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Outfitting the Pruner: Tools and Equipment
by Karan Davis Cutler
If you ever doubted that English writer Vita Sackville-West was a real gardener, all suspicions will disappear after reading these lines from her long poem "The Garden" (1946):
Whether the twiggy hornbeam or the beech,
The quick, the holly, or the lime to pleach
Or little box, or gravity of yew
Cut into battlements to frame a view
Before the frost can harm the wounded tips
Throughout the days he trims and clips and snips
As must the guardian of the child correct
Distorted growth and tendencies to wrong,
Suppress the weakness, countenance the strong...
Now that's a writer who knew the difference between anvil and bypass secateurs, the high-hat name for pruning shears. Hers probably came from a firm with an appointment to the House of Windsor.
The two hand pruners on the left can cut through stems up to half an inch in diameter. Photograph: Neil Soderstrom
Royal appointment or no royal appointment, you don't want to scrimp on the quality either. Well-made cutting tools are never a waste of money, and there are plenty of good makers. ARS, Corona, Felco, Fiskars, and Sandvik are five names to look for. Even Stihl, famous for chain saws, has gotten into the business. If possible, try a tool before you open your wallet. Is it too heavy? Does it feel too light? And don't just hold it: Use it. Is it easy to operate? Does it cut smoothly? Can it handle the size cuts you need to make?
If you choose carefully, you won't end up with a collection of pruning equipment you never use. In truth, most of us need little more than a good pair of pruning shears and a pruning saw—although plenty more tools are available. Unless you have an especially good garden store nearby, shop by mail or online in order to take advantage of the astonishing array of what's for sale—not just different tools but different models, grades, and sizes. And better prices.
Prices vary enormously—as much as 50 percent—so compare before you buy. (Try using one of the online price-comparison search engines, such as www.dealtime.com. The prices listed below are from mail-order or online sites.) And if you discover a tool looked better in the picture than it feels in your hand, send it back. Most firms are understanding about returns.
For top quality, look for terms like "professional," "classic," or "heavy duty." Unless you prune only every other year, investing in a "pro" model is money saved in the long run. If possible, opt for tools that come with lifetime warranties, which more and more manufacturers now offer.
Pruners, Loppers, and More
Hand tools that cut, not saw, are the pruning tools you'll use most often. There is a gaggle of choices, ranging from tools for big jobs to tools for small cuts. You don't need everything, but probably you will want more than one.
From left to right: Anvil pruner with ratchets, bypass pruner, and regular
anvil pruner. Look for a model assembled with screws and bolts, so you can
replace baldes and springs as needed.
Illustration: Emma Skurnick
Hand Pruners If there is a single, indispensable tool for pruning, it's a pair of hand shears, or hand pruners. Flower gardeners opt for flower shears, scissorlike cutters designed for snipping soft stems. You'll need something more substantial for pruning trees, shrubs, and vines, pruners that will cut woody stems up to at least half an inch in diameter.
Eliminate any pruners that don't have blades made from high-tempered carbon steel, which can be sharpened. It's also important that you can replace blades and springs. You won't be able to repair—or replace parts—on pruners put together with rivets, so look for nuts and bolts.
Quality manufacturers sell hand pruners in left- as well as right-handed models. And if you wear a belt, think about getting a leather scabbard so that you don't lose your pruners ($15). Last, sharp tools make cleaner cuts and require less effort on your part. A pocket-sized sharpening stone is enough to keep cutting tools sharp ($5).
The basic choice in pruners is design: bypass or anvil. Bypass pruners have one curved blade—sharpened on its outside edge—that slips past a thicker unsharpened hook. They make close, neat cuts and are the overwhelming favorite of most gardeners. The gold standard for bypass pruners is the Felco #2, which professionals have sworn by for more than four decades. Superb in design, materials, and quality, this pruner from Switzerland has replaceable parts, padded alloy handles, rubber cushion shock absorber, sap groove, even a notch to cut wire ($35 to $50). For smaller hands, look for Felco #6, a down-sized version of #2 that is smaller but not less expensive.
The holly, Ilex, is being pruned with hand hedge shears, which can cut through branches up to a quarter-inch thick. Photograph: Derek Fell
There are other good pruners from other good companies. If your hands tire quickly, consider ergonomically designed models. Some come with a rotating handle that reduces the power you have to put into a cut. Fiskars #7936 is one choice; it has Xylan®-coated blades and polycarbonate handles, and is both strong and lightweight ($30 to $50). There are self-oiling models, pruners that discharge a disinfectant as they cut, even electronic and pneumatic pruners. As gardeners stocked with dozens of tools that they never use have learned to say, "Don't go there."
