Price. Tool quality varies widely. For most home gardening you won’t need the heavy-duty, expensive tools that commercial growers prefer, but cheaply made tools are no bargain.A few basic tools, well organized and conscientiously maintained, will handle most home pruning needs. Recently, manufacturers have succeeded in designing equipment that fits the hand with little effort or wrist strain, is comfortable to use, and has improved safety features.
Good news for left-handers and for gardeners with small hands: many pruning tools are available for your particular grip. You may have to hunt for them, however, or you can order them from a catalog.
Q What should I think about when I buy my pruning tools?
A Keep the following points in mind:
Price. Tool quality varies widely. For most home gardening you won’t need the heavy-duty, expensive tools that commercial growers prefer, but cheaply made tools are no bargain.
Feel. If possible, test how a tool feels in your hand before buying. Ask yourself: Is it too heavy, too light, too large, or too small? Squeeze it to see if it is comfortable for your hand, wrist, and arm.
Hand or power tool? Using power tools is a matter of personal preference. If you do lots of shearing and pruning, try electric hedge shears and power saws. People who love motors and expensive gadgets will also buy power equipment; those who prefer the economy and quiet of hand tools will prefer manual equipment.
Buy the right size tool for the job. Suit the handle length of pruners and loppers to the diameter of the stems you’ll be cutting. Longer handles give you more leverage and are thus better for cutting larger branches.
Advice. Ask gardening friends which tools they use, for what, and why.
Q What’s the best tool to carry when I’m walking around the garden and see a stray stem that needs trimming?
A Hand clippers, pruners, or snips, as they are variously called, work well for most small pruning jobs. Choose a quality product. Cheap ones don’t hold up well with repeated use and make uneven cuts. Hand pruners range from about 7 to 9 inches long and work on stems up to ¾ inch in diameter. They come in two styles: bypass and anvil.
If you want only one hand pruner, choose the bypass style. These scissors-type pruners allow a sharp blade to move past an edged blade. They are more flexible for garden use because they cut cleaner and can cut closer than the anvil in narrow branch angles. Keep the cutting blade extra sharp, because you will use this tool for final cuts that shape the plant and contribute to its well-being.
Anvil pruners crush the stem because they employ a sharp blade that hits squarely against a flat metal surface (an “anvil”). This is good for brush clearing, deadwood, and cutting up kindling. Use it where removal, not a clean cut, is your priority. You can also use anvil pruners to make preliminary cuts when doing fine pruning of shrubs and trees.
Q What do I use to trim branches that are too far inside a shrub to reach with hand pruners?
A If you have high shrubbery or fruit trees, you’ll also need loppers (two-handed pruners with long handles). They cut branches up to 1½ inches in diameter. Choose a well-made tool that won’t break on the heavier jobs. Some have compound levers for extra-heavy work, and you’ll find these especially useful for cutting brush or thinning out excessive growth, such as when taming an overgrown lilac. Long-handled loppers provide more leverage than do hand clippers.
WHEN TO CALL IN THE PROS
Pruning tall trees and large limbs is dangerous. If you have to use a heavy chain saw or a cherry picker or climb trees and tall ladders to remove branches, hire professionals to do the job.
Q How do I prune a branch in a tree without using a ladder?
A The hand pruner has also been developed into a pole pruner, incorporating a set of extensions that enable you to reach farther up into a tree. It cuts branches up to 1½ inches across. The blade is activated by pulling on a rope that, when released, allows the blade to return to its normal position by the action of a strong spring. Pole pruners are handy for a lot of high work, especially in places where the use of a ladder would be difficult or dangerous. Do not use them near power lines.
Q How do I maintain my tools from day to day?
A Here’s how:
Carry a rag in your pocket when gardening and wipe the blades of hand pruners after use.
After pruning, clean sticky sap and bits of bark or wood from saw blades and pruners.
If you use your tools on evergreens, regularly clean off the pitch deposits. A citrus solvent will do the trick.
After cleaning, apply an occasional drop of light motor oil or lubricating oil to the moving parts of pruners, loppers, hedge shears, and electric clippers to keep them operating well.
