight sits low and you steer rather than carry it.
3. The blade bolts to the disc — undo it with the wrench, swap the blade, do it back up. That one bolt is what turns this from a grass trimmer into a cordless brush cutter.
4. The wire loop in front of the head is a ground guide — it rides on the soil and holds the blade at a steady height so you cut level instead of scalping.

How to Set It Up

1. Set the shaft length first. Stand up straight with the head flat on the ground and extend it until your arms are relaxed. Most people run it too short and then spend the afternoon bent over.
2. Slide the front handle to where your other hand falls naturally and tighten the knob properly.
3. Fit the right blade for the job — nylon for lawn edges, steel for thick grass, the alloy blade only for woody stems. Wrench supplied.
4. Clip the battery in last, after the blade is on and tight. Never the other way round.
5. Work in from the edge of the long grass, taking the top off in passes rather than driving straight into the thick of it.
Tip: wear closed shoes and eye protection, every time, including the five-minute jobs. A trimmer throws grit and stone chips forward at the speed it cuts, and the five-minute job is the one people do in thongs.

NB: the battery and charger are sold separately — this takes an 18 V slide-on pack, so if you already own 18 V garden tools you may be able to run it on a battery you have. Match the blade to the work and it will stay sharp: nylon through lawn, steel through thick grass, and the alloy blade kept for the woody stuff it was made for. Like every cordless garden tool, the runtime you get is the runtime your battery gives.

Care and Maintenance

• Clear the head after every use. Wet grass packs in behind the disc and dries hard overnight.
• Check the blade bolt before you start, not after. A bolt that has worked loose is the thing that ends a session.
• Wipe the shaft down and store it folded, out of the weather and off the shed floor.
• Keep the spare nylon blades together — they're the ones you'll go through, and they're easy to lose in a drawer.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Cordless grass trimmer, battery not included
• 1 × Alloy saw blade
• 2 × Steel blades
• 5 × Nylon blades
• 1 × Front handle
• 1 × Wrench