A hand-held cutting device (10) including an elongated member (45) graspable along a portion thereof by an operator, a trimmer head (25) disposed at one end of the elongated member, and a power unit operably coupled to the trimmer head to selectively cause rotation of the trimmer head, wherein the trimmer head comprises a line holding assembly (110) to hold and selectively release the trimmer line (70) and a housing to house the line holding assembly, wherein the line holding assembly includes a core (340) having a first portion (342) and a second portion (350), and a spool (130) configured to hold trimmer line that is operably coupled to the core, and wherein the second portion of the core is non-rotatably fixed to the first portion of the core when the trimmer head is in an at-rest state, and is rotatable with respect to the first position of the core when the trimmer head is in an in-use state and rotating.