To keep saws and metal blades rust-free, wipe them with a soft cloth dipped in light oil before you put them away. Do this little chore without fail before you store the tools each winter.
Periodically take apart clippers and hedge shears to clean, sharpen, and oil.
Q After using my hand pruner, it gets dull and doesn’t cut well. Besides replacing the cutting blade, how can I keep my pruner sharp?
A Sharp tools make clean cuts that heal quickly. Keeping them in good condition is easy and well worth the effort. Sharpen your pruner’s blades with a grindstone, carborundum stone, whetstone, or steel file. Here’s how:
1. Take apart the tool with care, lining up parts in the order you remove them so that reassembly won’t baffle you. Wipe them off with a rag soaked in paint thinner, and then use a razor blade to scrape off any residue that remains.
2. Lubricate the sharpening stone with a light coating of oil. Affix the blade to the handle and, holding the partially reassembled tool at an angle, lay the beveled edge flat against the stone and pull it toward you. As you work, the edge should become even and shiny.
Q Do I need any special safety equipment when pruning?
A Yes, you should protect your hands, eyes, and head:
Wear heavy gloves to prevent blisters and to protect your hands. Gloves are also useful when you need to move heavy or thorny limbs or evergreen brush.
Wear plastic safety goggles to protect your eyes from sharp twigs, snapped-back branches, and flying debris.
Wear a hard hat or a motorcycle, snowmobile, or bike helmet for added protection when using pole pruners and when sawing off limbs over your head.
Although most pruning is not hazardous, it would be embarrassing to shift from performing surgery on a tree to having some performed on yourself. Keep the following safety pointers in mind:
Use only sharp tools, and use the right-size tool for the job. You’ll use less effort, and the resulting clean cuts on the plants will heal faster.
Use a ladder only for small trees, and only for light pruning. Make sure the ladder is stable and secure. Pruning from a ladder is dangerous and can lead to serious injury. Hire a professional arborist for tall trees and large limbs.
Avoid using electrical tools such as hedge clippers during or directly after rain. Wear rubber boots for insulation when the ground is even a little wet. Fiber-glass ladders are safer around electrical equipment than are those made of metal.
Never prune near electrical or utility wires. Contact your city, town, or utility company to do the job. Avoid using metal pole pruners or aluminum ladders anywhere near overhead power lines.
Q What kind of shoes should I wear when I climb a tree?
A Climbing large trees, especially to remove large limbs, is best left to professionals. But if you ever decide to climb a small fruit tree, choosing shoes with rubber or plastic soles is less harmful to the tree — and you — than climbing in leather ones that might slip. And, of course, never wear lineman’s spikes or hobnailed shoes while climbing a valuable tree; the sharp points could injure the bark.
Q I keep losing my pruning tools because I don’t know where they’re stored. How can I keep track of them when they’re not in use?
A Hang tools on a pegboard or plywood sheet with a drawing or outline to indicate which tool goes where. This organized system makes it easy to identify missing tools and helps to ensure that they won’t be left outside during a rain shower or overnight.
Before winter, it is important to store your tools properly so they will be in good shape for spring. Clean, sharpen, and oil all metal parts. Hang everything possible on nails or pegs on a wall. Never leave tools or equipment outdoors overnight or exposed to rain.
Q When should I use a saw?
A Use a pruning saw on any limb over ¾ inch in diameter. Heavy-duty, long-handled pruners, even those with compound levers, can squeeze the limb being cut, straining the tool and damaging the bark. For all heavy work, use a pruning saw.
Q There are so many saws for sale. Which type is best for pruning?
A For gardeners with light to average amounts of pruning, a curved-blade saw is versatile. Many gardeners prefer folding pull-stroke pruning saws because they’re easy to carry and easy to use. They are ideal for many garden jobs and come with blades ranging from 6 to 24 inches long. A 6-inch blade can typically prune a branch up to 2 inches in diameter. Or try a lightweight bow saw; it is fast, easy to use, and handy in a woodlot.
Carpenter’s saws are not effective on live wood, since they gum up and stick too much.
Q What is a pole saw? What do I use it for?
A A pole saw is long-handled tree saw. Pole saws give you extra reach to let you prune small to medium branches while standing securely on terra firma, but they can be slow and laborious to use.
