Sort of like a hammer vs a nail gun. For many jobs carpenters aren’t going back to hammers.
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People in trades buy quality tools that last, too… Alan has a good point earlier. Carpenters aren’t using Black & Decker because that’s for the homeowner.
There is a reason why experienced people purchase certain brands, of, tools. @oscar 
I had to do it Oscar! I think Alan skunked your earlie in your opposing argument. Although you were pretty close to something there.
…
Okatsune pruners are professional “Bonsai” tools if not anything…
Barkslip
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There is not only stainless vs carbon (rusting) steel. There is also the hardness. The harder the more brittle. And thus the harder steels tend to chip when abused, and the softer steels tend to bend. I use softer “lower quality” pruners when pruning suckers close to or in the soil. Never my nice okatsune.
Tempering decreases how hard the steel is. But also decreases how brittle it is.
there are some new exotic powdered steels that are both super hard and stainless. They are rare/expensive though. And often hard to work with.
Okatsune are quite hard, but thus also brittle.
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I still think it’s a fallacy. And not a good argument. It’s in the same line as “more expensive is better quality” sure often it’s close to the truth.
But if i asked you why you liked pruner X better than Y, and your response was " because it’s more expensive" i would not ask you for a lot of advice in the future…
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It looks identical, but I’m looking at a replacement blade package right now and it says No. 103-30 and when I got confused about such similar saws I found out that they make both models.
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Thanks for playing nicely.
Barkslip
But lacking that info, if you had a choice between two dentists of the same age, one who is advertising for customers and one who is turning away patients through word of MOUTH because of demand, who would you choose? Or for that matter, one right out of school and one with ten years experience, lacking any other info? (be careful of dentists right out of med school- they are sometimes in a hurry to pay off their quarter million dollars in student loans 
)
Of course a pro can be incompetent, it is just a matter of odds being better because quality tools are much more important to a pro who uses that tool every day than even a commercial arborist who mostly uses their chain saw, but especially the average weekend gardener that is incapable of even properly sharpening a hand pruner. I’m talking about better odds of getting good information, not absolute certainty of it.
And I wasn’t talking about a single pro, but what is the general choice of pros in the entire industry which would tend to at least lead you to tools of excellent quality.
All that said, I now realize that Okats seems to be a very fine tool and that I was probably mistaken about the quality of the closure system. I have no reason to believe it to be superior to an ARS and to get a side by side comparison I can only go to online articles rating pruners that are determined by people I don’t know and can’t really trust, but the two I found that compared the ARS to the Okats slightly preferred the ARS- for whatever that’s worth.
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This is exactly why I don’t overthink anything. I see something I know I need and it’s exactly what I need, and it’s recommended by someone who’s been working with tools-ofcourse-all-their-life… I don’t think twice. I buy.
I’m very trusting of people, also.
B-slip
You know they say too, ‘there’s the right tool for the job’ but they don’t tell you the price… price is irrelevant (to me) when I purchase a tool for hopefully a lifetime. I spent a lot of money on Alan’s telescopic lopper suggestion, but, I know… it’ll last me most of my life, &, I have more than 350 trees planted and spaced well, btw. This is invaluable to me and for ease on my body, of-course…
I’m done now.
Barkslip
best regards @oscar ! money means nothing with tools!.. my father and lots of people on earth recognize how important they are and they take care of them and they don’t buy cheap stuff. (okay, usually, not cheap stuff.)
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I really don’t know what an ARS would look like if left in the rain, I’ve only seen a Felco left for long periods, and it was in terrible shape, but it had probably been left outside for months- I really can’t remember what parts were rusted but the tool was not salvageable.
In your photo the closure nut looks wrong, it should have straight edges on alternate sides to facilitate dissembly so a wrench can be used on both sides to stop it form turning when loosening the fulcrum bolt. Otherwise it looks just like the one I’m looking at right now- besides the rust. The one I am looking has several years use and shows no particular sign of use- a Felco’s rubber would have disintegrated by now unless they’ve made an upgrade in the last decade.
Because I use my pruners every day, I can’t leave it outside without immediately realizing it.
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I was looking for videos about sharpening pruners and saw this one about removing surface corrosion,using a few common ingredients.
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Hi Ray,
The one in the video is a Kamakaze KV80. It’s made by an Italian company called Volpi.
They don’t have a presence over here, so I had to contact the company directly. They are expensive, but not as expensive as others. The last stubby pole pruner I got from them was about $1500 including shipping. It’s probably a little more now. I have two of their stubby pole pruners. I liked the first one so much I bought another as a spare. I’ve used the old one for 3 or 4 seasons. So far, no issues. They are supposed to be serviced after one million cuts. The blades are hard steel. I’ve had to sharpen them.
