Oh boy.

I may have gotten myself banned from future unsupervised trips to the Tractor Supply Company, but I finally found a weed flamer, in stock, locally.

It's one of those things I've wanted, but not enough to bother ordering it through Amazon.

But since I was at TSC anyhow, looking for a wheelbarrow wheel (more on that later), and it was just sitting there on the shelf...

Basically, your $50 buys you a kit with a hose, a hollow wand, a flaming tip, and a chemistry lab sparker.

Pick up a propane cylinder at any gas station or borrow the one from your grill.

Hook up the hoses, check for leaks, open the valves (only a little bit), and hit the sparker.

Even with the service valve on the cylinder only open a smidgen, and the control valve on the wand likewise, the flame shooting out of this thing is unreal. 

The sound that accompanies it is definitely comparable to a jet engine.  I only turned it up to "full" a few times in short bursts, for fear of disturbing the neighbors.

It's been a rainy day today, which was probably ideal for learning how to use this flame shooting device. 

Definitely keep the water hose nearby.

The idea is not to burn the weeds to a crisp, but to gently heat them until their water-filled cells burst.  Basically, you're causing frost-like damage using 50,000 BTUs. 

Awesome!

Of course, once you're done, you've got a massively-hot wand.  If you're like me, you have a garage/workshop with an asphalt floor.

Asphalt burns, I luckily recalled before it became important.  I found a few spare bricks to act as a trivet for my weed wand.

Hauling the 20lbs cylinder around the yard (the hose is only 10' long) might get old real quick.  I may have to bungee strap it to an old hand-truck.