Spear & Jackson 4930FZ/09 Razorsharp Telescopic Tree Pruner

Product Information

Unless you want a workout, sore arms and painful shoulders, I suggest you buy lightweight pruners if possible. Holding a heavy pole above your head isn’t an issue if you do it once but could be painful and awkward if you’re doing it all day. 4) Consider a telescopic pruner with a saw attachment The pole is very easy to extend to a maximum of 3 m, making this tool suitable for taller trees. The blade can be removed from the handle if you want to use it for handheld pruning. With an adjustable handle that can extend from 2.4 – 4 m, this pruner is the longest model featured on this list, and one of the best telescopic tree pruners for reaching higher branches in treetops. Combined with arms-reach, it will be able to access branches approximately 5 – 6 m high. Remember that the further the pruner is extended, the harder it’ll be to control and use safely. Therefore, it’s best to only extend the pruner as far as necessary, depending on the job.

It doesn’t have a gearing or ratchet system, so you must use brute force to cut through branches. I’m quite strong, but after prolonged use, even my arms got tired. While the initial testing period was four days. The Gardena Starcut 410 has been used several times since and as of February 27th 2023, there are no issues to report. The presence of a motor increases its weight, so it’s not the lightest pruner at 3.8 kg, but there is a shoulder included to help make it more manageable. Whilst the strap does help to some extent, using the RPP750S still requires a fair amount of upper body strength. They come with a 330 mm saw which gives the user extra cutting power on larger branches, although it’s worth noting that this saw is a little weak and not particularly effective. The saw also occasionally gets caught on branches and needs to be removed. Of note is how easily the blades chopped through the branches; I didn’t need to use much strength due to the gearing system, which increases the pressure on the wood by a factor of twelve.

Razorsharp Lightweight Telescopic Tree Pruner

Manufacturers often overstate how high you can safely prune branches and while I’m 6ft2 and with a long reach, I was unable to reach any of the stated heights, even when I was standing on my toes! I suggest you look at the extended length of the pole rather than the “up to” cutting height, which is an estimate. 2) Only choose a cheap product for occasional use, they aren’t built to the same quality One small criticism would be with the number of plastic components on the pruners. Both the extender mechanism, and the cutting head angle adjuster, are plastic, which seems less durable than if all the important parts were made from metal.

When the extension pole is in position, this pruner can be harder to manage because the motor (and therefore the majority of the weight) is at the far end of the pole. They are also fairly comfortable to hold, although noticeably less strong when fully extended. There’s a comfortable non-slip foam grip at the end and in the middle of the handle, so it can be operated with two hands. It’s easy enough to find effective pruners that weigh less than 1 kg. Lightweight telescopic pruners are easier to manage and don’t feel too unwieldy. Given that telescopic pruners are often quite long, they can feel sometimes feel unbalanced – for this reason, it helps if they’re light. Heavier pruners can still be manageable, but you should consider whether you have sufficient upper body strength. Heavier pruners should be used with a shoulder strap for support. Whether you need to prune roses, or cut high-reaching bamboo canes, the Garten Primus Rose Cavalier Pruner makes it easy to do all the jobs around the garden without requiring multiple tools.

Razorsharp Advantage Telescopic Tree Pruner

Nevertheless, weighing just under 1 kg, it’s one of the best telescopic tree pruners in terms of manageability; not only because it’s easy to hold, but also because it’s well balanced and allows good control whilst pruning. With a blade that cuts and holds whatever gets pruned, the ARS 160ZP Long Reach Pruner is great for dead-heading, manicuring and harvesting. Instead of instantly dropping the pruned material on the spot, where it will never be found again, the blades allow you to have more control over where it will be placed. One other issue is that the cord isn’t quite long enough when the handle is at full extension, so you may need to lengthen it if you’re regularly pruning at full extension. I’ve used the Gardena Starcut 410 Plus lopper to cut many hundreds of branches on trees and tall shrubs in 2022, and overall, I’m delighted with the tool’s performance.

The handle extends from 1.37 m to 2.5 m, so you can neaten up hedges as well as tall trees. Weighing just 1 kg in total, it’s easy to use these pruners comfortably for long periods of time. Manual tree pruners are best if you’ll be cutting lots of fresh, live stems and branches . We’re talking bushes, hedges and young trees. In most instances, I recommend looking for pruners that have a cutting diameter of around 2.5cm – this will be suitable for most domestic pruning jobs. It’s lightweight at only 2.1kg (4.6lbs), which is important as I recently spent the best part of two whole days pruning dozens of trees and bushes. I’ve seen competing products that weigh double and even triple this and I can only imagine how much arm ache the user would experience! The internal rope pully system is what assists with closing the blades and causes them to cut. Instead of a squeeze handle, which is what many other tree pruners have, this method is easier on the hands. It’s quite a revolutionary way of cutting, and sets the Fiskars pruners apart from others on the market. They’re chrome-plated and made from carbon steel, resulting in a high-quality tool that can comfortably cut branches up to 6 mm. In some instances, the blades can cut up to 10 mm. The pole is extendable from 130 cm to 200 cm, and is suitable for both mid-range pruning, and cutting higher up.To make it easier to cut stems that are in awkward positions, the top section of the pruner can be adjusted through different angles. It’s therefore simpler to reach specific branches and stems. The cutting head also rotates, to help create precise, well-positioned cuts. The tool has two handles which activate the cutting blades, and I found myself using the one at the end of the pole for higher branches and the sliding handle on the shaft of the pole for the lower branches. It’s a good quality machine, and comes in three separate pieces to allow the length to be adjusted. The handle attaches to the end of one section, the saw to the end of the other, and then there is an additional extension piece. This pruner can be used without the extension, and will measure approximately 1.8 m, or with the extension, measuring 2.7 m. There are also pruners on the market which extend further, up to 4m, and are ideal for taller trees. The Fiskars Pruner was selected as an alternative as it’s very similar with only subtle differences.

Instead of allowing free adjustability between its lengths, you can only one of three positions: no extension, half extended or fully extended. Therefore, there are some limitations.

Razorsharp Telescopic Super Long Reach Cutter

It only extends to 2.34m (7.64ft), and the average user will only be able to reach around 4m (13ft), which might not suit every garden. The blade is made from alloy steel and has sharp, solid serrations. There’s 4 cutting angles to choose from depending on what you are cutting and at what height. There’s no bypass mechanism. Instead, the branch is held in place while the two-way blade produces a smooth and clean cut. I liked the fact that the pullies and mechanisms were all internal. I’ve used loppers before where the rope has got tangled or frayed and the mechanism dusty and dirty; this won’t happen with this tool. For shorter trees and bushes, look for telescopic tree pruners with a maximum extension length of around 2m, and a shorter setting closer to 1m . These heights will provide sufficient versatility without requiring the use of a ladder.