What is a Super Sonic Air Knife?

The Supersonic Air Knife is the solution for digging around buried tree roots that you want to keep safe during excavation. Shovels, axes and picks can damage what’s underneath a tree because we tend to not know what is there. It’s preferred to use the AirKnife (also known as an Air Spade) with wet soil to prevent dust from spreading. The nozzle at the end of the tool is designed to disperse and break apart the soil that won’t damage a tree root.

This tool is a powerhouse and designed to excavate in the toughest soil conditions.

The Supersonic Air Knife’s nozzle produces a focused jet of air traveling at MACH 2 speed which pulverizes the soil but leaves the root structures in place.

Other applications include: Radial trenching, root crown excavation, root delineation, root pruning, bare root transplanting, vertical mulching, utility locating, utility installation, ground rod installation, installing irrigation systems, and digging planting and fence post holes. We’ve also used the tool to excavate local utilities.

In the video above, you can see how our team at Root Cause used the Super Sonic Air Knife to exposure underground tree roots for the City of Seattle.