Before getting the Ryobi 8” Expand-It Edger, my side walk edges were pretty rough. Alright, shameful, they were shameful. Sure, you can try to use a weed trimmer, but that just doesn’t work great. Slapping through the concrete burns through trimmer line quicker, the line isn’t made to cut dirt, most and weed eaters just aren’t made to be operated on their side.

And yeah, I have one of those manual edgers that’s a piece of steel on a handle. But if we’re being honest, that thing comes out of the garage about as often as my pole saw.

The Ryobi 8” Expand-It Edger is a totally different experience. And if you have a gas or battery trimmer made for attachments, odds are that it’s universal attachment is going to be compatible with whatever you have. I tried it out with the Ryobi 40v Power Head and was impressed with how easy it was to perfectly edge my driveway and walk ways.

This tool is built the same way I like my math problems, simple. Simplicity is elegant, it means less maintenance and fewer possible failure points. The only parts I have to pay attention to are the universal attachment point to hook into a power head, the 8” blade that cuts the grass and dirt, and the wheel that acts as a depth control and conveniently carries the weight of the edger attachment while it is being used.

Of course the blade is meant to cut dirt, but the reality is this thing is meant to spend a lot of time cutting beside concrete without damaging the concrete. That tells me this blade is going to get beat up and worn over time. And as someone who spends a lot of time woodworking, blade life is something I think about a lot.

So I was thrilled when I pulled this thing out of the box and saw a wear hole drilled center into both sides of the blade. And if that’s not obvious enough, they also put a line with the word “replace” right above it just in case I forget what it means when that blade gets worn to the line.

Call me an enginerd, but my brain has a special happy place that gets tickled when I see that kind of intuitive product design.

Using the edger is a pleasant experience, and not just because the alternative is having a weed eater sling dirt everywhere or stepping onto an edging shovel 12,465 times.

After I clicked the Ryobi 8” Edger into the power head, I let the motor get up to speed and then set the blade into the ground near my drive way. Once the wheel touched down I knew the tool was at depth and just followed the edge of the drive way. The Edger did all the work and the flap at the back kept all the debris on the ground and off of me.

Of course this tool isn’t limited to just being used to edge around driveways and walks ways. You can use it anywhere you want to keep areas separate and keep a crisp grass line. Say around a garden, pavers, mulched beds, etc. Or if you need to remove a section of sod to dig a hole for a plant, post, or whatever you put in the ground, this would be a great way to cut the perimeter of the sod.

Even though I don’t plan on doing any digging any time soon. I will be keeping the edges around my driveway and walkways nice and crisp from now on. The next time the Amazon guy drops off a package, he’s going to be impressed at how much wider my sidewalk is.

And when it’s not being used, the Ryobi 8” Expand-It Edger includes a hanger attachment that clips over the universal port for easy storage.