Most guys can't edge well with a trimmer. I can, I believe anyone here that says they can, but most can't. The guy who made the edge you're complaining about too wide sucks at it.

Haven't used one in awhile but from memory I think I replaced them when they were 2-2 1/2" inches long from the center hole. Your's does sound like it might need to be replaced. It's not about how dig it deeps, I generally only go for about an inch in the soil when I set one up. You're trying to cut grass and leave a 90 degree angle, not dig a trench.

The nice thing about them is consistent results every time and speed. If the edge is too wide from poor edging with a trimmer then leave it alone for a bit. The grass will become denser in just a few weeks during heavy growth and look sharper when edged with a stick edger.

If a car is in your walking path put the controls in your left hand and walk on the grass. I'm left handed and use most tools like everyone else does, I know you can do it.

For me it's all about distance. I can do just as well with a trimmer but I'll spend more time and exert more energy. 40' and I'll use a trimmer, 400' and I'll be cursing myself halfway through if I didn't grab the edger.

 

Iv honestly never owned or operated an edger of any kind.. And I don't think at this point I care to. Iv run into some bad overgrown edges & can take an overgrown edge from years of neglect to a clean crisp edge in one or two visits. 1st visit gets it all to a semi-straight line and rid of the access debris. 2nd visit cleans & smooths everything out.

 

View attachment 343315 View attachment 343316 View attachment 343317 View attachment 343318 View attachment 343320 View attachment 343321 View attachment 343322 Iv honestly never owned or operated an edger of any kind.. And I don't think at this point I care to. Iv run into some bad overgrown edges & can take an overgrown edge from years of neglect to a clean crisp edge in one or two visits. 1st visit gets it all to a semi-straight line and rid of the access debris. 2nd visit cleans & smooths everything out.

I give you credit for doing that job with a line trimmer! How long did it take you to do it? I use a walk behind edger for the first cut of the season and for the rest of the season a line trimmer.

 

Does your trimmer line ever get too short??? Do you ever replace it?

We have claw, ball peen, engineer's, sledge, dead blow hammers. We have slotted and Philips head screwdrivers. 12" prybars and 4' prybars. 21" mower and 60" mower. Shovels for sidewalks and 16' pushers for parking lots.

There's a reason there are edgers and trimmers. I prefer to use the correct tool for the job. We don't use a 10# sledge for finish nails. We don't use a dead blow hammer for 12" spikes.

 

Depends on your location too. In Florida with the types of grasses that we have and where almost everyone has a concrete driveway and sidewalks ,edging is a weekly requirement on most yards because the grass spreads quickly. It would be way too time/ energy consuming to try and do it all with a string trimmer. Blade edgers are just a standard piece of equipment you have if you're a lawn service in Florida. Not having a blade edger would be like not having a blower around here.

And regarding the blade length. Yes a new blade Cuts much much better than one that has lost some of its length. I go through about one blade every four days in the summer in my business doing about 85 yards a week. I will usually change them when I lost about one to one and a half inches of overall length on the blade

 

I go through about one blade every four days in the summer in my business doing about 85 yards a week. I will usually change them when I lost about one to one and a half inches of overall length on the blade

Wow, that's impressive. We change them out at least once a day when we're doing a lot of edging. I've had to change them after just one account.

 

Blade edgers (with new blade) for the win.

 

I'm a cheap SOB I guess payup:laugh:, because I reverse my edger blades to get as much wear out of them a I can, plus the rear side/edge, while slightly rounded is always more square than the leading edge/cutting side, so you can get a bit cleaner cut out of the back side once they start to wear a bit, but eventually, they need replaced no matter what.

 

That's a great idea. I knew I have been saving all those blades for a reason.

 

what i don't get is why does grass grow so much over sidewalks and driveways yet it doesn't spread out in the yard very much?

i mean if the grass will grow over the sidewalk 3" every week then why doesn't it spread 3" in the yard every week?

:laugh:

 

I'm with you. I managed building my business and clients for 5 years before I got A stick edger. I have found when I use an edger, I want to go back and clean up the edges with my trimmer. My yards always look better when I edge with my trimmer. I can also edge faster with my trimmer then I can with my edger (at least if I want it to look nice). Most LCO's around me do use an edger. I prefer my trimmer. With st. Aug, there's always runners that either don't get cut, do get cut but still stick to the concrete, or pop up after being cut with the edger and look scraggly. IME

 

Yup! A stick edger may work good with some grasses, but not St Augustine.

 

I know a lot of the northern guys use string trimmers for edging which is fine if that works for you and Im sure it works fine in Northern grasses but around here that's just not the norm at all. The only people you see trying to Edge driveways and sidewalks with a string trimmer are usually the homeowners and even a lot of them have a blade edger nowadays.

 

Yeah for guys in my area,. A heavy Bermuda mix lawn is a bad day.. typically just fescue round here.

 

I don't ever flip the blade. After it starts to wear it develops an edge on the side of the lawn, which I think is what I want.

I like to have a few around for scraping decks and such but if we kept around every old $2 wearable part I wouldn't have a place to sit.

 

That square end is what makes the most difference, once that 90 degree leading corner is rounded over and the blade starts getting shorter the quality of cut starts diminishing.

You can buy edger blades on sale for 60 cents a piece in a pack of 50, I just change them when needed. I have flipped them in the past but found the blade was already nearly an inch shorter than a new one by then and the 90 degree corner rounded over on the other side pretty quickly so I would be putting on a new blade shortly anyway, I'de rather change blades less often than try to get those last few edgings out of an old one by taking time to flip it.

 

i use an edger with guides and rubber shield removed leave main guard on. i find it much quicker than trimmer and cleaner edge with a good blade but worn blade shows up very quick

 

Did a Bahia yard last week (corner lot, rental) that hadn't been edged in over a year. Put a new edger blade on when I started it, this is what was left of the blade when I finished about 30 minutes later.

I guess I got my 60 cents worth out of itThumbs Up