Hedge trimmers teeth/cut size

Wig

Looking at the specifications of certain petrol hedge trimmers

They say distance between teeth & maximum cut size as follows

16mm / 12mm
22mm / 15mm
32mm / 25mm
28mm / 28mm

Surely it's not capable of cutting say a privet branch 25mm thick?
A rhubarb stalk or more probably a Japanese knotweed stalk 25mm thick I can accept, but not a hedge branch.

spadoosh

Its not capable of cutting anything that is 25 mm thick no, its just saying that is the maximum thickness of something that it would cut. It wouldnt cut a 25mm steel bar for example.

the motor would be more representative of what it would cut through than the blade cut size

sam2me

Hi Wig
While I am no expert on this, I have had several hedge cutters over the years.
I had a small domestic petrol hedge cutter with a small gap between the teeth. While I am sure it was nearly safe, you would have to try hard to get your finger in the gap. It would cut hawthorn and private quite well if used for trimming the hedge 3 or 4 times a year. It would not cut a holly hedge, the stiff leaves just would not go into the gap and be cut, it just bounced off.
There is a vast differnce between hedge trimmers and cutters. I now have a 30" bar length Stihl machine with large gap between teeth. It will cut last years growth up to about 12mm as long as you are not cutting too many at a time, but starts to get noisey, so guesss it is past its limit.
I assume tooth size and gap is done to limit the volume of stems that can go in at any one time to match the engine size and machine strength.

Hope this helps

Sam2me