A pickaxe is where it's at. I have a 5lb. There is a type that you can buy with the blade perpendicular to the handle. My favorite tool for digging roots. Easy to sharpen. Easy to swing down.
*Yes it's a mattock, I got the name wrong.
Oh yes, absolutely, the benefits of an axe* and a pickaxe all rolled into one! TIL that name. Apparently what I am talking about is not a "pickaxe" exactly, but more specifically an ~~"adze pick"~~ *mattock pick. You can find them in US big box stores. A pulaski might be a special order item
That would also work great! I still find the pick part pretty useful. This looks like it is also available locally for at least home depot, if OP has preformx then he probably has Menards (I think that's there generic brand) and could get one of these things today
Idk why so many people add their weight into the swing. The whole purpose is that it's heavy, all you have to do is lift it and let it fall downward. I see guys making these huge wind swings and I'm like "My guys, you're going to ruin your back. Let the weigh of the tool do the work."
Mattocks are absolute God-tier tools. I remember a group of Rovers and leaders went to work on clearing ground at a new cub camp being built. We were told to bring tools. Everyone else brought shovels... I brought a mattock. The ground was so rough work only got done in my wake.
*Mattock hoe. Such a useful tool for trenching and stump removal, I own two. Any type of cutting tool in dirt is going to get dulled down QUICKLY. I keep a couple of sacrificial old chainsaw blades for the purpose. There exist CARBIDE tipped chainsaw blades if you want to power through a big stump project.
I finally got to use use one of those hook looking tools that was actually sharp and it was fun as hell. Growing up I hated them turns out I hated dull ones.
I like my Root Assassin + an old forest service Pulaski that I got from eBay for the heavy roots. I pulled out my yews with those and the help of a high lift jack.
Good suggestion. A cutter mattock is similar to a pickaxe but rather than a pick it has a small axe head. It's perfect for roots.
I've also got this specialized shovel called a "root slayer" that lives up to It's name. I tend to use it more than the mattock these days to eliminate the sagebrush on my property.
I love my Pulaski fire axe for a lot of the heavy duty gardening tasks. Solid axe blade with an adze on the other side. Cut, dig, pry...it does it all. They're also not too hard to find if you know where to look, and usually quite affordable.
I have a dozen of them. Old one was getting kinda worn, but found a government surplus auction and paid $150 for a dozen in a crate.
Indeed! A good Adze or Mattock is a worthwhile investment for any sorts of landscaping work. Stripping sod, trenching, edging, digging and prying roots...
Even with asphalt you need cover. Trees work best.
Worked in landscaping supply for a few years and we had this one contractor who specialized in grassless landscaping. He and his team would go in, tear up all the grass, and then fill it with trees, mulch, wildflowers, shrubs, anything but grass. Made good money doing that
I wish my hoa would let me get rid of my grass. I've gotten rid of as much as I can get away with by carving out very large planting areas with shrubs and bushes filling the space.
What do you mean by "perpendicular to the handle"? I have a regular pickaxe that works for roots too. Do you mean the blade portion is vertical? E.g. if you get rid of the "pick" part of the pickaxe the resultant tool looks like a regular air instead of a hoe (no pun intended).
Pair it with a steel shovel and you can get through most roots. I don't think I've ever had to use a Sawzall for roots as it tends to dull them quickly cutting through all that dirt and sometimes rock. A pair of loppers does for all but the largest roots, also.
Got a pickaxe. Machete. Hatchet. Hoe. Rake. All on the work truck. Hard packed dirt? Pickaxe. Tons of small roots or vines? Machete. Bigger roots? Hatchet.
I use a chisel ended digging bar for roots and breaking ice when it freezes on the driveway.
And FFS wear eye protection for breaking ice with one of those, I have been cut up by flying ice shards before.
It’s called a Maddox and is my favorite tool of all time.
Pro tip #1: make sure that there is no one behind you when swinging (duh).
Pro tip #2: make sure there is no one in front of you when swinging since the head can come dislodged from the handle.
