The Yard Blade® cattail cutting tool

We have three ponds on our property and my intention isn't to remove them completely, but get them under control in areas where we want to fish and swim. This tool works very well for the job. It even cuts cattails that are really thick and cleans up the area nicely. The only drawback is that you need to be careful using a pool skimmer pole with this blade. I bent the one that I purchased from the local pool supply store and ended up cutting about 4-feet off the 16 foot telescoping pole. If you get a pole from your pool shop you may want to invest in some PVC pipe to place inside the smallest diameter of the pole to help keep it from bending or breaking.

I bought the yard blade two years ago, when I first noticed cattails popping up in our 1-acre pond. Last year, we had a family of muskrats in the pond that kept the cattail population down. Suffice to say, the Yard Blade sat, unopened, in my garage for the last two years. Today I put it together in about 30 seconds and took it down to the pond. I wiped out the twenty or so cattails that were getting established in no time at all, standing on the bank a good dozen feet away. This thing is fantastic...sliced right through the offending plants below the water line, and I was able to drag most of them to shore just using the blade, after cutting. Really a great invention, AND great fabrication. So glad that I ordered a spare blade, too! Cattails won't have a chance in our beautiful pond, now!

I don’t normally do reviews and I am not being compensated in any way for this one. I have been using the Yard Blade for a couple of days now and it is a straight up cattail assassin! I have tried everything and in the end, the simplicity, quality and effective design of this product just works. The blade isn’t all that large but it cuts so much with every swath that it gets pretty heavy with roots and plants by the time you lift it out of the water. I’ve learned to let the blade do all the work by setting it on the pond bottom and rather gently pulling it back in. The blade will not only cut the plant with little to no effort, but it will tangle up a lot of the loose root and plant pieces for ease of disposal when you take it out of the water. I’ve also learned not to press too hard on the pole. The good news is that by letting the blade do its thing, you really don’t have to press hard like I did at first. These poles aren’t designed for heavy yard work in their expended position and will bend slightly if leaned on for leverage while cutting. The blade quality is superb. I would recommend adding a removable safety sheath to the blade because this is unlike most garden tools – the blade is quite sharp and could cut someone who expects this to be somewhat dull like a hoe. I would also recommend getting the rake attachment and a second pole. You will cut so much so quickly that switching heads back and forth using a single pole is going to slow you way down. Great product!

I contacted several "gardening equipment" catalog companies about products that could cut cattails. None of them could offer a solution. I Googled "cutting cattails" and this company came up. I'm so glad it did. I have to remove cattails from a drainage ditch and usually I put on boots and cut them down with a handsaw. It is messy and dangerous...you never know what is in drainage ditch water.
I was skeptical that this would work, but what did I have to lose? I ordered 2 blades and extension pole. The weather got warm enough yesterday so I tried this cutter from standing on the bank....I didn't have to get into the ditch! All I can say is WOW...WOW...WOW. It was like cutting butter! So easy and quick. I will order more blades because this is the BEST PRODUCT EVER!!!! Thank you Mike for all the follow-up!

We have a large landscape company and managing cattails is one of our nightmares.
Clients get nervous when they see motorized equipment being used in or even around their retention ponds.
Only takes a few minutes to get used to it and our crews can safely cut them from shore.