Love their long loppers that cut two inch in diameter branches. Will buy one of those. Thanks so much for the link!
Mrs G.
Iām a veterinary pathologist in my āday jobā - first encountered those large bypass loppers in grad school 25+ years ago - they work great as costotomes(rib cutters) when doing post-mortem exams on horses/cows; have a set here that Iāve been using almost daily for 20 yearsā¦ still going strong.
Bought a pair to use here on the farmā¦ the donāt get used as frequently, but will probably outlast meā¦ maybe my grandkids will inherit themā¦ they are great!
1 Like
The Bahco 2" loppers are not very useful to me. The head is too heavy and the tool is constructed with the handles too far apart which makes it more fatiguing to use because the arms are not in their strongest position when pressure is applied. This is assuming it is the same design they had about 12 years ago, and it looks like it is from the photo. Stick with the loppers in the catalog below that. 1 3/4 capacity is more than adequate for pruning live trees. Better to use a saw for larger pieces. If your trees are below 10ā you donāt need the 35" model but thatās what I use. The 30" requires the least effort even with the less leverage because of the strain of holding up an extended weight with the longer loppers. The longer one does go through thicker wood more easily though.
Besides my orchard, I have to prune 80+ large rose bushes and I use the Corona Max
21/4 inch lopper with 36inch handle. I need the extra length to help avoid those wicked
thorns. Itās a great tool and sharp. Iāve used it for two seasons and have yet to have to
sharpen the blades. For smaller jobs, I use the ARS VS9 hand pruner, and the Felco 100
cut and hold pruner. Itās a must for dead heading spent blooms. My favorite cut and hold pruner
is the Swiss made Leyat, but you canāt find parts for it any more. Mine lasted almost 20 years.
Iāve also used a lot of junk, but I find these are the best for my needs.
ARS also makes cut and hold pruners. I hate the hold feature and removed it from my extending ARS pole pruner. For the work I do it is much quicker to let the pieces drop and then deal with it and I find the tool works more smoothly without that extra piece. Of course, if I was cutting thorny stuff Iād have a different attitude.
Some day I have to give Corona a try again. I went Swiss and Japanese when Corona, like most American garden tool manufacturers, stopped engineering good tools. There were always a couple of exceptions. of course. Same deal with chain saws.
No one seems to use as hard of steel as the Japanese for these kinds of tools. Felco gets its pruning saw blades from Japan, or used to. Now you have to be careful about the Taiwanese knock-offs if you want high quality tri-cut blades.
I like the Bahco loppers, but for bigger stuff my son and I go for geared friscar loppers. We have a couple pair now. The geared function takes the least effort to move through large wood.
I still like the Bahco loppers for smaller diameter wood. The aluminum handles do help prevent fatigue when pruning all day.
I like Luckyās suggestion of the Porter-Ferguson loppers. According to the specs, they are quite a bit heavier than Bahco (a negative) but I like the idea of a lopper in which both blades cut. They do indeed look like they would never wear out.
ARS hand pruners are the bomb. Iāve used Corona and several others (including Fleco). I own about 5 pair of ARS and I canāt see they will ever wear out (as long as I can keep sharpening them). Alan has mentioned he has broken some blades but I never have yet.
These are so heavy that I used them one day and they were retired immediately. Actually, I only used them for a few cuts and couldnāt believe that commercial arborists are the main buyers. There is a reason a hook is used instead of two blades- it guides the wood to the point of maximum leverage. Arborists usually know little about hand tools. Ask them about chain saws.
My perspective is much different than most orchard keepers because I do so much pruning. If wood is too thick for a Bahco pruner to easily slice through it is best to saw it so you donāt crush wood, IMO. I mostly use a loppers when pruning peach trees and other stone fruit because it takes less time to slice with a saw you can keep at your waist in a holster than frequently setting down and picking up a lopper. With peach trees I donāt have to constantly set the loppers down because most of the cuts can be made with it. Most trees I use the hand shears much more. I also end up often leaving the lopper at the last tree I pruned (or was it the one before that?), wasting more time retrieving it.
The faster I go the more money I make. I charge by the hour, but the more I do the more I can charge per hour.
