Inspiration is where you find it. In order to break out of my echo chamber, I keep a weather eye on the Loony Left as well as the Wacko Right, and so today I noticed something startling on the Mother Jones Web site:
Amazon … market[s] copycat products directly to customers, thus undercutting their own marketplace clients.
This is a just a throwaway phrase at the end of a paragraph in the middle of an article about ghost kitchens, but it made me think that what we’re talking about in this thread is common knowledge in the mail-order economy at large where the owners of the infrastructure are determined that none of their clients get rich.
She has the money- he has the company and lots of money too, but she probably has more liquid and she is donating it faster than any human being in the history of philanthropy- whence my little joke.
Looks a bit better this time round… Although they are apparently the older design VS-8Z versus the newer VS-8XZ. The difference doesn’t appear to be that extreme though, long as they work good, I’ll be happy.
6 days ago when I posted I decided to order one more pair of the ads pruners. The seller I had ordered from was sold out and it looks like prices are going up fast—$40 to $49 now (free shipping. So I chose this seller to order from and was supposed to arrive June 20-24. I received them today with what looks like a Japanese label and they are the real thing—identical to my other pairs. FYI I ordered on eBay from enjoytokoyo_2828 and received the order from Japan in less than a week.
Yes, I have it and use it heavily. It’s a lifesaver if you have tall and broad trees where a ladder doesn’t get you close enough for hand pruners or loppers. The newer model without the swivel head is preferable, in my experience.
It’s currently $38 at Amazon. Remember to select Amazon as the seller (click on “New & Used from $38”, scroll down and select Amazon) to avoid counterfeit.
Even selecting Amazon, you are likely to get counterfeit Chinese versions as discussed on this thread. Amazon does not care to eliminate the counterfeit items from their platform, they make more money on unsuspecting consumers.
I guess I was lucky when I got a genuine version last year from Amazon. Anyway, there’s one left from seller Amazon if anyone wants to take a chance. If it does not look like the real one based on pictures in this thread, you can always return it.
@Rosdonald i have the longer one…i think it extends to 9 or 12 ft. It’s 10x easier to work with than a gardena brand pole pruner which operated with a small rope that constantly tangled with branches…a real pain. I also have a ropeless fiskars pole pruner which also works nicely.
Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The ars is better coz of the slimmer and lightweight design. The gripping mechanism is also very useful in minimizing collateral damage when pruning. Also good for picking smallish fruits.
The fiskars is on the bulky side but it has more cutting power and slightly longer reach than the ars. It also has a detachable saw blade for cutting large limbs.
If i had to pick just one of these,.I’d get the ars but have a separate long reach saw pruner as well which i also have.
Me too. I thought mine were lost in the mail so bought another from the same seller as Kathryn which too showed up in less than a-week. eBay seller: enjoytokoyo_2828
As soon as I ordered from enjoy_ - the others showed up I ordered in March I think (5-months ago). Now I got two pair.
They feel like half the Okatsune. The Okatsune require more leverage to snip but make them extremely accurate since the ARS are on a “loose spring”. The Okatsune cuts wood very clean and (both) thee ARS pruners I have cut 3-sides perfectly but leaving one side slightly off. The slower you cut with the ARS the less that fourth side not cutting off cleanly becomes clean. So I can see why Alan likes the ARS. 1. for Alan he’s past 70-years old and has to squeeze that handle all day long. For most people, the more pressure to squeeze the Okatsune (which is a more pressure needed to make a cut) isn’t a day-to-day activity like it is for Alan. Even for me having a nursery with a few hundred trees and six-acres of various hardwood stuff, I wouldn’t be using my pruner to any near extent Alan would.
The ARS provide one big benefit to me and that is the less archaic closing mechanism as Alan call it, “archaic.” Okatsune requires you to manually lock them tight. The ARS are locked by an easier closing or locking mechanism and the feature the ARS has to open them is simply (to) squeeze the handles together tightly and they open.
I would buy Okatsune (Me) in the future. It feels like a heavier duty tool and the rubber handles of the ARS are very thin whereas the Okatsune has about 3X the rubber handle material…
