I have been meaning to add a note to this thread, concerning the ARS pruners - but just keep being distracted by other stuff on the forum . . .
I’d like to thank Steven @Skillcult . . . for he is the one who introduced ‘me’ to the long reach ARS pruners - through his videos. If you are interested in his recommendation - go to his YouTube channel.
Thanks, Steven!!!
The grab and hold feature is accomplished by a plastic piece that is screwed to the stationary blade. It can be removed, which allows cutting thicker stems.
The grab and hold is very nice for collecting scion wood or picking fruit.
Because Americans wouldn’t appreciate it enough to pay the premium over crappier versions.
If you kept your trees at a head high level, you wouldn’t need to get
on a ladder to do anything. Nor would you have to purchase such an expensive tool. A 36 inch lopper is all I need.
@rayrose - I can’t always get to branches on the interior of our trees - loppers are too cumbersome, wide and just plain difficult for me to use at times. They are not meant for tight spaces. And perhaps you are much taller, to begin with, than some of us who LOVE our ‘expensive tool’.
Around here, deer can get to head level if they try, and sometimes they try. One needs to either grow their fruit on real trees or build a good fence- and then there are squirrels that sometimes jump as high as 6’ to board a tree so at least 5’ of trunk is needed to create a baffle. If you need bird netting as well, 6’ is better. Then there is the fact that branches sag when weighted with fruit.
A ladder is essential for efficiently pruning and harvesting the fruit of most of the trees I manage. A long reach pruner certainly would be useful for someone adverse to using a ladder, but they are too much work for me. On very tall (40’ +) apple trees I sometimes use my long reach pruners and loppers along with my tallest and heaviest Little Giant step ladder- sometimes I just climb the things but I’m getting too old for that sht. I no longer take on jobs that involve any scary climbing because I don’t use ropes.
There certainly are advantages to growing fruit trees in the middle of a suburbia devoid of a lot of wildlife. It’s not a universal situation, however, and I’ve only briefly ever lived in such a neighborhood. I don’t manage any orchards that don’t have wildlife issues that require taller trees to be able to defend fruit- unless there are good vermin chasing dogs or someone trapping the pests that can climb their fence
Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I’ve just ordered another pair from Amazon. Apparently I’ve had an alert set with camelcamelcamel to let me know if they got below a certain price, $25. They did, and the seller is purportedly in Japan. Plus they are listed with “free returns”.
What can I say?
At some point I’ve taken the pair out of my trunk, and disturbed the order I’d established on where to find a pair in all of the instances I might want one. I probably could have spent 10 minutes and taken inventory to set things straight. But…
edit: It hadn’t occurred to me, but I just noticed in the last couple of days that the yen is super weak against the dollar. I’m used to thinking of it as close to 100:1 , like 110 at the most. When I’m at the airport in Japan, I think of them as cents. But now it is 143:1 That makes it more plausible that these are legit.
How do you folks even manage to wear out your original pair? I get several years of use out of a pair and I’m pruning almost 7 months of the year… constantly.
I still use my grandmother’s pruners occasionally. They are close to 80 yrs old. They are easy to sharpen and work fine. No sign of them wearing out although there is a little corrosion on the handle.
I don’t, the first pair I got years ago will last until I lose it. Especially now that I have others.
I keep one on my riding mower to cut dangling blackberries and branches on the fly, one on the counter to take when I go out in the yard, one in my trunk, one in my grafting bag that is always razor sharp and clean.
Hi Jafar, could you please send the link for the purchase you made? If they are still available at that price.
It was a brief window, they are $31 now, but with faster shipping.
I use this website to track prices on Amazon, it gives an email if the item drops below a price I choose:
You just copy and paste the URL from the item page on Amazon, and give your email address.
This may be a link for to track the listing: https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B005Q4LU1I
I ordered a pair of these last October. I’ve been hankering to do some pruning, so I went out on the snowshoes and put the Okatsunes to work.
I’m impressed with them. Very smooth cutting and I was able to cut some stuff up to about 1/2" with relative ease. I may pick up another pair before spring.
I fear that this is indeed the case.
I’ve spent 10X the cost of these, probably, over the years on cheap cr___ , from Home Depot and Lowes, etc. THEN I bought a Felco . . . and then - an ARS, which I like even better.
You do get what you pay for . . . at least when it comes to garden tools!
My opinion. And I’m looking forward to using them this weekend, to do some pruning and scion snipping! 
I got a pair a little while back, and boy did I get some nasty cuts on my fingers that are still healing. The locking mechanism is really annoying and if you don’t keep them locked expect some nasty slices as they are as sharp as, or sharper than most knives.
Aside from the annoying lock they seem awesome.
Squeeze the handles hard to engage, and hard to disengage. That seems to be the trick.
I don’t quite agree that you get what you pay for. I’d say you have to pay over a threshold to get something really good.
But the ARS are better than the Felco, in my opinion, and they cost less.
You do get what you pay for - on the good days. 
I’ve had a bad week with Amazon…I ordered a double bladed Italian hand pruner of the type I like to use for grafting and the company (not Amazon but through them) sent me an Italian made kitchen knife? As far as I can tell they never had any hand pruners and were only hoping I’d eat the knife.
The next thing to come up my driveway was a humidifier that leaked water and had an inhaling attachment that didn’t fit the humidifier.
Neither of these were priced especially low and each required at least 20 minutes of my time to get refunds… it seems Amazon does not instruct their engineers to make returns possible with a couple of clicks if you want free pick-up service. If what I order comes broken or isn’t what I order, I should suffer as little inconvenience as possible, IMO. I order a ton of stuff through Amazon.