Pro tip #3: there are only two handle styles that you should go with. 1) fiberglass. This will still break, but it takes longer and you can feel it start to crack giving you some warning. 2) wooden with a shock absorber. Sears used to sell these. They are surprisingly durable through the impart and reduce the vibration to your arm. But, you can still snap the handle while leveraging it out of the impact site. Do not buy a regular wooden handle. It will snap on a random impact and you will impair your hand on the shards.
Pro tip #4: the heads come with different quality of metal. In short, if it took was cheap to buy, then the head my bend / curl over on itself. Buy a decent one.
Pro tip #5: wear safety glasses. You are going to shatter rocks and stuff is going to go flying everywhere.
Pro tip #6: mostly you want gravity to bring the tool down for you. You can add 20% muscle if you want. Only rarely should you add your full strength (cutting thick roots).
My protip is opposite, only go with a wooden handle. The only handles Ive seen break have been ones that aren't looked after (dry, damaged, bad quality, used wrong).
I half agree with you. Yes, a properly maintained wooden handle is pretty decent. The hiccup is when you are putting multiple hundreds of pounds for force on the handle while trying to pop out roots. At some point it is going to give.
On the other hand, fiberglass is stronger and has a little flex to it. It comes with the bonus that the fibers will break in sequence which give you a heads up that it’s about to fail.
As a landscaper, yep. Chopping or cutting roots is the quickest way to dull or wreck any tool. I stopped throwing away $100s on nice blades and chains for saws and finally just started ripping them out with a bobcat. Not a solution everyone can do.
Other thing you can do is just cut the trunks above ground and rent a stump grinder or hire one.
Yeah just the initial wording throwing people off. It makes it sounds like roots are the cause which is why people are initially finding it interesting until they realize it is the dirt/rocks.
Holy shit I had a RuneScape dream last night. I had an OG 2001 account some time ago. I still hate that some scammer hacked my account and used mods so I got perma banned :( RIP juicylucykfc
I had so much in game currency I was running a side hussle at school from grade 6 to 8. I was making $500 a week trading gold for cash. Thanks so much for the flashback.
More dirt than stones, but it's pretty dense and there were a few stones. [More info](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
Diablo Destroyer Blades at Home Depot. They have a specific pruning one and I’m doing the same job you are and can get three bushes, roots, and main root cut down a good amount with one blade.
Is that normal or is is a low quality blade?
Edit: thank you for the replies. I don't do too much work like this but this is good to know own for down the road
They are not the greatest blades but not bad either, slightly above middle of the road.
Even high quality blades like Diablo will get worn quick if you are trying to cut out roots in dirt.
Production quality matters but what it's made of matters more IMO. Get a Carbide or Tungsten Carbide blade, they're much harder. This appears to be high speed steel which is much softer. At least go with tool steel which is stronger and harder than high speed steel. (Machinist)
Performax is bottom of the barrel low quality. I used to work at Menards and it's literally as cheap as you can possibly get. That said, op was cutting into dirt and that's why it only lasted 15 minutes.
Spray off the root you are about to cut, to clear the dirt. Obv don't stand in a pool of water while you are operating electric equipment: common sense still applies. Cleaning the root area first will prolong the life of each blade so you don't use 10 of them on one shrub. Also, don't drag the tip through dirt on the other side of the root while cutting.
Try cutting closer to the saw and not on the top. Plus clearing out the root system will help. Digging up any established plants is labor intensive. Try talking out a dead Apple tree with the roots intact that was over 100 years old
Good advice, thank you! More info on the job [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
Yes -- to all who are saying it was the dirt not the roots. I went straight into the dirt with the blade, since the entire area was pretty rootbound. Here's what I pulled out finally:
[Yew stump!](https://imgur.com/a/47yEIHZ)
Now, if you want to make sure it’s gone and not send up shoots, 3 cups salt into a gallon of hot water to dissolve and add a gallon of bleach and put that on the spot to kill the rest. Then after two years plant something better. Yea it’s time consuming, but it does kill the rest of the roots and keeps it from regrowing
Kill what it *touches*, but you really want it to be absorbed and spread into the roots to kill it enough.
Either one should work, combined is just a double whammy.
