I had to clear a pool deck before winterization and that meant mowing down a mixture of different types of shrubbery. This thing is surprisingly light, and quite maneuverable. I only made use of the rotating handle once or twice, but it is handy when you need it. Generally speaking, I found it easy to bend over at the waist and sweep low to the ground and it chopped through almost everything with near butter consistency. As in, I hardly ever had to go over an area twice. Where it encountered Woody stems, if they were thicker than my thumb I did have to lop them, but that ended up being about three stems out of the entire area, which was 20 ft long and 5 ft wide, give or take. I took it up another day to clean up around the pool equipment, which was much more constrained, but it helped there as well. I was able to mow down vines that had climbed up a fence and a few other spots by slicing vertically, and it is precise enough that I didn't cut anything important LOL. All in all, one of my better purchases. A real time-saver.