Bloody pole pruner!!

[simonm]

Ive got a stein pole pruner which i find really awkward whilst up a tree! Its the action of resting the butt of the pole on my harness while reaching up high and pulling the cord! its a pain in the arse! is there any other designs out there what you reccomend? cheers

[RobRainford]

I use a wolf garten one but have the saw on the end. Never been too keen on the string pole pruners. Can be too much stretch in them.

[David Goss]

Fiskars all the way.

[burrell_]

i use one called streamline pole pruners iv tryed quit a lot of the and they are the best

[burrell_]

and there u go

Manual Pole Pruners

[David Goss]

Here you go too

Universal Telescopic Garden Cutter / Cutting Tools / Products | Fiskars UK

[Pedroski]

Here you go too

Universal Telescopic Garden Cutter / Cutting Tools / Products | Fiskars UK

 

We've just binned one of those Fiskars POS things! They don't have enough leverage to cut much, the ergonomics of pulling the knob along the pole is all wrong if you're cutting something fairly close (you end up having to push the knob backwards behind you), for thicker stuff you have to get the butt of the pole in your stomach and pull toward that, the way the cutting blade is pivoted is crap and the plastic there snapped. We repaired it with an ally plate which has done for a while, but the final straw was the chain at the end and the internal pull tape giving up the ghost. Rubbish - a solution to a problem that is just too complicated.

 

The normal pole pruners with the pulley end and cord coming from that are much stronger and more reliable. As for the cord getting caught up, simple solution is to just hold the cord and rotate the pruner a few times (so the cord is 3 or 4 times wrapped around the pole) and move around with it like that, then just unwrap the cord when cutting. Simple.

[David Goss]

Only time I ever have any problem is trying to cut something like beech that's at the max cutting size because it's as tough as hell but that's all. I love the way the head pivots so you can get real good cuts on any awkwardly positioned branches. I have never broken one because I take good care of my stuff and the only time I have seen one broken was because it was dropped onto a hard surface. As for cutting close to yourself then I just pull the tape on the outside, you don't need to only pull the handle. Also at full reach there is the ball at the end for pulling. All in all it's the best pruner I have ever used if used properly.

[Pedroski]

Yep, the pivoting head IS a good idea, and I hadn't thought about just pulling the tape when cutting close in. But despite taking care of it, and never dropping it out of a tree, the blade pivot still gave up after a few months of use. Mind you, work mate is a heavy handed burger! I guess for what we were using it for, it just wasn't up to the job. I might, though, give one another go.

[David Goss]

Maybe you just had a defective one or something? I have used the parot head types and to me the fiskars have almost if not the same pulling power, plus with the option to cut from pretty much any angle saves so much messing around trying to get into the right position. If I am doing a small pruning job I can usually just sit in the middle of the tree and do the whole job without having to move.

They do feel a bit plasticky (if that's a word) but they are tougher than they feel and make life that bit easier. Each to their own I suppose but that's the one for me.