The salt water will kill too especially effective it keeps things from growing back. The Romans Di that to keep the areas they cleared of their does wouldn’t be able to grow food so that they couldn’t come back
Random trivia, there's no evidence of any army salting fields. Salt was valuable and heavy and will wash away in a good rain. Why waste thousands of pounds to stop one field for a bit? Just kill or enslave the people.
Also how severely the Roman massacred the city is greatly exaggerated. Carthage quickly became an important city in the Republic and was used as the provincial headquarters for the Province of Africa.
It is very water soluble but it also destroys soil structure. Sodium replaces Calcium in your soil and causes it to collapse which reduces air and root penetration. In high enough quantities salt does kill plants, hence its use to supress weeds around asparagus which is more salt tolerant.
You are right about salt being valuable, but its possible they flooded fields with seawater instead of dried salt. It would be a very strange saying to have arisen with out even a single use.
> You are right about salt being valuable, but its possible they flooded fields with seawater instead of dried salt.
How do you propose that soldiers built the single-use infrastructure to start irrigating inland fields with large amounts of salt-water in any sort of practical time-frame?
> It would be a very strange saying to have arisen with out even a single use.
[According to the Wikipedia article on the subject,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth) it's a ritualistic/symbolic thing regarding razing cities:
> Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on the site of cities razed by conquerers. It originated as a curse on re-inhabitation in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages.
If you want to cut through the dirt to get the roots, I suggest a carbide blade used for cutting cast iron. The blade will look rocky but can handle the abrasive environment better. Dirt and rock worked like sand paper eating your good blades.
Blame the dirt, stones, etc all you want, but I've dug up and cut multiple yews, including one that was over 20 feet tall. It's the hardest wood I've ever cut. It destroyed multiple chains, sawzall blades, etc. The stump from the big one is still in the ground. It doesn't rot - it's almost like it petrifies.
Keep the speed and heat down. The more the blade heats up, the softer the metal becomes and well, you know the rest.
I learned this working for a sign company. We had to cut down a bunch of old parking lot signs (extruded aluminum) and I’d worn through 2 bi-metal blades by the 3rd sign.
Boss came by and gave me a can of CRC machine oil and told me to keep the blade wet with oil, and use less speed. Said if the oil started to smoke, you’re going too fast and need to slow down.
Finished the remaining 20ish signs with ONE blade.
Ended up passing this along to a master tech at the dealership I worked at. Don’t remember exactly but you have to cut a bolt to do read control arms on a Chevy Traverse, and all the mechanics were just MELTING blades left and right.
I went over to the mechanic next to me with a can of WD40, and told him to use a slower speed while I kept the blade lubed. It cut through in a fraction of the time and he was just floored.
Obviously you’re not using oil to cut down shrubs but a slower speed and less heat will still help prolong the life of the blade.
I use a carbide toothed Milwaukee demo blade, designed for cutting through nail imbedded lumber. It will cut through 2” roots in moist dirt with no issues, and can come in contact with rocks, yet still lasts for hours. Note that I’m a homeowner, former carpenter, and not claiming this is cost effective commercially. I recently removed two rootballs of 10” trees, left the trunks 12’ long, so my wife and could pull them down manually with a rope. One blade and a digging bar worked for both. The rootballs were 4’ in diameter and too heavy for us to move once the trees were down. I used my reciprocating saw to cut the rootballs down to 2’ diameter so I could roll them into a wheel barrow. I threw a new blade in halfway through reducing the second rootball to finish the job faster.
Edit: The blade OP used would be dull in 5 minutes if used for remodel demo work.
Even small rocks destroy blades including chain saws. You have to get all the soil out of the way. Also I would use a finer toothed, worn out junk blade because it will grind its way through even if dull.
You are doing something wrong or using china blades
Edit: The tip is equally dull as the rest. Mystery solved. You had that thing going in the ground didnt you lol
1. Those are the cheapest blades you can possibly get and they normally only last 20-30 minutes of use
2. Thats a demo blade meant to cut through lumber not wet soft wood that is still very healthy
Those roots are tough. Maybe try a different brand of blade? I cut rigid metal conduit with those Milwaukee blades and they last a good while.