Hi Alan
Christmas is coming and the in-laws have asked for gift ideas. Iām thinking its about time to try a new pair of loppers. I have been using Bergers ( same as the Stihl) for some time and theyāre getting a bit tired. I was wondering if you could confirm which Bahcoās you use, are they these 50 mm Professional Bypass Loppers with Aluminium Handle | BAHCO | Bahco UK or these 45 mm Professional Lightweight Long Bypass Loppers with Aluminium Handle and Forged Counter Blade | BAHCO | Bahco UK ? I figure you probably have infinitely more lopping hours under your belt than the average internet reviewer and so it would be great to be sure which are the ones youāre the biggest fan of.
Many thanks
Dave Bond
Bahco Orchard Lopper,Super Light 36 inch P160-SL-90
I have tried many different types of loppers over the years and the shape of the hook on these is perfect for forcing wood being cut towards you where leverage is best for cutting. Some loppers actually force the wood towards the opposite direction.
The handles are set just wide enough to get the most our of my arm strength as well, and if you keep them sharp the average user should never need purchase another. It is very strong. A strong man can bend the handles when applying all their strength to cut dry wood or something, but itās been years since me or my very strong assistant have done so. The bumpers tend to eventually wear out but that takes years of very frequent commercial use. Every three years or so such use requires the replacement of hook and blade to sustain optimum performance.
I like the reach and added leverage of this long handled version, but it is sometimes harder to find. The shorter handled version is somewhat less taxing on your shoulders if you are using the tool continuously for long periods.
2 Likes
Thatās great, thanks again.
Dave
ARS LP-A30L
These prices are better, I think. https://www.theprunerwarehouse.com/
This is the Bahco pruner I use. Bahco Orchard Lopper,Super Light 36 inch P160-SL-90 | The Pruners Warehouse
The ARS LP-A30L is more of a woods clearing tool than a fruit tree pruner by my reckoning. It is light, strong and very good at cutting big and even dry wood.
2 Likes
Well, thanks to this thread I just did some shopping. I found the Bahco P160-SL-75 loppers on Amazon. The current price is $69.34. My loppers are some crappy no-name set that I got from a yard sale several years ago so I do need an upgrade. I already have ARS pruners and they are very nice.
Edit: I just cancelled the order. Alanās recommended lobber is only a little bit more expensive, I think Iāll be glad to have the extra 6 inch reach.
1 Like
One thing I donāt see in this thread is a discussion of when to use anvil loppers and when to use bypass loppers. Most tree pruning should be done with bypass loppers. Most brush and cleanup cutting is easier with anvil loppers. There are exceptions and there is always āwell this is the loppers I have so I use themā.
2 Likes
The loppers you have are always better than the ones you donāt when you need to make a cut immediately.
Alan, the cut and hold pruners are good for collecting scion wood, maybe not so much for pruning.
Iāve used ARS cut and hold long reach pruners and they do interfere with the pruning power of the tool somewhat so I removed it. However, I almost depend entirely on ladders and tree climbing to prune the trees I manage that grow above 10ā. It is much less strain on the arms and shoulders to prune from above than from below and easier to do precise work when close to the cuts.
I think of the cut and hold as more a gimmick than a useful feature, but it it saves you the trouble of bending to the ground to pick up scion-wood, I can see how you might feel otherwise.
1 Like
My go-to method of collecting scionwood is to saw off a large limb with several potential scions then use loppers to cut it down into 2 foot long sticks. I carry it home in a cooler and then use hand pruners to cut it down to manageable sticks that will fit in gallon ziploc freezer bags. It is the fastest method Iāve found to collect large amounts of scionwood. Everything is carefully labeled by variety at each step. If I only wanted 2 or 3 sticks of a variety, I would focus on getting just the best sticks from each tree and would probably use hand pruners to cut it.
1 Like
I mostly graft from wood accumulated from trees I manage so it is usually something I do in the process of winter and early spring pruning. One problem with my increasing level of summer pruning is that it involves removing high quality scion wood. I sometimes leave a few of the straightest growing water sprouts to make sure I have good scion wood. Almost all my scion wood is harvested only with a hand pruner.
1 Like