Best quality hand pruners & loppers

[blueatlascedar]

For the past 10-12 years I've gone with using Felco's #7 with rotating hadle. The handle rotation helps eliminate hand fatigue for a lot of pruning. My hand saw scabbard has a pocket for hand nips and they are on my saddle and used extensively on the ground and aloft. They are a tad pricey, but they last and last with some proper care. Anyone that uses my pair are like, whoa, get me a set of these.
My loppers are Hickok brand, USA made steel and very durable and hold a nice sharp edge.

 

[ApexTreeService]

You can't go wrong with the Fiskars Titanium series. I have the loppers, hand pruners and several of their smaller pruners for various projects. You can't go wrong with their axes either. The medium camp axe has been my wedge driver for around 4 years now...indestructable.

There is only one name in handsaws...Silky. 'Nuff said.


http://www.fiskars.com/webapp/wcs/s...01&langId=-1&catalogId=10101&categoryId=10257


http://www.silkysaws.com/

Um, actually I did go wrong with the Fiskar Ti Professional series today. Thankfully Home Depot accepts returns no questions asked. Their Titanium hand pruner with 1" cutting capacity looks and feels good. One job, that's all it to to reveal the cheap alloy of steel used in the blades. The cutting edge was dented, as though I had cut through a piece of soft steel wire. I also purchased the Stihl PP 70 hand pruners at the same time to compare.

Right out of the box, the Stihl was sharp enough to shave with, where as the Fiskars felt like a pocket knife ya found at a yard sale. Also, Stihl specifically detailed the features of their blades, such as "High Carbon Steel" (high carbon is like spring or stainless steel, stronger), Marquench Hardened blades, Hard Chrome Plated blade.

My worker and I took a limb and made a few cuts with each pruner, and we both agreed the Stihls required less effort.

Not only that, why would I want a chap Fiskar blade that deforms after an hour of pruning sucker growth?

So I personally can attest, that Fiskar is cheap Home Depot stuff and Stihl hasn't let me down yet. I even bought a Fiskar extend-able (up to 12') rope less pole pruner at the same time, and the edge on that this is all jacked after pruning some plumb trees!

 

[Bermie]

Felco hand pruners - can't go wrong there
Wilkinson Sword loppers - english...top quality
Fiskars extendable pole pruner...had mine for about 5 years...blade is still ok and it gets a LOT of use. Ditch the saw blade attachment, it's useless.

 

[clawnz]

Well I came here looking to see is being banded about re loppers.

But lets deal with hand secateurs first. As so many mention them. I do not know the models, but I have both Felco and Corona, my preference is the Felcos.
Over the last 30+ years I have used a few other brands. I liked the Frund 2000 I think they were. They were good blades. The one weakness was the lock would keep sliding on if pruning downwards.
The Corona stay in the car, so do not use them that often. I like my Felcos and use them all the time. Good blade quality and last a long time before they need a sharpen.

Now my main reason for being here.
Loppers. I have used a few different ones. Anvil! No do not like them at all, so it had to be bypass. Kamaki, were very good, but weak in the handles and I broke a few of those. Plus they were a double action and the bolts would wear badly.
Played with a brand new pair of Barnels, and they could not even match my old Corona (commercial) ones. I used to show people how the Coronas would cut a business card. And these are old. The steel in the blade is top quality and they do stay sharp for long periods of time. But I need to look for a new pair, as my best ones and use the old ones for trimming roots in open trench work. This is part of the compliance work I sometimes do. And I hate cutting stuff that has dirt on it with good gear. But would not even bother with some of the cheap rubbish out there.
So I am having a little trouble getting a replacement set of Corona AL8462 here in NZ.
Talking around one supply says that Silky are doing loppers now. Any news you guys. I would be most interested if they are.
Or I may have to buy coronas USA side, and sent to my USA address, and then ship down from there.
Our corona dealers here tell me that the model I want has been discontinued and I am waiting to see what they are going to offer me as a replacement.

Now here is my trick for in trench hand saw. I use my old Silky blades. Put a bicycle hand grip on the handle section of the blade filled up with silicon glue. Works extremely well.

 

[Philbert]

Now here is my trick for in trench hand saw. I use my old Silky blades. Put a bicycle hand grip on the handle section of the blade filled up with silicon glue. Works extremely well.