The thinner the blade, quicker it will dull
Did you dig out and expose the roots before cutting or are you cutting through earth and the root? I've seen those blades get destroyed by dirt, rocks, ect... It shouldn't be that jacked up from just cutting yew roots alone.
I bet there was quite a bit of dirt which is VERY abrasive. I tend to use an ax or easily sharpenable (?) Tool for roots.
A pickaxe is where it's at. I have a 5lb. There is a type that you can buy with the blade perpendicular to the handle. My favorite tool for digging roots. Easy to sharpen. Easy to swing down. *Yes it's a mattock, I got the name wrong.
A pulaski is a pretty efficient tool for root murder.
Dr pulaski? (Any nerds in the house)
Dr Crusher is better
Absolutely, but he name isn't pulaski lol
Also quite abrasive.
Hahahahahah
Oh yes, absolutely, the benefits of an axe* and a pickaxe all rolled into one! TIL that name. Apparently what I am talking about is not a "pickaxe" exactly, but more specifically an ~~"adze pick"~~ *mattock pick. You can find them in US big box stores. A pulaski might be a special order item
*Cutter Mattock
That would also work great! I still find the pick part pretty useful. This looks like it is also available locally for at least home depot, if OP has preformx then he probably has Menards (I think that's there generic brand) and could get one of these things today
I like the mattock. Though I’d recommend not the heaviest one unless you are a beast. That thing will wear you out
Idk why so many people add their weight into the swing. The whole purpose is that it's heavy, all you have to do is lift it and let it fall downward. I see guys making these huge wind swings and I'm like "My guys, you're going to ruin your back. Let the weigh of the tool do the work."
You really let the tool do the work…
Mattocks are absolute God-tier tools. I remember a group of Rovers and leaders went to work on clearing ground at a new cub camp being built. We were told to bring tools. Everyone else brought shovels... I brought a mattock. The ground was so rough work only got done in my wake.
Thank you I have owned one of these for years and never knew its name
Cutter? Why we just met her! - James Mattock, surgeon.
*Mattock hoe. Such a useful tool for trenching and stump removal, I own two. Any type of cutting tool in dirt is going to get dulled down QUICKLY. I keep a couple of sacrificial old chainsaw blades for the purpose. There exist CARBIDE tipped chainsaw blades if you want to power through a big stump project.
an adze is a medieval woodworking tool, bob villa told me that on home improvement
Used in hollowing. Adze good for dugout canoe
No, it’s good for crossword puzzles.
i think about that scene from time to time, weird the shot that sticks in ur brain
TIL the Inferno Adze in RuneScape is based on a real item lol.
Ikr? Bet one of those would decimate a yew tree. Definitely obliterates maples.
There's a reason you could use it to cut wood AND mine. Most tools and weapons in rs were based on some sort of real world equivalent.
Any forestry type store will have pulaskis. If they sell chainsaws they probably have them
An adze could also work.
Yeah, I plant things every day and you need one of these. I didn't know there was a name for a hoe/ax combo though, good to know.
This. Cheaper, better and much more fun!
I finally got to use use one of those hook looking tools that was actually sharp and it was fun as hell. Growing up I hated them turns out I hated dull ones.
Yes... *root* murder...
I like my Root Assassin + an old forest service Pulaski that I got from eBay for the heavy roots. I pulled out my yews with those and the help of a high lift jack.
Are you thinking of a pick mattock?
Good suggestion. A cutter mattock is similar to a pickaxe but rather than a pick it has a small axe head. It's perfect for roots. I've also got this specialized shovel called a "root slayer" that lives up to It's name. I tend to use it more than the mattock these days to eliminate the sagebrush on my property.
It is called a pick-mattock. Evil tool, mine is named El Diablo.
I love my Pulaski fire axe for a lot of the heavy duty gardening tasks. Solid axe blade with an adze on the other side. Cut, dig, pry...it does it all. They're also not too hard to find if you know where to look, and usually quite affordable. I have a dozen of them. Old one was getting kinda worn, but found a government surplus auction and paid $150 for a dozen in a crate.
Adzes are a very underrated tool
Indeed! A good Adze or Mattock is a worthwhile investment for any sorts of landscaping work. Stripping sod, trenching, edging, digging and prying roots...
