The tool shipped fast coast to coast and arrived just in time for some heavy duty bamboo removal. I’m in the process of removing a mature stand from the back of my yard where it has clearly escaped it’s border. The work to chop through mature running bamboo root mass is grueling and slow going to say the least.

I would say that without the Slammer tool I would not have removed a single clump of this almighty powerful grass! I am about 75% done after putting in about 12-14 solid hours of slamming and prying massive root balls from the earth In 2-3 hour sessions. It is an amazing forearm and core workout to say the least! Make sure to use good thick gloves unless you‚ have got hands of stone but once you do, this tool gets the job done! The cost is high but without it a job like this could only be done with a small excavator or a chainsaw (wanna stick a chainsaw blade down 20‚Äù or more into dirt and rocks? Me either).

So…the Slammer tool was a necessity for this job and I anticipate using it for post hole digging and any manner of heavy chopping and digging task that may come up for years to come. I will finish by reiterating that this tool definitely takes some serious energy to use, but that it is much more efficient and robust than any comparable human powered tool I have seen or can imagine.

It’s a great tool. I’ve used it for digging up bamboo and old 4×4 posts set in concrete. It chops the concrete off and makes it easy to lift the post.

works great for tough jobs. obviously durable, it will be around when I’m gone. rubber handstop good for pinch prevention. sexy black, what more could you ask for?

The Slammer Tool is simply one of the most satisfying investments I’ve ever made in a hand tool. I spend a considerable portion of my time battling invasive plants. I spend summers pulling buckthorn out of my Minnesota woods which I am reforesting in appropriate native species as a labor of love. I spend much of the rest of the year removing bamboo professionally in Texas. I use an Extractigator, a kind of weed wrench, for pulling buckthorn, and it is excellent for that. I highly recommend it. Bamboo, however, because of the dense rhizome mat it forms, requires a different strategy.

For years, I’ve relied on a pick mattock as my primary digging tool, along with heavy duty crowbars and spades. For cutting dense, hard to access areas of the rhizome mat, I would have to resort to axes and splitting mauls. It was hard to find room to swing, and the inevitable rocks dulled my blades. Since I received my Slammer Tool, I have not even unwrapped my new axe. While the pick mattock is still my most used tool, the Slammer Tool is indispensable in those tight situations where no other tool will efficiently cut the rhizomes. During my first week of use, it saved me hours of axe work, usually the most trying part of my job. I still prefer my digging bar for lifting cut sections out of the ground, but largely because I prefer to spare my Slammer Tool from the rocks I employ as fulcrums (although the Slammer Tool is plenty strong for prying, so long as you leave the slide hammer inside the pipe (female) section of the tool as the instructions tell you to do. Having another tool in my rotation lets me use different muscle groups so I tire less easily.

While the instructions tell you to use both hands to grip the upper section, I have developed a different technique over my first week of work with the Slammer Tool. I think they tell you to grip the upper section with both hands in order to keep you from using your other hand on the lower section and risking a serious pinching injury. On that point, I agree. Your hands should be on the lower section only when positioning the tool, not when “slamming.” ALWAYS wear gloves. I use one hand on the upper section. I let the other arm rest by my side. After four blows with one hand, I switch hands on the upper section in between blows. This technique allows me to maintain a steady rhythm while distributing the work over both arms, with periods of rest for both. The work goes faster, and it is safe. I bring sound protection to the job, but the tool is not as loud as I thought it might be. That may be because I am using it to cut soil and hard pan rather than rock, and these substrates absorb a lot of the vibration of impact.

What do I like about the Slammer Tool? The design of the tool is extremely well thought out. They kept it simple. Let’s start at the top. The handle of the upper section is long enough for a two-handed grasp, or to alternate hands, as I prefer to do. After four blows, my hand has usually slid to the bottom of the handle, where the flange prevents it from sliding into the pinch zone. The flange also keeps dirt from falling into the hollow section and creating friction against the piston. The rubber cuff at the top of the lower section reduces the likelihood and seriousness of a potential pinching injury, but you can eliminate that risk by keeping your hands off the lower section during operation of the Slammer Tool. The weight of the upper and lower sections is ideal. Heavy enough to be strong and create exceptional and sufficient force, but not so heavy as to needlessly tire the operator. The blade design is also very well considered. The diamond shape is best for walking the blade out of the excavation. The extension of the pipe section into the blade prevents bending of the blade better than welded gussets, and the feathering of the pipe extension reduces the chance of a sheer failure. Finally, the concavity at the business end of the cutting blade captures the rhizomes and ferries them to the center of the blade rather than deflecting them to the sides.

I am grateful that someone still makes tools of this quality. I used to have an axe mattock that had served me faithfully for over three decades. The head was American steel. The handle was American hickory. The blade never bent. Although I wore it down somewhat over years of use, I never had to sharpen it. The handle never fractured or split. I would still be using it had it not been stolen when my house was broken into. Just this week, the Mexican steel blade on the pick mattock I’ve had for less than two years began to curve upwards as the result of my using it for prying.

My habit is to leave my tools at the job site. The Slammer Tool goes home with me at night, though. It might interest you to know that I was introduced to the tool by my current client, who found it on the Internet. I ordered that very day. I am using it now on his job. Yesterday, we learned that it cuts broadband cables just as easily as it cuts bamboo rhizomes, but them’s the breaks in the bamboo business . . .

Thanks for a great tool at a fair price. The free shipping helped me decide. I’m a working man who is loathe to part with money hard earned, but the design, materials, and quality machining of this tool make it good value.

So long as there is bamboo, I will never be out of work. Even with good tools, the work is so hard that most people don’t last in it, and many if not most job site conditions make heavy machinery out of the question. Doing the work efficiently and effectively requires plenty of experience and a thorough understanding of the enemy.

The Slammer Tool won’t put me out of business, but it is likely to save me enough personal wear and tear to stay in the business for years longer. By the way, I forgot to mention that my Slammer Tool was shipped with lighting speed and arrived on schedule. Thank you, Matt and The Tool Merchants!

Now, how about an American (or New Zealand) made heavy duty pick mattock that I can’t bend?

I just want to say, if you do much digging you need to get one of these. Inevitably when digging you will hit rock it is just one of the rules of digging a hole, with the Slammer tool you can find the edge of a rock get under it and pry it up with ease. But that is not the end of the usefulness of this tool. It cuts through stubborn roots, breaks through hard pan and compacted dirt, and does it amazingly well.

My neighbor also loves this tool, he had a few hundred holes to put in the ground. Sure he had a power auger, but time and time again he hit rock, and the Slammer tool enabled him to get those rocks out of the hole. He is planning to buy his own next year and has said it saved him again and again from having to move where he had planned to plant.

After a season in Eastern WA during a long hot dry summer, with both my neighbor and I using this it is still going strong. Not one problem with this tool ever came up. These are extremely well built and made to last.