We went through about 8 of those folding Corona saws when we began removing hawthorn from the property. They are the worst saws! The blade quickly becomes unstable at the pivot point, and they dull quickly. Fiskars is just as bad. The solid, non-folding saws are better, but they still dull quickly. I’ve had a Silky Gomtaro for a while now and it’s been great. I would discourage anyone from pruning with a folding saw. The Gomtaro came with a scabbard that can be hung from your belt. For me a solid blade running back through the handle is important. My 600 trees @ the orchard are just getting to the point where I’m using the saw for pruning, otherwise it’s mostly the ARS hand pruners.
How long a sharp saw stays sharp is a big factor particularity for someone who does a lot of cutting. @AndySmith experience is Corona dulls quickly so a negative there.
You can plan to replace a dull blade on a softer saw. You never know when an overhardened blade will snap, and that unplanned down time will cost you. Maybe the fixed blade silky doesnt have the same problem as their folding saws, but im not sure it is worth three times the price for a homeowner to find out. Im at about 24 hrs of total use on the folding Corona with no signs of dulling or hinge loosening.
Like I said, if you break a hard steel blade, it is on you, not the blade. It cannot happen during proper use of the saw, IMO. Once you are really familiar with your saw you aren’t likely to pull far enough to slip off the wood and that is the kind of thing that can lead to bending or breaking the blade.
So maybe a learning saw is a good thing, and I’m not being pompous. Making even clean strokes that use almost the entire length of the blade is not an instinct. My first tree teacher mocked the short cuts I made with a hand saw even though I had plenty of experience using the tool, but I didn’t naturally learn to use it to best advantage. Long strokes but not too long.
Whether you replace a blade because it is dull or broken, it’s the same time, but you can avoid breaking a blade by using it properly and you can reduce the time of replacing a blade by starting with one with the hardest steel. And please don’t refer to the steel in my precious Silky as “overhardened”. ![]()
I learned today the usefulness of coarseness in some situations. I was cutting the trunk of a Buckthorn about 4 inch diameter. The Corona RS 7265 was getting stuck. I switched to a Silky F180. Same problem. I switch to EZ Kut EZ-5210. It cut with no problem. I haven’t noticed a significant difference on small diameter cuts but in this case the coarse blade EZ Kut worked best.
Other Silky and Corona models probably would have worked better than the models I have.
Also,.Silky does or used to sell two distinctly different types of blades, one type made in China that has a tendency to bind when cutting bigger wood and the Japanese made ones that are more expensive and don’t tend to bind. I know I could cut a 4" diameter buckhorn with my Gomtaro 300 course cut, but I honestly have no experience with any of their other saws. I made the mistake of purchasing a couple of the Chinese blades for the Gom and ended up throwing them away.