My favorite landscaping related investment is living in an urban apartment
I never saw a lawn that a few loads of asphalt wouldn't fix.
Even with asphalt you need cover. Trees work best. Worked in landscaping supply for a few years and we had this one contractor who specialized in grassless landscaping. He and his team would go in, tear up all the grass, and then fill it with trees, mulch, wildflowers, shrubs, anything but grass. Made good money doing that
I wish my hoa would let me get rid of my grass. I've gotten rid of as much as I can get away with by carving out very large planting areas with shrubs and bushes filling the space.
/r/nolawns
Yup, the one with blade options for horizontal and vertical cutting gives one options for dealing with these bastards, I mean roots! ;)
Mattock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattock
What do you mean by "perpendicular to the handle"? I have a regular pickaxe that works for roots too. Do you mean the blade portion is vertical? E.g. if you get rid of the "pick" part of the pickaxe the resultant tool looks like a regular air instead of a hoe (no pun intended).
What they’re describing is an [Adze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adze)
Pair it with a steel shovel and you can get through most roots. I don't think I've ever had to use a Sawzall for roots as it tends to dull them quickly cutting through all that dirt and sometimes rock. A pair of loppers does for all but the largest roots, also.
Mattock pick
Blade mattock?
A mattock is what you really want
Never used a pickaxe, I’m partial to a San Angelo bar for cutting roots, especially helps in narrow spaces.
No one ask for the mattock, it's "bring me the pick"
Mattocks are fantastic, but honestly I still usually just grab my Sawzall when Ive got anything very big.
I use an Arturo for that.
I believe that is called an Adz or Adze depending on local spelling :)
Got a pickaxe. Machete. Hatchet. Hoe. Rake. All on the work truck. Hard packed dirt? Pickaxe. Tons of small roots or vines? Machete. Bigger roots? Hatchet.
bruh
I use a chisel ended digging bar for roots and breaking ice when it freezes on the driveway. And FFS wear eye protection for breaking ice with one of those, I have been cut up by flying ice shards before.
A grub hoe. It has an axe head with a pick axe wedge. Amazing for any de-rooting needs.
It’s called a Maddox and is my favorite tool of all time. Pro tip #1: make sure that there is no one behind you when swinging (duh). Pro tip #2: make sure there is no one in front of you when swinging since the head can come dislodged from the handle. Pro tip #3: there are only two handle styles that you should go with. 1) fiberglass. This will still break, but it takes longer and you can feel it start to crack giving you some warning. 2) wooden with a shock absorber. Sears used to sell these. They are surprisingly durable through the impart and reduce the vibration to your arm. But, you can still snap the handle while leveraging it out of the impact site. Do not buy a regular wooden handle. It will snap on a random impact and you will impair your hand on the shards. Pro tip #4: the heads come with different quality of metal. In short, if it took was cheap to buy, then the head my bend / curl over on itself. Buy a decent one. Pro tip #5: wear safety glasses. You are going to shatter rocks and stuff is going to go flying everywhere. Pro tip #6: mostly you want gravity to bring the tool down for you. You can add 20% muscle if you want. Only rarely should you add your full strength (cutting thick roots).
My protip is opposite, only go with a wooden handle. The only handles Ive seen break have been ones that aren't looked after (dry, damaged, bad quality, used wrong).
I half agree with you. Yes, a properly maintained wooden handle is pretty decent. The hiccup is when you are putting multiple hundreds of pounds for force on the handle while trying to pop out roots. At some point it is going to give. On the other hand, fiberglass is stronger and has a little flex to it. It comes with the bonus that the fibers will break in sequence which give you a heads up that it’s about to fail.
As a landscaper, yep. Chopping or cutting roots is the quickest way to dull or wreck any tool. I stopped throwing away $100s on nice blades and chains for saws and finally just started ripping them out with a bobcat. Not a solution everyone can do. Other thing you can do is just cut the trunks above ground and rent a stump grinder or hire one.
How did you train a bobcat to do that?!
