Thanks, interesting. Maybe there’s room for improvement to both models.
nope. it’s that giant spring that controls the tool of Okatsune…
regards
I have no idea what you are talking about when you are discussing the cleanness of the cuts- I have never used an Okastune, but I’ve never had any commercial type pruner that didn’t give me clean cuts, but there is only one side so I’m obviously missing something.
The spring isn’t even being used when you are cutting- the force is for opening the blades. What’s more, when you are doing bulk pruning the points for me are only about leverage and sharpness and a closing mechanism that doesn’t get in the way and is easily manipulated by one hand.
Yes, unless you have about a thousand acres of fruit trees you are unlikely to prune as much in a season as me. But even if you did, you might well have another opinion on what is the best pruner.
You would need to use pruners for a few days to really be able to compare them. The main comparison I did was between Felcos and the VS ARS and the ARS won hands down for me.
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I can cut em clean when I go slow. Getting down to business and the cut is not flat, Alan. Now, what can I tell you? You know?
You may be making different kinds of cuts on different species than I do and more concerned about cuts being very clean. You might like to know that when you break a piece of wood on a tree ii heals somewhat quicker, I’ve read, than when cut with the sharpest pruner. The reason is that the pruner cuts through cells while breakage occurs between cells, so you are murdering fewer cells by snapping shoots than by surgically cutting them.
It’s never been the least concern to me because pruning small wood isn’t going to seriously hurt a healthy tree anyway. What amazes some people is how much big wood I will remove from the trees I’m working on. Those branches I definitely wouldn’t snap 
.
Me neither … I wouldn’t even be using a prunter. I’d be snapping it off with my fingers.
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What model did you get of the Okatsune? Where did you purchase them? TY.
Hi Mike,
I’ve bought (3) pairs from this Amazon listing:
It’s a medium and when I place it on top of the ARS it’s the exact same size w/o a mm being off.
They make a small and a X-Large. My hand is 7.5 inches from my wrist to my tipple of my middle finger. My Mother prefers the Small. You gotta have big hands to get the extra large. They’re “clunky” in my coordinated hands, the X-large is.
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Dax, thank you for the link and helpful information. I just measured my hand the same way and I measure the same as you.
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I was looking at the cuts I was making yesterday with my ARS pruners on apple wood and the wounds were completely clean with no separated bark. In the NYT best hand pruner review they tested the cleanness of cuts with green onions and the ARS passed the test as well as any pruner available. The reviewers considered the ARS VS the best of all the pruners they tested as far as how it cuts (I realize the sub-title suggests otherwise) and the Okatsune was included in their evaluations.
This is what they said about it, ARS HP-VS8Z
Great pruners, not as common
These pruners had the sharpest blades and required the least force to make the smoothest cuts of any of the pruners in our test.
I believe if the reviewers had spent a whole day pruning alternately with the Felco and the ARS they would have given ARS the Oscar.
Maybe you should make sure that the blades are in the same position in the jaws of the pruner when comparing the cleaness of cuts between the Okatsune and the ARS. The clean cuts I was making was with a very well used pruner (6 months of constant pruning) not even sharpened after a day or two of heavy work.
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I’m finished. It’s Okatsune for this person Alan.
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My first non-cheap pruners were Felco which I finally gave to my brother because I greatly prefer the ARS.
Skimming the article, sounds like they admit that the ARS are better, but the top recommendation is Felco because they are more available, and potentially less expensive (which doesn’t seem to be the case now).
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I hit my space bar and it “liked” your post. lol.
SOLD
Anyways, here are two for sale. Anybody wants them. 35$ free shipping. Message me. Both pairs.
Both arrived with the same packaging that was securely closed, from Japan.
Thank you!
Dax
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Deal of the day there boys!
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Do I 
any ‘bidders?’! 
(SOLD)
Here are four of ARS
on serviceberry ‘Autumn Brililance’ which I selected for no particular reason, however I seen fast that it has a flat side on a it’s branches and stems…
An initial angled cut for where I wanted it to heal:
a
A cut immediately after an inch down:
Another Cut an inch more down
A fourth cut just to show you less diameter.
Okatsune’s on the same tree and the same branch, just another branchlet:
Okatsune Cut one where I wished the angled cut to be at
Okatsune Cut two (another cut below the first angled cut)
Okatsune Cut three the slm bark slips off but no crushing.
Okatsune Cut four an inch below cut three
Okatsune smaller diameter view 1 (serviceberry ‘Autumn Brilliance’ has flat edges on stems & branches) (1)
Okatsune smaller diameter View 2 (serviceberry ‘Autumn Brilliance’ has flat edges on stems & branches)
I’d say the Okatsune is the Bonsai professional tool and it’s a great tool for the landscape if you decide to ever give one a try-sometime, maybe. I’ll never change. I learned I had the right tool, but, I gave your guys’ tool a tgry.
Dax
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I bought a pair of 8’s after this thread started, then upgraded to the 9’s. I haven’t noticed any crappy looking looking cuts like that.
If nobody has jumped on them I will.
At that price if I can’t fix them I’ll cut multiflora rose bushes while mushroom hunting.
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I do not often prune Juneberry, but I’m going to try my pruners on them and I bet the cuts will be clean. Maybe not till the weekend.
@ anyone, message me…
thank-you…
@alan Do you know why they’re called Serviceberries? I’ll bet you do… in the far greater north, people used them to tell when the ground was diggable for funeral services …
Dax
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What, they only grow on soft ground?