Rosarians may want to look into cut-and-hold pruners, models that hang on to stems after they're cut. ARS and Corona are among the firms that make them ($35 to $50). There are also hand pruners designed to use with two hands. Don't be tempted. If a stem is big enough for two hands, you need loppers or a saw. And you're unlikely to be happy with telescopic—or long-handled pruners. They have bypass blades mounted at the end of a lightweight pole, two to four feet long. Nice idea, but your hand will tire hours before your pruning is completed.
Anvil pruners are the second choice. They have a cutting blade sharpened on both sides that closes against an anvil, a flat brass or fiberglass-reinforced nylon blade. It's like using a kitchen knife against a cutting board. Anvil pruners are better for big, tough cuts—superior for taking out dead wood—but they tend to crush stems rather than slice them, and you can't snuggle in for really close cuts.
Anvil pruners tend to be less expensive than their bypass cousins, running anywhere from $15 to $50 depending on quality. Top of the line is the Felco #30 ($35). A nice variation on anvil pruners are ratchet-cut models, which are geared to make large cuts easy. The original was—and still is—the yellow-handled Florian #701 that claims to multiply "your strength up to 700 percent" ($38). Fiskars and C.K. also make ratchet-action pruners.
Lopping Pruners Think of loppers as pruning shears on a stick. Heavy-duty pruning shears on two sticks, actually. It's those long handles that allow you to reach beyond arm's length and to cut much larger branches—from one to two inches—than hand pruners could manage. Like hand pruners, though, loppers are either bypass or anvil. There also are ratcheting models to give you more leverage on really big stems. Whatever the style, be sure yours have replaceable carbon-steel blades, rubber cushions, or bumpers, to minimize shock, and comfortable grips.
From top to bottom: ratchet lopper, bypass lopper, and anvil lopper. Illustration: Emma Skurnick
More and more loppers come with lightweight tubular steel, aluminum, or fiberglass handles fitted with cushioned grips, but there's nothing wrong with the traditional wood. Handles in the 15- to 24-inch range are light enough for most gardeners to manage; longer-handled loppers are heavier and less easy to control, but they give you better reach and more power.
Loppers aren't cheap. Top-of-the-line models from Felco, Hickok, Sandvik, Snap Cut, and other good makers cost between $60 and $125. Models with special features, such as the Florian ratchet lopper, will set you back nearly $200. That's a lot of money for a tool you won't use every week. For cuts that pruning shears can't handle, most gardeners are better off with a small pruning saw.
Pole Pruners Pole pruners are also pruning shears on a stick, one long stick. Heavy-duty models, the kind the power companies use, are overkill for most home gardeners. Standard-size models cut limbs up to two inches in diameter. (You make the cut by pulling on a rope or a sliding collar that is connected by a gear to the bypass blades.) Most models—made by Fiskars, Snap Cut, Corona, and others—have lightweight telescoping fiberglass poles that extend to 12 feet. Many also come with a small saw mounted just above the pruner blades, for branches larger than the pruner can handle ($60 to $125).
A first-rate tool for home gardeners who don't need to reach sky-high is Fiskars' "Pruning Stik." It's 62 inches long—giving you about a ten-foot reach—and weighs less than two pounds. Its rotating head secures close cuts, up to 1 1/2 inches. And it's not just for overhead: Many gardeners use it with thorny plants, even low-growing plants when they don't want to kneel ($65).
Hand hedge shears have blades that are between 8 and 12 inches long. Illustration: Emma Skurnick
Hedge Shears Purists may swear by hand models, but most homeowners have converted to electric- or gasoline-powered hedge shears. The type and size of your hedge—and your energy—should dictate the power source. If you're maintaining a boundless formal hedge, power equipment makes sense. But if your hedge is small or informal, a mixture of deciduous and/or evergreen species, you won't need anything more that a traditional pair of hedge shears. Hedge shears are designed for pruning hedges, not general pruning chores. (Similarly, chain saws are for cutting wood, not shearing hedges.)
