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Writer's pictureCourtney Culbertson

Blog: Landscape Apprentice Lesson #3 – Sharpen Your Tools

It is the infamous saying that if you use a dull ax it will take you longer time to cut down a tree but the same applies for grinding tree stumps! Let me make one thing clear: grinding tree stumps should be declared illegal, immoral, unethical, and just plain waste of time and gas. Although the first refueling of the stump grinding machine cost me only 99 cents…

We had a wonderful customer who was just tired of his grass not growing. Plenty of trees in the back yard, lots of shaded areas where the sun doesn’t bring its vitamin D to the grassy blades and a big white pine in the front yard, soiling the ground with plenty of sap. Customer wants the tree down, the tree goes down, debris everywhere, and the fun of grinding the stump (plus another one from a large oak tree) began. Except that the boss told us we should be done in about an hour and here we were, two hours later and barely any progress! Called the boss and his assessment hit the bulls eye, “your stump grinder is dull!” What?! We just wasted two hours of our lives and didn’t check the grinding blade?! Yep… return grinder and repeat on next day, this time renting from a better place.

And what a difference a sharper blade makes! Oh me, oh my! The first day, we were trying to cut a tree stump with a butter knife. The second day, we were on the moment the blade hit the stump! It was music to our ears and a joy to our hearts! We had to move over 8 full wheelbarrows with wooden shavings but we didn’t mind: we were getting it done, baby! All because of a sharp blade! What a difference!

If you are working on a project and it is taking a lot longer maybe you need to take a look at your tools. Make sure they are sharp, oiled, maintained well, and serviced regularly. Otherwise, just as our enthusiastic crew learned, you will be wasting time, energy, and gas. Better yet, call us and we can do it for you!

That’s the happy face of Matthew McCook, operating the sharper and better stump grinder on Day Two of Operation Stumps Out

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