02-27-2007, 12:19 AM
Pog,
I grew up on a family, commercial apple orchard and pruning was one of my jobs. The Corona brand is good and holds up well. The handles look thin compared to some of the clunky ones, but they make the pruners much easier to handle and use. Go with bypass. The anvil damage the bark, which does not matter with waiwi or other junk trees, but does matter if you want to prune desirable plants. I bought a pair of Fiskars plastic anvil pruners with a "geared" setup. They worked OK for a while but the plastic at the hinge did not hold up well (design defect) and I had to remove some plastic and replace it with a metal washer around the hinge screw to get them to close properly.
Small living (=flexible, whippy) branches are hard and dangerous to cut with a chainsaw. pruners are for small branches up to about maybe 1 inch. A manual or chainsaw is for the larger stuff. You will probably want both a good pruner and a saw of some sort.
A manual saw is good for small amounts of cutting since you have a lot less maintenance. A folding saw is good for occasional cuts. A bow saw is better for larger cuts or more frequent cutting.
The gas engine on a chainsaw requires tuneups and parts eventually go bad, so it is not cost-effective for light use over several years. For a brief period of heavy use, you are probably better off to rent one and let someone else worry about the maintenance.
Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP
I grew up on a family, commercial apple orchard and pruning was one of my jobs. The Corona brand is good and holds up well. The handles look thin compared to some of the clunky ones, but they make the pruners much easier to handle and use. Go with bypass. The anvil damage the bark, which does not matter with waiwi or other junk trees, but does matter if you want to prune desirable plants. I bought a pair of Fiskars plastic anvil pruners with a "geared" setup. They worked OK for a while but the plastic at the hinge did not hold up well (design defect) and I had to remove some plastic and replace it with a metal washer around the hinge screw to get them to close properly.
Small living (=flexible, whippy) branches are hard and dangerous to cut with a chainsaw. pruners are for small branches up to about maybe 1 inch. A manual or chainsaw is for the larger stuff. You will probably want both a good pruner and a saw of some sort.
A manual saw is good for small amounts of cutting since you have a lot less maintenance. A folding saw is good for occasional cuts. A bow saw is better for larger cuts or more frequent cutting.
The gas engine on a chainsaw requires tuneups and parts eventually go bad, so it is not cost-effective for light use over several years. For a brief period of heavy use, you are probably better off to rent one and let someone else worry about the maintenance.
Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP
Allen
Finally in HPP
Finally in HPP