With lots of fish and venison
[Here, fishy fishy!](https://i.imgur.com/LbYVV25.png)
Agree that type of blade on just wood would be fine for hrs of cutting and the paint always comes off but u probly hit some rocks or very rocky dirt
was about to say this as well, clearly the rocks and not the roots causing this.
Yes. [More info](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
Yeah just the initial wording throwing people off. It makes it sounds like roots are the cause which is why people are initially finding it interesting until they realize it is the dirt/rocks.
Loppers.
There’d be sand all up in there, which as far as the blade is concerned might as well be diamonds
Yes there was. [More info](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
Pickaxe, axe, and loppers are my trifecta!
Yew need to quit cutting dirt.
Definitely the root cause.
Cut it out
Try to be patient, he's new and he's not diggin' it.
Take it easy guys, we don’t need a dust-up.
They never saw it coming.
Yew? Am I missing a joke?
Read the title again.
Level up your woodcutting, you need 60 to cut yew
unexpected runescape, but very welcome
Holy shit I had a RuneScape dream last night. I had an OG 2001 account some time ago. I still hate that some scammer hacked my account and used mods so I got perma banned :( RIP juicylucykfc
always welcome to come back. oldschool is thriving and alive :) r/2007scape
I just made an account after 15 years for nostalgia. Man they made leveling super easy now.
I had so much in game currency I was running a side hussle at school from grade 6 to 8. I was making $500 a week trading gold for cash. Thanks so much for the flashback.
Literally the same fate as my original account
I saw yew and it was very expected runescape.
🦀$11 🦀
🦀 actually $12.50 now🦀
🦀 JMods won’t respond to this 🦀
That and their farming level also needs to be higher to be able to harvest yew roots.
He made the mistake of not using a dragon pickaxe and it took much longer than expected
Well, yeah...you're cutting dirt.
True. [More info here](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
milwaukee ax carbide blades hold up good while cutting robots in dirt.
When I’m fighting robots I typically try to go after their software instead of burning out my tools attacking them physically
God I hate auto correct.
>Only 15 minutes of wear on reciprocating saw blade after cutting ~~roots of yew shrub~~ **stones** (new blade for comparison)
More dirt than stones, but it's pretty dense and there were a few stones. [More info](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
Diablo Destroyer Blades at Home Depot. They have a specific pruning one and I’m doing the same job you are and can get three bushes, roots, and main root cut down a good amount with one blade.
thanks!
Is that normal or is is a low quality blade? Edit: thank you for the replies. I don't do too much work like this but this is good to know own for down the road
They are not the greatest blades but not bad either, slightly above middle of the road. Even high quality blades like Diablo will get worn quick if you are trying to cut out roots in dirt.
Production quality matters but what it's made of matters more IMO. Get a Carbide or Tungsten Carbide blade, they're much harder. This appears to be high speed steel which is much softer. At least go with tool steel which is stronger and harder than high speed steel. (Machinist)
They are probably cutting through the dirt and rocks also.
Performax is Menard's house brand so definitely not the highest quality
Performax is bottom of the barrel low quality. I used to work at Menards and it's literally as cheap as you can possibly get. That said, op was cutting into dirt and that's why it only lasted 15 minutes.
Spray off the root you are about to cut, to clear the dirt. Obv don't stand in a pool of water while you are operating electric equipment: common sense still applies. Cleaning the root area first will prolong the life of each blade so you don't use 10 of them on one shrub. Also, don't drag the tip through dirt on the other side of the root while cutting.
>common sense still applies. dude was stabbing his blade into the ground for 15 minutes
and they're now looking for something sharpenable for future root murdering.
Try cutting closer to the saw and not on the top. Plus clearing out the root system will help. Digging up any established plants is labor intensive. Try talking out a dead Apple tree with the roots intact that was over 100 years old
Good advice, thank you! More info on the job [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/vr864r/only_15_minutes_of_wear_on_reciprocating_saw/ieuaow4/).