I also bought one of their electric hand pruners (KV700) Here’s a youtube video of what it looks like. It cost about the same. Both types of pruners use the same type of battery, which is nice.
If you look at about 3:21 min. you can see how big they open up. It opens up a little bigger than my Bahco loppers (but I don’t have the really big pair of loppers).
I like it a lot too. It doesn’t have the reach of the stubby pole pruner, but the jaws open up more. Like the stubby pole pruner, it’s super powerful. One nice thing is that we almost never have to get a handsaw out, unless we are really cutting back in some big wood.
Since peach wood is soft, any peach wood which will fit in the jaws, the pruners will cut. This saves time from having to make cuts with hand saws. The hand pruner won’t cut really huge hard wood like oak. But the stubby pole pruner would probably cut any hardwood you could fit into the jaws, because the jaws don’t open up as large.
Another nice thing I didn’t mention earlier is that the stubby pole pruner is essentially a powered lopper. But, in addition to speed, it also has the advantage of fitting into tight places, where a two handled lopper can’t.
In other words, before we had the powered pruners, many times have we tried to make a cut with manual loppers, only to find when we open the loppers to make a cut, other branches interfere with the loppers. The battery powered loppers get into tighter spaces. In fact, you can just shove it through branches to cut the one you are after, without even moving. You can’t do that with two handled loppers.
One disadvantage of the pruners is that we don’t prune in rain, or just after a rain. Because they are so expensive, and have electronics inside, I don’t take any chances on getting them wet. They may well be able to take some wetness, but I don’t risk it.
My helper and I generally work as a team when we prune. I have him use the stubby pole pruner, while I use the electric hand pruner. I have my helper use the stubby pole pruner because it’s much harder to prune fingers off with that pruner.
He immediately climbs into the middle of the tree. From there he can reach and prune out everything but the outside of the tree without moving much at all. Meanwhile I go around the tree from the outside and prune all that, or anything that won’t fit in the jaws of the stubby pole pruner he’s using.
Most of the battery powered pole pruners sold in the U.S. are from Infaco. They are a nice pruner, but cost about $2700
@scottfsmith uses a Zenport battery powered pruner. I see they are about $1000 on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Zenport-EP3-ePruner-1-5-inch-Electric/dp/B00P7LRFXM
They are considered a professional grade pruner and have good reviews. In the past Scott has mentioned he liked his.
There are also some battery powered home owner pruners. Instead of a battery which fits on your back, they have the battery connected to the pruner, like a cordless drill.
Here is one for under $300, which looks like it has good reviews, and is powerful.
Amazon has others priced less (even down to $100 or less) but I wonder if the really cheap ones would be very powerful? It would be frustrating to have a tool which wouldn’t do the job.
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I leave a pair of ARS pruners in my tractor tool box. Sometimes I’ll see something needing pruning that we missed and will just stop and prune it off with the ARS pruners.
They get a little rusty in the tool box.
I recommend soaking them in Evapo-rust, if you want to get the rust off. I’ve used Evapo-rust. Works really well, and is easy on the steel.
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Bahco 396-LAP Laplander Folding Saw, 7-12 -Inch Blade 7 TPI left
Silky GomBoy Professional Folding Saw 270mm Medium Teeth right
It’s a big saw. I thought slimmer but I was dreaming I think. I’ll look forward to using this Silky saw:
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Nice trees! And nice pruner! I wish those pruners were available as electric pruners for my backyard, I could just extend a power cord from the house. And it would last forever. Batteries are expensive to replace I assume…at least for a hobbyist grower. But I do value a nice clean cut.
How many primary scaffolds do you have there on those trees? 3 or 4?
In most cases we try to shoot for the traditional 3 scaffold bowl shape. Sometimes though, we leave 4 scaffolds, or only two.
This seems scary to me. Loosing a finger is really bad. But again, i really like how you take care and think of others!
I remember seeing somewhere they where developing safeguards to avoid cut fingers.
I think they went for capacitive touch sensors on the blade. (disabling the motor when a finger touches the steel blade instead of the plastic handle)
And also a continuous pressure sensor in the trigger. and slowing the cutting speed of the blade. With the thought being that instinctively you release the trigger when you cut yourself. The slower blade speed is needed though to compensate for your pain reaction speed. That way you could stil cut yourself but have a lower chance of cutting your finger completely off. I can’t find the source for this back right now (it was a youtube product showcase)
But i am really curious to hear from some-one who uses them regularly. How afraid/ what do you think the chances are. You loose a finger with the electric shears? Does yours have any finger protection?
