Can anybody recommend a good brand of Loppers? My old cheap ones mangle the bark on one side no matter how sharp the blades it seems. Am ready to spend for loppers that make a clean cut.
Felco makes a quality tool, may I recommend a Sawzall with a wood blade 
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I think that Felco is considered the top of the line but Corona is OK with me for less bucks.
Just my opinion. I am not an expert.
@alan knows a lot more than I do so I went with his recommended brand as of a few years ago, Bahco. They have been much better than my previous no-name Home Depot loppers.
I have a heavy wooden-handled set that I picked up at a garage sale years ago. They are tough and functional but are pretty heavy- I find myself going to the little saw if my nippers won’t do the job. I’d probably use the loppers more if they were less cumbersome. I like that loppers can extend your reach, but these clunkers make that less fun.
I have Bahco P160-SL-75 professional orchard loppers. Protoolwarehouse.com has them for $50. Or you can opt for cheaper Bahco. I don’t know what your expectation is, but you can’t get completely away for scaring the other side. Keeping the blade clean helps with cutting.
Thanks everyone.
Love my Felco’s!
After thousands of cuts and several loppers over time, the one lopper that I value most for making 1" to 2" cuts is made by Fiskars, the “Durasharp 32” Power Gear Bypass Lopper". Highly leveraged, strong, slick cuts. There is a bit of extra friction as the tightly bolted blades slide. The handles need lots of elbow room to open the blades up for 2" cuts. It is the opposite of lightweight, dinky, sloppy, wobbly…the common traits of the loppers sold because they underpriced all the other low price loppers. This is not the lopper top use if you need to cut 100 - 1/2" to 3/4" branches. I wish that I had one of these for a long time, instead of only for a few years. For me, the IS the better mouse trap.
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HICKOK by a mile. Nothing else is even close! American made with very high grade steel. Very well balanced. Complete line of replacement parts are available. Not a cheap tool but worth the money if you plan to use them a lot. Available in many sizes. Commercial grade tool.
BH, have you tried a Bahco ultralight orchard lopper? I haven’t tried Hickok, but I doubt it could be better by a mile than Bahco’s highest quality loppers. Even Stihl makes (at least sells) a similar and very good quality one. There’s a lot of crap out there including some expensive crap. I bought a Felco when they first put them out and it is poorly engineered- they didn’t shape the hook properly to pull the wood all the way in for best leverage. In subsequent models they put grooves in the hook, which is funny because that is what I did to stop the blade from pushing the wood away, but it is a half-assed solution that failed to adequately solve the problem.
Never tried the Bahco lopper, but lots of other brands. I have used the Bahco hand pruners and like them a lot. Your right - a lot of junk is for sale, some with well known brand names. When I first used the Hickok, I could not believe how well it worked. I have a 26 inch and a 36 inch both with aluminum handles
I’ve seen the Hickok and as I recall it has the same shape anvil as Bahco. The other thing is that the handles not be spread too wide, which can also reduce the power your arms can put on the handles. One thing that amazes me is how long it takes to wear them out. The only time I need to replace my Bahco loppers is when the bumpers wear out (maybe 6 or 7 years of heavy use every day 7 months of the year)- unless someone bends the handles trying to cut excessively thick wood. That requires some effort.
For hand pruners I prefer ARS over Bahco or Felco because they have harder (sharper) blades and feel better in my hand. I’ve never had repetitive motion issues since I started using them. I do so much pruning that this can become an issue.
I have these and they do work well however the sharp cutting surface does not go all the way to the tip and can be a pain in tight spots .
Speaking of hand pruners I found this review amusing. http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-garden-pruners/
They choose Felco as hands down the best hand pruner but further down the page they mention the ARS V series pruners as being sharper and more effortless to use. But because it is not as widely available and a few dollars cheaper they ran with the Felco. They might as well have endorsed the Corona Felco knock-off, or the Costco version (2 different sizes plus extra parts for the price of one Felco). The price differential with these is much greater and the quality not far from Felco. My wife loves her Costco pruners. I don’t know if Costco sells a loppers.
Alan
Based on the review, I’m surprised Felco won. Which model of ARS do you prefer? After 4 or 5 hours of pruning peach trees with my Felcos, my hands are worn out.
I keep an ARS V7 in my pocket and a V8 in my holster when I’m really pruning.
http://www.pnetools.com/ars-pruning-shears/ars-hand-pruner-8-20cm/
Gempler’s and Amazon also carry V8 and Gemp has that and the 7 and 9 if you have real big hands. The number is the length of the tool in inches.
I bought the $10 Felco knockoffs from Harbor Freight… I lose pruners (there must be at least a few of them out in the yard somewhere) that i can’t see dropping much money on them. They don’t seem half bad. Reviews are good.
I bought the V8 based on Alan’s recomendation. They are great!
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Bypass type… 'specially if you’re doing big stuff… Porter-Ferguson is hard to beat; and tough!
Scroll down to the bottom:
Haven’t used ARS… but in a recent running thread on the best hoof-trimming shears for sheep/goats, ARS was getting rave reviews…