Q Which is better, a fine-toothed saw or a coarse-toothed?
A Use a fine-toothed saw for smooth branches up to 2½ inches in diameter and a coarse-toothed saw for large limbs 3 inches or more across. You may want one of each if you do a lot of pruning. Or choose a saw with two edges, one with coarse teeth and the other with fine.
Q Can I use a chain saw to prune my trees and shrubs?
A Chain saws are useful for removing and cutting up entire trees and for sawing off large limbs, but most are designed more for cutting wood or lumber than for pruning. They tend to make rough cuts, and they’re difficult to control for precision work. Even if a chain saw is small, it is extremely easy to slash into the wrong limb, scar the trunk, or do other damage when you’re pruning a tree with limbs that are close together.
A chain saw is the most dangerous kind of pruning equipment. Both expert and amateur woodsmen have serious accidents while using them. Hiring a professional arborist is the best way to deal with major pruning, but if you choose to do otherwise, then be careful and follow these guidelines:
Wear plastic safety goggles to protect your eyes from sawdust and bits of debris.
Avoid making the type of cuts that pinch the saw or cause it to kick back.
Keep the saw a safe distance from your body at all times.
Do not use a chain saw while standing on a ladder.
Never use a chain saw when you’re tired.
Always keep your chain saw sharpened — a dull saw is dangerous. Unless you are trained in sharpening these tools, leave the job to an expert. You can usually find a sharpener by looking in local newspapers or the phone directory. Hardware stores sometimes offer this service.
Q Can I use the same tools for pruning and shearing?
A No. Shearing, a form of pruning, involves removing soft new growth in order to get a tree to grow into a certain shape. Shearing is done primarily to shape hedges or to develop formal or topiary shrubbery. Because shearing does not involve cutting heavy wood, you will need different equipment from what you use for regular pruning.
Q What’s my best choice for shearing a few bushes?
A Long-handled hedge shears are safe, durable, easy to control, and inexpensive. They suffice for most shearing jobs, are easily sharpened, and require little muscle power. Some are available with extra-long handles, making them especially good for high work such as reaching the top of a hedge.
Q What are the pros and cons of using a machete and knives to shear?
A Instead of hedge shears or electric clippers, some gardeners prefer to use a light, fast, thin-bladed machete called a shearing knife. It’s popular with Christmas-tree growers and foresters because it’s lightweight, easy, and fast to use. A shearing knife also has the advantage of being cheap, durable, and easy to keep sharpened. It is very useful on hedges, windbreaks, and overgrown thickets. Because the blade is long, this tool is not the best choice in close work, such as shearing miniature evergreens.
A major drawback is that a machete is hazardous. You must be extremely careful not to slice yourself. Professionals wear heavy gloves and leg guards or very thick pants. For safety’s sake, keep a pair of hand clippers or a sharpening stone in the left hand while shearing with the right (or the reverse if you’re left-handed) to avoid the dangerous temptation to hold up a limb in front of the knife. It sounds something like preventing a smashed thumb by holding the hammer in both hands while driving nails, but it works.
Follow these tips to stay safe when using gas-powered or electric-powered hedge shears:
Make sure that electrical tools have the Underwriters Laboratory Seal of Approval.
Be careful to keep blades away from your arms and legs when operating the tool.
Don’t let the cord get in the way while you’re working to avoid snipping it off with the shrubbery.
To prevent accidentally cutting the electrical cord, enclose the 2 feet nearest to the clippers in a piece of ½-inch plastic pipe, taping it in place so it won’t slip.
Keep shears well oiled at all times so that they run smoothly and don’t overheat.
Q Formal hedges surround my property. What should I use to prune them?
A For extensive hedge shearing, electric shears are worth the price. These shears or clippers vary from small, light, inexpensive models to the heavy-duty kind necessary for rugged work. Base your choice on what type of hedge you have. Small, lightweight models are suitable for most deciduous plants. Coarse-twigged evergreens need shears that open wide enough to make clean cuts.
Consider buying a cordless model. These come with rechargeable batteries that eliminate the nuisance of a long electrical cord.