For cutting roots, etc. in the dirt I use pruning blades made to fit reciprocating saws ('Sawzall'). Cost a couple of bucks each. Short stroke (1") of saw works well in tight spaces. Fit onto a handle for hand use.

Philbert

 

[clawnz]

So Correct. I also find this an easy way and cheap as you say. But I use them in the reciprocater saw, just sometimes I do not have it with me. I also find the reciprocater will not cut well if in loose soil allowing the root to bounce. As the Silky cuts on the pull stroke it is only a matter of getting hold with one hand and cutting with the other. Or better still give the saw blade to one of the laborers and let them do the work.
When I do it does save a huge amount of messing around. The Silky blades have a nice curve and more meat to put a handle on though. And used to throw the old blades away.
The loppers cut most of the roots we are allowed to cut. Regulations restrict size to 50mm general protection. 35mm historic or heritage tree roots. Any larger ones can stop work while someone has to make executive decision.

 

[Philbert]

Back to loppers, I usually use compound action, anvil style loppers. But I am usually doing storm damage and brush removal, not pruning of nice trees.

The anvil style work better on dead wood.

Philbert

 

[clawnz]

So cool.
Yes anvil do have their use, and as you say dead wood use seems to be the recommended use for them, where it does not matter about pruning point.
Bypass work best for remedial and aesthetic pruning out, when reaching in to prune right close the the crutch.

The good news is that though some idiot here in NZ told me the Corona AL8462 were discontinued. They are available and found them on Amazon and they will ship to me.
$221.36nz two pair including shipping to NZ. I think if I could get these here, and I have found the importer, they would be around $180nz each.
We get burned down here and they complain when we buy from overseas.

 

[CR888]

As your from NZ you should look at a brand that makes some pretty awesome forestry products and they are made in NZ called Timbersaws. At the bottom of this page under 'related threads' is a thread called 'which bypass pruners and loppers'. Click on it and go to the last post from Imagineero and he has posted a link to download Timbersaws forestry catalogue. While l have not bought any of their loppers l got through a pair about every six months and think these ones Imagineero recomends will be my next pair. They look top notch and are well worth checking out. Good luck

 

[clawnz]

He! He! He!
I will be talking to the guys "Lavin Timbersaws" At Field days in three weeks time. Love them. Love Field Days as well. They have made me several offers over the years. Including bringing anything I wanted in from the states. All I have to do is get it to one of their shipping points. And they will stick it in a container coming down. You could say I get along with them. I did look at their catalogue to see what they had on offer before buying online. As they carry a good range of Silky. All I could see was the heavy duty beasts. No sexy ones.
But I will check out what ones OP has said about.

Thanks
Clive

 

[CR888]

Thier stuff looks pretty good, l think l will get the 26/660 blue loppers as l am sick of breaking a the handle/blade on the $100 fiskars ones.The Levin loppers have proper handles and not the dodgy tube handles.

 

[clawnz]

Lavin Timbersaws have some great gear I promise you that. And a lot of it will be on show at Field Days 2015
Looking at their catalog I see no new ones, I have picked these up before at last years show.
They weigh a ton. Like about 2kilo. Certainly something I would not want to be trying to use pruning out a shrub.
They are brutes, but you would need to run them over with a truck to break them. And good for demolition work.
I would think a Silky would do the job and light weight to carry into a tree, compared with any of these.

Hey CR888 you should jump over the ditch and come to the biggest agriculture show in the southern hemisphere. I think there are going to be over 1,200 stands this year.

 

[treesmith]

I don't use loppers much if at all, find they don't leave as nice a cut as I'd like.

My favoured pruning tools are felco 7, silky tsurugi(real skinny blade like a fillet knife) and ms150t

 

[clawnz]

Yeh! Got my new loppers. And they do leave a very nice tidy cut.
Here is a vid showing why these dick most out there. I have never been able to find any that cut like these. In fact they can cut better than some cheap scissors.
Enjoy this. That is cutting a ordinary business card. No props in this vid these are the real thing as they arrived.
http://vid815.photobucket.com/albums/zz71/clawinnz/Tjhe Birds/MVI_1704_zpsmcuj1p8x.mp4
Corona commercial rock.

I did play with those monster loppers on the Lavin Timber saws stand at the show. There is no way I could use them for fine work. They are just about as good a bolt croppers.