Seems I forget or lose a pair of pruners once a year, so I generally make a purchase from a local merchant of a pair about once a year…on average. And I don’t buy the cheapest, just a notch or a couple above it.
That’s probably 15 or more pairs in the last 15 or more years…I think the latest are Fiskars.
Ain’t that the truth. Peach trees are junk growers and not always easily manipulated to the shape we desire. I’ve found I can often convert a 4 scaffold tree that divides the sky into 4 near equal parts by removing one scaffold and using a stake to pull one of the other scaffolds in better position to create 3 nearly equal parts, if you know what I mean. However, growing a new scaffold from old wood is often impossible- depending on the variety.
With apples it is always possible to grow a new branch wherever you want it. For a pruner craftsman they are a more enjoyable subject, and your work can last a couple of lifetimes. But to most, the fruit isn’t quite as exquisite.
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I prune in pretty much all weather conditions when heading towards a finish line in the race I always seem to be losing. I do nothing to protect my tools from rust after pruning in the rain, sleet, snow or slush, besides sheltering them form rain when not in use and I don’t have rust issues with any of my pruning tools- perhaps because friction prevents rust.
That said, even if you don’t use them frequently if you dry them off after use, rust shouldn’t be a problem with any tool kept indoors, IME.
Here is what NY Times said about the pruners we are talking about. Notice that both use similarly hard steel. I knew how hard the ARS pruner blades were because I’ve broken blades when dropping them on ice in winter in single digit temps. Of course it was also easy to tell by the way they hold their sharpness compared to Felcos and other hand pruners I’ve used through the years.
The Okatsune 101 7-inch Bypass Pruners are a favorite among bonsai enthusiasts. They’re made of “Izumo Yasuki Japanese steel to deliver a Rockwell hardness of 60 +/-1,” which means that they’ll stay sharp longer than pruners with softer steel. Slim and short, they open very wide (6 inches across at the base), making it hard for users with smaller hands (like me) to grasp them, and the handles feel slightly slippery in damp conditions. They cut live branches and dowels perfectly—really, perfectly—with little torn bark and smooth, flat cuts, but they failed to cut through scallions on three out of 10 attempts. They last, too: Owners on BladeForums make comments such as “I have used the same pair of 8" pruners professionally for the last 9 years and they will definitely outlast me.” Wayne Schoech at Stone Lantern said his firm carried replacement Okatsune springs.
The ARS HP-VS8Z pruners cut better than any other pruners we tested, leaving fewer bits of bark and ragged ends of stems than every other pair. They were the smoothest-feeling pruners we tried, slicing straight through both hefty branches and wispy scallion tops with no hesitation, jarring, or jerking, and they never got stuck. Although ARS doesn’t publish maximum cutting diameters for its pruners, the ARS HP-VS8Z even managed to cut through a ¾-inch branch with aplomb—unlike several other pruner models that were rated to cut 1-inch branches. If you can find this tool for less than a Felco, there’s no reason to pass it up.
The ARS pruners probably work so well because they are very, very sharp. As one blogger put it, “ARS stands for ‘Always Really Sharp.’” The pruners’ blades, made of what the manufacturer calls “high-carbon granular spheroid annealing steel,” have a Rockwell hardness scale rating of 59 (900 on the Vickers scale). Typical hardware-store pruners score in the range of 50 to 54, and several companies (Felco and Bahco, among others) will not release information about the hardness of their steel. But from what we could determine, this pair was harder than any other pruners we tested, except the Okatsune (60). Beyond a sharp edge, the ARS tool’s blades have a very precise bypass tolerance straight out of the box, which is critical to that smooth, never-stuck cutting action and the perfect results you see on every cut.
ARS makes the rest of the tool as carefully as it does the blades. ARS crafts its VS-series pruner handles out of cast aluminum coated with plastic, so you don’t have to worry about the handles snapping off, unless you keep a metal-chomping Pulgasari for a pet. The handles come in three sizes: the ARS HP-VS8Z, the 8-inch model I tested; the ARS HP-VS9Z, a 9-inch model for larger hands; and the ARS HP-VS7Z, for smaller hands. Unfortunately, ARS does not make left-handed pruners; for that, you’ll have to get a Felco 9. For an explanation of the difference between right- and left-handed cutting tools, see Wirecutter’s scissors and kitchen shears review.
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