It might look like a supersized garden hedgetrimmer from afar, but Mense’s RP10L excavator-mounted brushcutter is built for clearing serious quantities of overgrown material.

Packing two reciprocating Hardox knives, it can snip through multiple trunks of up to 100mm in a single swipe, with 150mm possible if operators give it time to chew its way through.

See also: Staffs contractor rates Shelbourne’s ‘head memory’ hedgecutter

Typical uses include taming wildly overgrown hedges, cutting rides into woodland and maintaining the sides of railway lines.

Sold by Dumfries-based Clark Engineering in the UK, the Finnish-built RP10L carries a £18,000 price tag.

As the largest model in the range, it requires the services of a 15t to 20t excavator. However, the smaller RP8 and PR6 are suitable for 13t and 8t machines, respectively.