As lawn and garden equipment goes, none seems to have as many names as the noble weed trimmer — aka weed wacker, weed eater, weed cutter, string trimmer, strimmer or, in some circles, brush trimmer ...

I saw a video last year on YouTube where a Russian maker built a rather elaborate rig to turn PET plastic bottles into a flat, very narrow noodle-like “string” that proved to be surprisingly strong.