Don’t just put up with downed trees and gale-crashed branches, get your Bahco Laplander out and clear the trail for yourself and other users.

>>> How and why you should do a bit of trail maintenance

With 2019 seemingly being the year of stormy weather and gale force winds, I thought it would be timely to review a product that helps unblock trails from fallen trees and branches.

The Bachno Laplander is fairly legendary among trail builders and path clearers. The way this thing quickly cuts through branches of 10cm diameter or narrower is seriously impressive, and encouraging. It takes less than thirty seconds to get through most things.

I have occasionally used it for cutting through bigger fallen trees of approx 20cm diameter as well. It takes considerably longer to get through these trunks but… it does do it. A multi-angle approach is the answer as opposed to sawing straight through. When cutting through thicker stuff it can snag and I’ve bent the tip of the saw a few times but it’s easily bent back with a bit of care.

Conversely I have also used the Bahco Laplander as a scythe for clearing overgrown trails of brambles and tuggy long grass.

The handle design is a big factor in its please-of-use. It really feels nice in the hand and its rubberised cover makes for a secure operation.

The handle also features a locking mechanism, which is more useful for keeping the blade tucked away during transportation than in actual sawing operation, where there feels to be very little chance of the opened blade moving accidentally.

It’s light enough (184g) to be taken without thinking twice about it. The rounded-off shape and modest length (23cm) makes it fine for stashing in jersey back pockets. The grippy rubberised body also does a job of keeping it in pockets and not flying out when riding over rough ground.

The blade’s logo-ing and the dark coating on the teeth themselves does start to come off pretty quickly but it hasn’t seemed to get appreciably worse since first wearing off. It has remained rust free (I do clean and WD40 it every now and then). The pivoting action is still smooth and has required no nipping up or adjusting since day one.

P.S. you can also get spare/replacement blades for the Laplander if/when the blade wears out. Which is nice.