I bought a pair of Okatsune pruners that I’ve used now and they are the best hand pruner I’ve owned when compared mainly to Felco 2’s. I’ve never seen such crisp cuts and crisp action in a hand pruner. They come in three sizes: small, medium, and x-large. I bought the medium as my hand is 7 1/4" long and they’re perfect for me. Medium is an 8" pruner while the x-large is 8 1/4" & the small is 7".
If I have to compare 3 of the pruners I have, namely ARS VS8, Bahco PG-M2-F and LOWE 8.107:
Ergonomics (this is subjective): ARS > LOWE > Bahco
Blade coating: ARS (hard chromium, wears down very slowly) >>> LOWE, Bahco (teflon like polymer, wears in days)
Ease of cutting: LOWE >> Bahco > ARS (hardest blade comes with a price - it’s very thick)
ARS were my pruners of choice - comfortable, sharp, great coating which prevents rust and is easy to clean.
The Bahco’s feel cheap even though they cut easier than the ARS ones, so I use them mainly for dirty work, like root cutting.
Last year I bought the LOWE 8.107 which are anvil pruners, but with a different design than all other anvils I have seen. Naturally the ease of cutting is incomparable to the Bahco’s and ARS’s as they are bypass pruners. Quality of cut is on par with them, so nowadays the ARS is hardly used.
Yes, they have the hard Japanese steel I love, but I need a onehanded design that allows closing the thing without depending on the other hand.
If you pruned all day long for about 7 months, often with a saw in one hand and the pruner in the other, you’d likely require it also. I will stick with my ARS hand pruners.
I tried the ARS pruner a few years ago after Alan mentioned them.
The one handed design for opening and closing on the ARS is great. I normally have the ARS and the Loppers both in my right hand. The one handed design makes this possible and I don’t have to constantly move the pruners back and forth from the holder on my belt.
Works great and highly recommended when you prune peach trees where you make lots of cuts
Here’s a simplification of these Okatsune pruners. Brent I don’t know how your pinky got hit because I’m holding the pruners in my left and right hands and my pinky isn’t anywhere near the closing mechanism. At any rate, here’s the simplification.
I’ve got the small pair, and was cutting above the recommended diameter so was working for all the leverage I could get at the bottom of the handle and twisting (which really helps), so my pinky was curled over the bottom. The mechanism must have gotten bumped into the middle position at 90 degrees. Having it up seems to be the safe position, didn’t even realize they did that, should probably use that next time I am cutting big stuff.
I used to buy every hand tool that sparked my interest as something that might be useful in my job, but now I’m pretty settled and don’t try many new tools. I tried that one years and years ago and actually sometimes use a different model with the same closure arrangement but with twin blades making it suitable for thinning apples that form clusters that break apart completely when you try to thin them by hand.
I think you can trust Barkslip’s evaluation, but the question is, is the closure system adequate for your needs. I believe the steel is much like the very hard ARS steel. A bit hard to sharpen but stays sharp a very long time- at least 4X as long as a Felco.
I believe the ARS VS series can be had for just a few more bucks and comes in 3 different sizes. This is very good for women. ARS also makes a hand pruner especially for women that I’ve had a client rave about. It was pink and probably the size of a 7.
The danger of the ARS design is that it can accidentally open if you keep it in your pocket because it’s designed to open when you press the handles together. I once badly cut my hand because I placed it in my pocket handles first to protect the pocket fabric.
Now I tend to only keep it in a holster and use a lesser pruner with a different kind of closing system that is very small for pocket travel.
@hoosierbanana I understand now. Instead of twisting you can bend a limb as you’re cutting. You can cut a really thick branch with a pruner that doesn’t have enough opening. You weasel the sharp blade of the pruner a bit as necessary as you bend the limb toward horizontal with the ground. We’ve all been there twisting… I know that.
I have used a set of Gerber/Fiskar pruners for the last few years and am very happy with them, I recently bought a Felco pruner that I really like! I haven’t seen anyone mention the Opinel hand pruners here… I know a nurseryman from Germany (from another forum I am on) who says that they are on par in quality (and in price) with Felco. Anyone ever used these? Reason I mention these is I have seen that some here use the Opinel knives for grafting and garden work.
Looks like they come in green and blue accents.
They can be had for similar or maybe just a little cheaper price on the Bay of E.
Anyone have any thoughts on picking/thinning shears? I am looking at the Felco 310 model but wanted to know if anyone here has a more preferred brand (like the ARSs above) that might be as good or better…?
No thoughts or other recommendations on any of these? I hate to tag people on this since I am new and not really sure who all knows about these type of things except for some of the ones in this thread. Thanks for any help guys
I bought Corona thinning shears a few years ago and I like them for soft thin wood. I haven’t used the Felco but I don’t know why they would not be very good. They are a useful tool and inexpensive.
Unrelated to thinning shears, I started this thread a few years ago mentioning my very old Seymour Smith Snap Cut pruners (at least 50 yrs old but maybe 80). I’ve used them for several years now and I find them superior to bypass pruners for very hard wood (like dead) and very soft wood which somethings tears or crushes with bypass pruners. They need to be kept sharp for soft wood and that is easy to do.
