Tools for Land Clearing

To construct swimming pools and other add-on structures for a residence, it is essential to rid the construction site of trees, shrubberies, plant life and other landscape elements. Some of the specific tools used for land clearing can include manual tools such as heavy shears and hoes, along with expensive power tools that use gas and electricity as a main power source.

Resembling a large gas-powered lawn mower, the stump cutter is used to remove small and large tree stumps from any type of landscape. Used primarily for commercial land clearing construction jobs, the stump cutter has an average height of about 58 inches and is outfitted with a large saw blade at its front section that cuts into the tree stump as the user holds the motorized saw blade in place. As the blade cuts into the stump, the wood chips are sucked through the attached exhaust tube and are thrown into the chop retainer.

Used for cutting tree limbs from hard-to-reach areas while clearing land, loppers look like very long scissors that contain two 1/2-inch sharpened blades attached to two 8-inch handles. As tree limbs, branches and twigs require removal from the land clearing areas, the user places the lopper over the twig to cut and brings the handles together, effectively breaking the branch in two. The user then can easily remove the branch or limb from the area.

To remove large stones and rocks from a landscape to clear the area, use a pickaxe to break up these hard materials. Containing a large chisel head constructed out of metal, the pickaxe also features a 12-inch wooden handle used for gripping the tool easily while bringing down the tool's large metal chisel onto the stone's surface. Since the pickaxe is designed in a compact and powerful fashion, this tool is good for smashing apart rocks to take them out of the ground fairly easily.

Since certain landscapes that require clearing can contain small rocks, large sections of dead grass, tree branches and twigs that are buried into the soil itself, a heavy-duty rake is a good tool to use to get rid of this debris. Modern hand rakes are made out of steel, and the long tines used to dig up the unwanted debris from the landscape are attached to a 2-foot wooden handle that the user grips while bringing down the sharpened tines into the earth's soil. As the user runs the rake into the land, he can loosen the rocks, grass and branches stuck in the soil enough to easily remove them.