hacking blackberries for fun and stress relief

I'll be taking a five month course on permaculture and paying for the course by doing a combo of computer and field work for the people leading the course. After spending yesterday morning fighting with a very old Oracle 7 database with a GUI custom application at work, spending 4 hours hacking through the course leader's blackberries seamed like a very good idea. My preferred tools for clearly blackberries, besides a tractor and napalm, is a machete and my funny looking gardening hoe with two blades extending off the back and sharpened sides, and some times standard garden nippers. I like using the mod-hoe to bash my way through the thinner live stocks and the dead stocks, then twist the thicker live stocks around the head of the mod-hoe and cut the now taut stocks with the machete. The only time I end up using the standard garden nippers is when pulling blackberries out of trees or shrubs that I want to keep.

I should point out that wearing heavy boots, heavy gloves, eye goggles, a full brim hat and two layers of clothes that you don't care about and that have a very tight weave are included in my preferred items for taking out blackberries.