Hand hedge shears are like two-handed scissors with blades measuring between 8 and 12 inches long that can cut stems up to a quarter of an inch in diameter. Most have long ash or fiberglass handles and come with a notch on one blade for cutting large stems. Look for shears with carbon-steel blades, rubber bumpers to absorb the shock when you cut, and for models with an adjustable locknut at the hinge, which will allow you to adjust the tension. Hedge shears with wavy or serrated blades are designed to hold branches as you cut, but they tend to cut less cleanly than straight-edged models. Professional-grade models from firms such as ARS and Corona cost $45 to $85.
Power hedge shears, either electric or gasoline, look like the front end of a swordfish. Equipped with moving teeth, they cut quickly and with minimal effort on the gardener's part. At the same time, they don't cut as cleanly as hand shears, they tend to jam if they encounter large stems, and they are noisy. Remember, too, that it's easy to make mistakes with power hedge shears, and that they can cut the pruner as efficiently as they cut his or her hedge.
Knives A knife is not an essential pruning tool, although it's handy to have one in your pocket. Pruning knives, most of which have small hooked blades and gorgeous handles made from some exotic wood, may be "lightweight, sturdy, and handsome," as the Berger Bilhook pruning knife advertises itself, but most home pruners don't need one ($20 to $70).
A pruning saw with a tri-cut blade is the tool to use for cutting through
limbs that are up to ten inches across. A pruning saw cuts on the pull stroke,
which makes it easy to use.
Illustration: Emma Skurnick
Saws The carpenter's saw you use to cut two-by-fours is not the saw to take into the garden. You need a pruning saw, one designed not to gum up and bind when you cut live wood. The most versatile pruning saws—sometimes called orchard or tree saws—have either straight or tapered curved blades, 12 to 16 inches long, and are fitted with a pistol or modified pistol (banana) grip. They cut on the pull stroke and can slice through limbs up to ten inches across. No homeowner should be without a pruning saw, and no pruning saw should be without a tri-cut blade.
The tri-cut saw masquerades under other names—turbo-cut, Japanese, razor-tooth, power-tooth, or three-cut saw—but whatever the name, be sure it's what you buy. After one cut, you'll know that all other pruning saws, beginning with the copper models made by the Egyptians 6,000 years ago, are also-rans. Its secret is in its teeth. Rather than the standard two sharpened edges, the tri-cut has three: one on each side of the pyramidal tooth, which is angled straight up from the blade, and a third edge on the tooth's point. When you pull the saw toward yourself, the point edge digs into the limb while the side edges cut it.
Tri-cut blades stay sharp longer than traditional blades and can be sharpened (there is a sharpener designed for tri-cut saws, $15). Sharpening saws is no picnic, though, so pick a model with a replaceable blade ($12 to $25). A cushioned handle is more comfortable—and more expensive—but a wood handle works fine. Saw prices run $20 to $55, depending on quality and blade length (13 inches is a good size for general use). Like pruning shears, pruning saws are available in different grades; look for words such as "professional" and "heavy duty" for saws that will hold up to hard use. Don't even consider a saw with a conventional blade.
A folding pruning saw is the saw equivalent of the "lady's spade" and just as useful. The smallest models are less than nine inches long folded, diminutive enough for a pocket. Designed to cut branches up to four inches, the best models, such as the Felco #60, have locking devices to keep the blade from opening or shutting unexpectedly. With tri-cut blades, they run $15 to $40.
Raker, or coarse-tooth, saws are for big cuts up to 20 inches in diameter. They have D-shaped handles and blades from 20 to 26 inches long. You're unlikely to need a saw this big; if you do, make sure it has a tri-cut blade ($50).
Pole saws are just what their name implies: a saw mounted on the top of a pole. Occasionally useful, they do keep gardeners off tall ladders and can handle limbs larger than a pole pruner can. But they aren't all that easy to use and don't come cheap: Blades (13 inches) alone run about $50, and a telescoping pole with an 18-foot reach is another $200. For serious pruners only. (Another way to keep your feet on the ground while removing a high limb is to use a rope saw, a blade with ropes attached to both ends [$45]. Sounds simple. Isn't simple. Take a pass.)
Box saws are picturesque but they are made for the woodpile, not pruning. Don't let their inexpensive price tempt you. Chain saws are beyond the scope of this book except to say that they're loud, polluting, and extremely dangerous.
Karen Davis Cutler, who has edited five previous BBG handbooks—Essential Tools, Salad Gardens, Tantalizing Tomatoes, Flowering Vines, and Starting from Seed—gardens on 15 acres in northern Vermont. A frequent contributor to national garden magazines, her latest book is The New England Gardener's Book of Lists (2000).