Well, my lawn grass isn't that weird. It's medium-width blades (not quite as you'd see on a nice golf course) that when mowed with the Honda looked really even and smooth. The Snapper leaves the lawn looking a bit ragged, despite the fact that the blades are new and appear level within the mower deck. I've tried the Ninja mulching blades without a bag and the regular HiVac blades with the bag-- neither give anywhere near as nice a cut as the Honda's twin mulching blades did. But the fact that my Honda's transmission seized up after 6 years of normal use (takes about an hour to mow our lawn) ticked me off enough that I wasn't about to go buy another Honda. Fixing it would have cost almost $300 because of its hard-to-reach tranny, unlike the Snapper whose tranny is outside the mower deck and easy to access. Anyway, this is a real mystery-- guess I'll just have to live with it. As an afterthought: some people have complained online about the Snapper's B&S engine as having too slow a speed, but I'm not sure what they mean. I wonder if they think that the blade doesn't spin fast enough on a Snapper-- could that be it?

OK guys, let say a few things. I have tons of examples and other people do too. Angle-cuts only develop roots at the tip period. And that is not due to the lack of callus. Look at the nice callus around the perimeter that did not develop any roots except at the tip. Here is another example. Look at the size of that callus and still no roots. And the sad thing is, they will never develop roots to fill the cross section. Here is a 3-year old angle-cut plant. No more roots developed than the initial roots. Why does this happen? Because all the plant energy goes to the lowest point of the cut. Here is the evidence. Two long lowest points were cut. It develop roots only at the two lowest points. Two shorter equal points were cut. Again, it develop roots only at the two lowest points. A square step was cut. Most roots developed at the lowest flat. Given this, what is the best cut? A square cut, because the whole circumference is the lowest point and develops vigorous roots all around the perimeter. This means a healthier and stronger plant. Look at the roots on this 6-month old baby. Here is another young square-cut plant. Here is a bottom view. Look at how roots pop out of the callus at the cambium perimeter, on both sides of the callus (in and out). The evidence is overwhelming. If you want strong and vigorous plants cut your cuttings square. Why do people still cut cuttings at an angle. Because it was the reccomended practice before I came along and people are used to it and they do not know any better. A lot of foreign vendors (Thailand), vendors in Hawaii are not aware of this. It will take time for them to learn and come along. George

I use stones. Simple and sort of contemplative. A trick is, take a square of paper (like a post-it), fold in half on the diagonal once, then fold in half again, the result is a 22.5 degree wedge. If one of those folds is in thirds, the result is a 15.0 degree wedge. That piece of folded paper can be used to help you hold the knife at the desired angle. Typically European chef knifes were factory sharpened at about 20 degrees, that is on each side, so total included angle 40 degrees. Japanese slicing knives are typically sharpened at 15 degrees, and sometimes only on one side, for total included angle 15 to 30 degrees. The wider angle holds up better to heavy work (crunching through a chicken) with the softer steel of typical European knives. The narrower angle cuts more easily but requires harder steel and isn't as tolerant of abuse. You might, for instance, sharpen your big Chef's knife to 20 degrees and your slicer to 15 degrees. I have European knives and sharpen them all to 15 degrees, I don't abuse them and they hold up. For chopping up chickens etc I have a cheap cleaver that never gets sharpened.

I have a Roto-zip ($150) and a Fein Multi-tool ($400 -but there are cheaper ones out there). This is what I've found from spending the last 7 years doing a complete gut and remodel (rebuild mostly) of a 130 year old farm house. For what you want. - cutting a square hole out of hardwood floor for an air duct (although nails that aren't visible through the tongue & groove could make this tricky) Fien tool - the rotozip struggled cutting through hardwood - lots of burning and went very slow - actually I don't think either it a great tool for this job- a good quality jigsaw would be better. - cutting sheet metal ducts and gutter downspouts I have not done a lot of metal cutting with either - but I think the oscelating blade would be better. We've done most of that with a metal blade on the compound miter saw -larger projects get cut with a blade backwards in a skill saw - or by hand - bought a nibbler but did not like the way it works (this was for work on outbuildings). - cutting notches out of tile for backsplash going around back of sink I found the rotozip worked wonderful for this (need the right bit) - put your tile on a piece of scrap sheetrock so you can keep the whole tile supported (just cut into the sheetrock). Was worth the full purchase price even if I never use it for anything else. - small routing jobs (hinge mortises) I would not use the rotozip - it is harder to control than the Fien tool and you really don't want to slip doing this work. For these things DH uses a good wood chisel. Bigger routing jobs get done with the router. - cutting holes in drywall Rotozip made way too much dust - best here is a hand saw of some sort. Utility knife and a steady hand does not make near the mess. For small cuts (like outlets) an exacto knife with a 3" serrated blade was our favorite, but we have not found blades like that again. It was pointed enough you could push the blade through the sheetrock and then start cutting. - detail sanding Unless you have holes and need a drum type, the oscelating tool wins hands down. However I've got several nice sanders and they work better than the Fien tool for the job. I also have drum sanders for my drill press so I've not had to use the rotozip to sand anything - - cutting existing trim and baseboard shorter to install a cabinet Fien tool hands down. Main reason we bought it. There have been so many times in our whole house remodel that the oscelating tool has turned out to be the ONLY tool suitable for the job. BTW - I second what others have said - dremel is great for the hobbiest (woodworking, arts & crafts) but I've never considered it for construction type house work. I owned one years ago but gave it away at some point. Cathy