An edge trimmer or lawn edger is a

garden tool A garden tool is any one of many tools made for gardening and landscaping, which overlap with the range of tools made for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools can be divided into hand tools and power tools. Hand tools Today's garden tool ...

, either manual or motorised, to form distinct boundaries between a

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. L ...

, typically consisting of a

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

, or other soft botanical ground cover, and another ground surface feature such as a paved, concreted or asphalted area, or a granular material such as sand or gravel, or simply uncovered soil, for example an unbounded garden. There are six main types of lawn edger: *Manual **Spade-based **Roller-based **Hand shears *Motorised **Adaptable

string trimmer A string trimmer, also known by the portmanteau strimmer and the trademarks Weedwacker, Weed eater and Whipper Snipper. is a garden tool for cutting grass, small weeds, and groundcover. It uses a whirling monofilament line instead of a blade, ...

**Single-wheel purpose-designed **Multi-wheel purpose-designed Purpose-designed lawn edgers are more time efficient for long and even edges, while string trimmers are more efficient for angular edges and around interrupting features such as rocks. Spade based, roller based, and adaptable string trimmer designs may all be known as ''stick trimmers''. Typical situations for the use of lawn edgers are to define clean boundaries, and stop grass incursion, between lawns and walkways or gardens in private properties and public areas, and between sand traps and greens or fairways on golf courses.

Manual lawn edgers

Spade-based

The simplest lawn edger is the standard

spade A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades). After the a ...

, used as a vertical cutting blade. Edger

Purpose-designed manual spade-based lawn edgers are a half-moon-shaped, semicircular, broad blade attached to an elongated handle, and are used in a downwards and rocking motion. The blade may have a flat top to allow the operator to step on the blade to apply more force. The blade is driven through the lawn and into the lawn substrate parallel to (and adjacent to) the hard boundary feature bordering the lawn, cutting any protruding lawn material. This type of lawn edger is also known as an edging iron.

Roller-based

There are two basic types of roller based manual lawn edgers. Both are driven by pushing a roller wheel along a hard surface adjacent to the lawn edge. One type causes a solid steel cutting disc to cut the edge of the lawn; the other type causes two star-spoked discs to rotate against each other, shear-cutting the edge of the lawn.

Hand shears

Hand shears come in many configurations, ranging from single hand operated at ground level to long handled, some with adjustable length, operated by two hands, with a right angle alignment of the shearing blades allowing lateral cutting from a standing position.

Motorised lawn edgers

Powering motorised lawn edgers can be either by

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

or mains electricity, or by

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

two stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

four stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...

engines.

Adaptable string trimmers

Some

string trimmers A string trimmer, also known by the portmanteau strimmer and the trademarks Weedwacker, Weed eater and Whipper Snipper. is a garden tool for cutting grass, small weeds, and groundcover. It uses a whirling monofilament line instead of a blade ...

are designed so that they can be easily maneuvered with their head being positioned vertically instead of the default horizontal. Other string trimmers come with specific lawn edging attachments, or the one head can be pivoted to be realigned vertically. Lawn edging with a string trimmer will often be done with a blade fitted to the head rather than string/wire.

Purpose designed lawn edgers

Purpose designed lawn edgers are single purpose machines for longer lawn edging distances. Single wheel designs are lighter and more maneuverable than multi wheel designs which are built for heavy duty work. Some designs allow the angle at which the cutting chord or blade or blades strike the lawn edge to be adjusted.

History

The gasoline lawn edger was invented by Louis Faas Sr. of King o' Lawn Inc in the 1940s. The first gasoline edgers used a

Briggs & Stratton Briggs & Stratton Corporation is an American manufacturer of gasoline engines with headquarters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Engine production averages 10 million units per year as of April 2015. The company reports that it has 13 large facilit ...

1.5 horsepower (1.1 kW) engine.

References

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