Fiskars Pruning Stick

[allenC]

I recently bought one of these at Lowe's hardware store and I have to say I'm extremely impressed.
I had originally bought one for my father: he's getting older and needed something to clear some undergrowth from around the yard, but the tool had to be lightweight and easy to use.
Most of the pruners I found were rather heavy (fiberglass or wood handles) and a little awkward to use. I felt that those would tire my dad out rather quickly.
Then I found the Fiskars Pruning Stick. It's very lightweight and very simple to use. The cutting head pivots and locks and you can operate the cutter from either the end of the stick or with a mid-shaft handle.
Since it is so lightweight I was abit skeptical as to it's performance. But it has proven me wrong!
It really cuts great and, because of it's lightweight, you can use it for hours without getting fatigued.
If you need a lightweight pruner for light-to-medium vegetation, I would highly recommend this one.

Good luck,
Allen.

 

[Simple Man]

Personally, I think the Chainsaw-on-a-stick is more fun.

http://www.stihlusa.com/chainsaws/HT75.html

 

[tarsier]

I like Fiskars' products too. I have two pairs of their Quick-Release MultiShears for general cutting and a PowerGear hand pruner for yardwork. This is a different model than the one you mentioned and has short handles.

The PowerGear works well on branches up to ~0.5" diameter. The odd thing is that it cuts through green wood like butter, but is more difficult on dry, brittle, dead wood. I don't know enough about the physics of wood to understand why. I think that it must be because the green wood doesn't compress as much, so it maintains its shape as the blade slices through. I don't notice much difference when chopping, rather than pruning, these same types of wood.

 

[Dexter Ewing]

Allen - thanks for your review. I once considered buying one of these Pruning Sticks myself. Every time I have stuff up high to lop off, I usually use my pole pruner, but the saw blade gets in the way. Sure I can remove the blade entirely but it's not productive on a big pruning job to constantly put the blade on/take the blade off. PITA.