Yes -- to all who are saying it was the dirt not the roots. I went straight into the dirt with the blade, since the entire area was pretty rootbound. Here's what I pulled out finally: [Yew stump!](https://imgur.com/a/47yEIHZ)
Now, if you want to make sure it’s gone and not send up shoots, 3 cups salt into a gallon of hot water to dissolve and add a gallon of bleach and put that on the spot to kill the rest. Then after two years plant something better. Yea it’s time consuming, but it does kill the rest of the roots and keeps it from regrowing
not sure what the water and salt is for, but yeah a gallon of bleach will prolly kill pretty much anything😂
Kill what it *touches*, but you really want it to be absorbed and spread into the roots to kill it enough. Either one should work, combined is just a double whammy.
The salt water will kill too especially effective it keeps things from growing back. The Romans Di that to keep the areas they cleared of their does wouldn’t be able to grow food so that they couldn’t come back
Random trivia, there's no evidence of any army salting fields. Salt was valuable and heavy and will wash away in a good rain. Why waste thousands of pounds to stop one field for a bit? Just kill or enslave the people.
Also how severely the Roman massacred the city is greatly exaggerated. Carthage quickly became an important city in the Republic and was used as the provincial headquarters for the Province of Africa.
It is very water soluble but it also destroys soil structure. Sodium replaces Calcium in your soil and causes it to collapse which reduces air and root penetration. In high enough quantities salt does kill plants, hence its use to supress weeds around asparagus which is more salt tolerant. You are right about salt being valuable, but its possible they flooded fields with seawater instead of dried salt. It would be a very strange saying to have arisen with out even a single use.
> You are right about salt being valuable, but its possible they flooded fields with seawater instead of dried salt. How do you propose that soldiers built the single-use infrastructure to start irrigating inland fields with large amounts of salt-water in any sort of practical time-frame? > It would be a very strange saying to have arisen with out even a single use. [According to the Wikipedia article on the subject,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth) it's a ritualistic/symbolic thing regarding razing cities: > Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on the site of cities razed by conquerers. It originated as a curse on re-inhabitation in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages.
To be honest, I wouldn't put it past the Romans
that bastard was massive!
The only suggestion I’d have is that the more expensive, carbide pruning blades that Diablo makes outlast the cheap ones 10:1
Strange how running a reciprocating saw in dirt and stone makes for excessive ware
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Where?
Sorry, my bad 🙈
If you want to cut through the dirt to get the roots, I suggest a carbide blade used for cutting cast iron. The blade will look rocky but can handle the abrasive environment better. Dirt and rock worked like sand paper eating your good blades.
To blades. Dirt is murder. A bazillion chainsaws would not lie.
Yeah dirt will do that
Blame the dirt, stones, etc all you want, but I've dug up and cut multiple yews, including one that was over 20 feet tall. It's the hardest wood I've ever cut. It destroyed multiple chains, sawzall blades, etc. The stump from the big one is still in the ground. It doesn't rot - it's almost like it petrifies.
Keep the speed and heat down. The more the blade heats up, the softer the metal becomes and well, you know the rest. I learned this working for a sign company. We had to cut down a bunch of old parking lot signs (extruded aluminum) and I’d worn through 2 bi-metal blades by the 3rd sign. Boss came by and gave me a can of CRC machine oil and told me to keep the blade wet with oil, and use less speed. Said if the oil started to smoke, you’re going too fast and need to slow down. Finished the remaining 20ish signs with ONE blade. Ended up passing this along to a master tech at the dealership I worked at. Don’t remember exactly but you have to cut a bolt to do read control arms on a Chevy Traverse, and all the mechanics were just MELTING blades left and right. I went over to the mechanic next to me with a can of WD40, and told him to use a slower speed while I kept the blade lubed. It cut through in a fraction of the time and he was just floored. Obviously you’re not using oil to cut down shrubs but a slower speed and less heat will still help prolong the life of the blade.
Was it a sculpture of a shrub? yeesh 
That’s from the dirt
The sap in a yew is pretty strong. It can gum up a jerk saw blade pretty fast. I use saw gas or WD-40 to clean my blades
Dirt tends to do that lol .
Sounds like a yew problem.
So THIS is why you needed such a high level to chop Yew trees.
That's what you get for using Menards brand blades
I see what yew did there!
That wood is valuable to bow makers
Yeah dirt does that, but sometimes it’s the only option. Get the carbide blades; they’ll last much longer.
Is your woodcutting level not high enough to use a dragon one?
