I used mine to cut down some over grown weeds that were to big for my weed eater and it worked great for that but it is extra sharp so you just have to be careful and keep it away from your skin

You could cut your finger off with this thing fairly easily. It does not come with a holster or anything to store it in. My concern is that somebody could be looking for something on my workbench or area and get cut by it. I have not had much luck finding a cover that is sturdy enough, and well-made enough to ensure it won't get out into the open. I suppose a wooden box with a key might be best. It is too sharp for me to use safely

I live on a rural property with a lot of blackberries. I need to trim them back a fair amount to keep them from scratching the paint on our vehicles and we drive down our road. I've been using a Fiskars Brush Axe for the past 15 years or so, and while it's built really well and it has a hook at the end of the blade to stop the blackberry stalks from just sliding off before they're cut (we've found standard machetes to be pretty useless for blackberries with their straight blades....) the Fiskars never was super sharp in large part because of the thickness of the double-edge blade. This Japanese style chisel blade sickle is SHARP! It's got a thin blade kerf and a high carbon steel blade, and man it cuts through blackberries like a hot knife through butter!! To be fair, I think the Fiskars is has a thicker blade because it's designed to cut larger branches, but, this limits it's effectiveness for blackberry stalks. Add to that the plastic handle (while robust) can easily slip out of a a gloved hand (and we wear gloves to avoid blackberry thorns in our hands....) the sickle has a super comfortable rubber, non-slip handle. It's also a couple inches shorter than the Fiskars which makes it easier to store. So if you're looking for a super sharp brush knife to cut blackberries and other underbrush (and we've easily cut 1/2" diameter branches too) this sickle works great!!!

I have to hedge a mile long grape trellis every few weeks. I was hoping I could drive along on my small tractor and clip off what stuck out. It does great on anything less than 1/4". Anything larger than that and I dont get the clean cut I need without holding the vine with the other hand. Which is questionable safety wise. Antique Billhook grape machetes are heavier like a meat cleaver and would probably do a better job on the thick stuff. But it's hard to find 17th century stuff. I may try the longer handled version of this to see if the extra swing speed helps. It will be great for nipping off suckers, etc next spring. I did resharpen it with a scythe stone to get a concave ,slightly toothy edge. It's carbon steel, so it rusts, but that's actually an advantage on scythes, etc. the fine rust help you see where you are removing metal when sharpening. I also rounded the point to prevent eviceration. As everybody else points out, a sheath is a good idea for something this sharp. The one that came with it lasted about 2 uses, so I'll prolly make something

Used a hand scythe as a kid to easily cut tall grasses & small shrubs. This is not very sharp & the angle of blade is rather awkward. Think can sharpen which would make it more useable.