It’s been literally years since I’ve posted here, and sadly my fruit growing time has taken a back seat to other life issues. Anyway, I’m trying to get back in the game and have a lot of pruning that needs to happen.
Has anyone tried pruning smaller branches with a reciprocating saw? And if so, what type of blade should I use?
My thought was that this lighter, smaller saw will allow me to do things quicker and easier than trying to do it with a chain saw or a hand saw.
I have cut branches off of maple trees with a reciprocating saw. I learned that the blade matters quite a bit! They make arbor saw blades for them. Otherwise, they gunk up very fast. Even wood blades gunk up fast with live trees.
I did that for a few years. You need the blade with the biggest teeth you can find, and knock the blade a lot to remove the gunk. At some point I decided it wasn’t gaining me enough time having to lug that heavy tool around so I just switched to a hand saw. A good sharp hand saw will be nearly as fast on all but the biggest limbs.
I bought a small battery operated chain saw a few years ago and that is a different beast, for anything over 3" or so it’s a whole lot faster than a hand saw. So I set it out in my general pruning area and go grab it when I have a large limb to remove.
I have used a recipicating saw for pruning.
You have to make sure the TPI is correct or you will mutilate the branch.
Big branches need low teeth per inch and thin branches need high tooth per inch.
Cordless pruning shears are the way commercial orchards prune everything because your hands will fall off doing it without modern technology.
For smaller 3/4”-3” I’ll use my folding Felco saw that I carry on me in a double sheath with my hand pruners; heck I’ll even use that for an 8” limb just to not stop and fetch the reciprocating saw, haha.
I don’t own a chainsaw so a reciprocating saw has always been my go-to for the bigger stuff, I’ve even cut stuff that was like 16”diameter. Cordless is very handy, but definitely go corded if you’re doing lots of big cuts and have the power supply. Only downfall I’ve seen with them in general is it can sometimes be easy to jam and bend a blade of not paying attention, they’re not the easiest to straighten out again, but they do come in multi-packs
There are generally three styles pruning blade teeth I’ve found marketed for pruning - a 5-6tpi pruning blade with double-edged teeth, this style has been around for decades and my preference. Some brands have different depth teeth or various TPI; these also come in different lengths like 9” and 12”.
There’s a low TPI carbide-tooth blade that I didn’t see until recent years. I got some made by Diablo but don’t like them, haven’t found any situation where they cut better or faster - perhaps they are better when doing lots of cutting on dry wood is my guess.
There’s also more traditional curved pruning blades with the tighter “Japanese” type pruning teeth. I’ve never seen these at a store before, only online, so no experience with them. I’d assume they work very well like the hand saws tend to do, they also come in longer lengths like 14”.
I have done it before and I certainly wouldn’t want to do it on the smaller branches that you mention wanting to prune. This is the sort of thing that I would use for that operation:
With the bypass pruner you have the fixed backing stop to hold the branch so it cannot move away when the cutting blade moves in, unlike what happens when the reciprocating saw blade moves away from you in order to take another cutting stroke. For example, I helped a friend install a wooden fence. When he went to cut the top of the 4x4s at a slant at the correct height, even through the posts had been concreted into place a couple of weeks ago they wanted to vibrate back and forth instead of the blade moving back and forth on a stationary object. My brother and I held onto the posts with locked arms to stabilize them and they cut much more quickly.
I completely agree. I got a Milwaukee M18 reciprocating saw and have tried different pruning blades. They cut relatively slow and uncomfortably. I think I prefer my Silky saw for just about anything other than cutting stump roots to that.
I bought 2 inexpensive Corona saws on the strength of great reviews and have been very disappointed in them. I wonder if they were knock-offs. I don’t see how anyone could put them in the same class as the Silky.
Recip saw with pruning blade was my go-to until I got my Silky KatanaBoy. I still particularly like the recip saw for situations with: tight clearance; dead wood; dirt or something else that will damage my blade; or when I want something safer than a chainsaw to hang off the end of a rope when climbing or working overhead (sure, I could cut myself ugly w a recip saw if I tried, but I’d have to be really determined in order to take off even a finger or to open up a femoral artery with it).
I’ve had best results with 3/4"-2 1/2" limbs, cut where they have some support (won’t vibrate too much) and where there’s enough space to press the stop of the saw up against the limb (push hard). Then let the saw do the work. The vibration will still beat your hands up, but it’s functional.
I’ve been using a Milwaukee Sawzall with a 12" blade for major pruning jobs. I like the fact that the narrow blade can fit into tight spaces to cut close to the base of a branch. A chain saw would need more space. That blade cuts smaller limbs as well as the bigger ones without getting gummed up and will even cut through a nail without getting damaged.
I used it to cut down and cut up a 30-year old sweet cherry tree that was at least 15" in diameter, but a chain saw would have worked better for that job.
I’ve used the recip saw with arborist blades. I found what so many other people found. It’s not much, if any, faster than a good arborist hand saw for wood too big for battery pruners.
If I can’t cut it fast with a hand saw, a chain saw is my next go to.
We have about 1500 apples, high density; I use a Milwaukee sawzall with an “Axe” blade (medium tooth) for pruning anything b/w about 1" and chainsaw size. Works pretty well, saves my elbow joints.
The blade matters a lot, I once bought a blade that was basically a Japanese pruning saw blade adapted to a reciprocating saw… same curved shape and teeth. It cut like a monster but didn’t last long, the curve I think is a mistake as it is moving too fast for that shape, and it snapped at some point. Maybe with these Ax blades it works better.
I find it useful for quick and dirty jobs like on my ever growing oak trees. Small trees will get shaken up good and the bark can get torn if it rides the shoe.
I use it when the location makes a chainsaw too dangerous to use. The danger could be to the other limbs of the tree or to me if I can’t find a safe way to hold the chainsaw.
I use the Dewalt 18volt pruning shears. Makes really light work of pruning but after a lot of work it starts to feel really heavy; or maybe I’m getting older than I like to admit. So heavy that I ended up chipping the blade trying to cut through some rebar trellis by mistake. Fortunately the blades are replaceable.