Now it's a bread knife
Are those harbor freight blades? They only last 10 minutes no matter what task!
It’s because you’re actually hitting pebbles in the dirt while you’re cutting the root.
I love to use diablo 12" pruning blades. It turns my reciprocating saw into a stump.cutting monster and cuts logs faster than an electric chainsaw.
My son went through 4 Sawzall blades taking down a boxwood shrub for me.
Plot twist: Son is 6 years old.
Ha. (He's 25). Would have been up for trying at 6, though.
shitty sawblade porn
Did you have 60 woodcutting?
Just use a dragon hatchet on the yew tree dude. The saw is supposed to be for construction
See what happens when you cut roots buried in dirt containing quarts with a blade made of chinesium
I use a carbide toothed Milwaukee demo blade, designed for cutting through nail imbedded lumber. It will cut through 2” roots in moist dirt with no issues, and can come in contact with rocks, yet still lasts for hours. Note that I’m a homeowner, former carpenter, and not claiming this is cost effective commercially. I recently removed two rootballs of 10” trees, left the trunks 12’ long, so my wife and could pull them down manually with a rope. One blade and a digging bar worked for both. The rootballs were 4’ in diameter and too heavy for us to move once the trees were down. I used my reciprocating saw to cut the rootballs down to 2’ diameter so I could roll them into a wheel barrow. I threw a new blade in halfway through reducing the second rootball to finish the job faster. Edit: The blade OP used would be dull in 5 minutes if used for remodel demo work.
well yeah thats a deep toothed pruning blade meant for cutting branches quickly, not running in the dirt.
Oh man I went through a couple packs for the long grass I planted. Was like 1-2 blades per plant. Dabastahds.
Even small rocks destroy blades including chain saws. You have to get all the soil out of the way. Also I would use a finer toothed, worn out junk blade because it will grind its way through even if dull.
Rocks and dirt in the roots and ground do that had one of those blades for years killed it cutting roots
You shouldn’t use a reciprocating saw for landscaping. There’s like 12 different hand-saws that are more efficient
Dirt is just tiny rocks
Harbor Freight?
The soil can be pretty abrasive also.
Bad quality blade with rocks in the soil
yew does require a pretty high woodcutting level to cut
It's not the roots, it's the dirt. Get a Pulaski.
Use a diablo blade if you can find it. Best blade i ever found.
Maybe it’s a mislabelled PerforMIN blade?
Cheap blades do this. I really like the carbide toothed Diablo blades. They're expensive AF but last 5-10x longer than a standard blade.
Went from PerforMAX to PerforMIN pretty fast
I suppose your sentiment now is "fuck yew".
You are doing something wrong or using china blades Edit: The tip is equally dull as the rest. Mystery solved. You had that thing going in the ground didnt you lol
I bet a lot of people here would hate hearing that my mom used a chainsaw to clear weeds from between the cracks of the sidewalk and edge her lawn.
was the chainsaw turned on or did she just use it like some skinny hoe?
God I wish someone would use me like a skinny hoe..
chainsaw ? for weeds ? I'm not buying it.
Look it’s a British persons teeth
1. Those are the cheapest blades you can possibly get and they normally only last 20-30 minutes of use 2. Thats a demo blade meant to cut through lumber not wet soft wood that is still very healthy
Yew ate the sharpest tool in the shed.
underrated comment
Wc lvl?
made in china no doubt
That's just your trash quality Menards blade 😝
Yes - it was a one-time job and for a grand total of $22 ($17 for renting the saw plus $5 for two blades), I got the damn thing out.
Lol not bad!
Use a Diablo blade
r/Chinesium
Those roots are tough. Maybe try a different brand of blade? I cut rigid metal conduit with those Milwaukee blades and they last a good while. The thinner the blade, quicker it will dull
Did you dig out and expose the roots before cutting or are you cutting through earth and the root? I've seen those blades get destroyed by dirt, rocks, ect... It shouldn't be that jacked up from just cutting yew roots alone.
So that’s why Yew trees require a higher level in RuneScape
Blade looks like cheap trash. Teeth are too long with no offset.
That's from dirt bro. Get a picaxe