They are flimsy. You've got to be real careful with them. But, you can make them last. I've managed to nurse one along for a few years with some minor repairs and TLC.
However, for making those long distance 'by-the-book' clean, aligned, proper pruning cuts it's the bomb. And yes, use them while climbing.
They are great for reaching to tips and tops that are way too weak to climb to. They are light.
Reaching out horizontally 12 feet is no problem. Fiona's right, the saw that came with mine had to be a Fiskar joke.:roll. Gerber warrants to the consumer that this product will be free of defects, in material and workmanship for as long as you own the product. This warranty does not cover damage due to rust, accident, loss, improper use, abuse, negligence, or modification of or to any part of the product. Normal wear and tear is not covered under the warranty. If the product failed while being used as it was intended to be used, we will service under the warranty.
At Gerber's option, defective product will be repaired, replaced, or substituted with a product of equal value. If you feel that you are in a warranty situation, please complete the form below and a representative will contact you within 2 business days (but almost always much less!).
Devils advocate: They must be make like crap if you have had 8 in the past few years. I don't think that's necessarily the case. For what they are, they are AMAZING. I believe they did not plan for day-to-day tree workers to use them. When you cut with the angled head, making proper cuts is a snap. Not only that, the way it works (pulling the sleeve/collar rather than a rope) is just WAY more ergonomic.
Regular pole pruners are basically 1 handed. You ican i use your other hand to help, but sometimes you have to really reef on the rope and you have to hold the pole with one hand and pull the rope with the other. This tool is two hands all the time. But they were thinking that it would get used once a month for a few minutes then put back in the garage.
So if it's only $80/each and lets say I go through 3/year. That's $250 that at the end of the year, I'm not really going to notice. But to make a perfect cut almost every time.priceless.The pruner and the saw both cut well? The pruner cuts VERY well. I'm constantly surprised at what it can cut. It has limits (like any tool) and you'll learn what they are as you use them. It looks super cheesy.
I've never used it once. I have 3 of them sitting on a shelf if anyone wants it! It might cut well- I've just never tried. It sorta screws on to the shaft with built in c-clamps. I buy it purely for the pruner. What broke on yours?
For me it is either the webbing on the inside or the little black cord that actually pulls the cutter head. For whatever reason I decided last week to disassemble one and try to fix it.
It took HOURS to understand how it all works- but now that I do, I know I can do field repairs as needed! I replaced the black cord (that's what broke on the last one) with 2.2mm zing-it. I'm interested to see if It outlasts the black cord.
I think I've said this before, but I'm just completely blown away by how the internal mechanism works. Whoever figured this all out deserves an award. The angled head is the bee's knees for getting those correct cuts, light enough to climb with or send up and down as needed. Agreed.100% love nick. Little black cord that pulls the cutting head' doesn't yours have a short section of what looks like bicycle chain to pull the cutter.coming out of the top of the stick to the lever.? The sliding handle, the flat webbing, MUCH easier to use than a conventional rope pole pruner.and easier to wiggle it in between branches for a good cut. Used mine yesterday pruning fruit trees, super easy to get to the tips of some overgrown peaches, hardly any need for a ladder.
Unfortunately they are $188AUD here, so I have to take good care of it! Little black cord that pulls the cutting head' doesn't yours have a short section of what looks like bicycle chain to pull the cutter.coming out of the top of the stick to the lever.? Yes, but if you look close, inside the cutter head there is a black string, maybe 1/8' diameter that is mostly responsible for the pivoting of the cutter head.
You can see part of it in the pic. If you take the cutter head apart, you realize it's all about the string. The string is the connection between the chain and the webbing. Ive had a couple nick, and when they broke (always the black string) I simply brought it to home slepot and they said go grab another one. No paper work, no hassles, home slepot honored the lifetime gurantee! I tried to replace the black string with zing it, only its held in place with a stopper knot.
That eventually pulled through, and after the hours it took to understand and fix it the first time, I said screw it and brought it in to be swapped out. Home slepot has replaced every fiskar tool that I have ever bought and broken.
Oh, I play that game. I fully believe that even though I use these things regularly, they should not be breaking as often as they do.
Around here home depot wont take it back after 90 days, but they rarely last that long. So the one I just posted a pic of.it wasn't even 1 month old! And we don't have the crew working every day, so really it only had 8-10 days of actual use. That got swapped out.
I'm probably up to 15 or so that we've gone through in the last year. That's just about 1 or so per month and $80 each for our favorite cutting tool? Money well spent, if you ask me.
I'm just waiting for a high strength pro version made of carbon fiber.and it syncs with my iPhone. Today I came home to this crazy long box sitting on the doorstep. I opened it up and found 3 Fiskars pole pruners inside!
A few weeks ago I was asked by Organic Gardening Magazine to do a 15 minute pruning demo/class for one of their sponsors.Fiskars! They offered to pay me for my time. I asked for a couple of pruning stiks instead and they obliged. Well enough time had gone by where I thought they either forgot about me or bamboozled me.but last week I got an email from the lady that set it up and today the goods arrived! Now let's see how long they last. Why not just buy a Marvin Nick?
Then itll never ever break and you can cut big ol branches of with em, throw them from the top of trees(Ive gotta a bit of a temper when its 105 out, sorry, didnt say they were perfect.lol), whatever, them things are tuff with a capital T. Every other pruner I have ever used has not even come close to the durability and utility of the Marvins. IIRC there is a competitors brand that is essentially the same as the marvins but the name escapes me right now. They are not fancy, they have no gimmicks, they just work, forever, we have a couple that are approaching twenty years of service with hardly a hickup. Never even replaced the rope. IIRC we have had to sharpen them a couple of times, I think one of them needed a new pulley at one point, again not perfect, but twenty years, you do the math on how many Fiskars I would have had to have bought probably in the hundreds. As for extension, its not easy but Ive used a 24 foot Marvin before, all of four extensions, 6 ft each, TONS of flex but got the branch off.
Marvins just keep cutting. We use the dielectric poles becasue I clear ROW(all tool that may encroach on our Limits of Approach must be non conductive, LOA is how close we can get to the wires when working, I think its called something different stateside, Im in Canada) have to be tested for non conductivity once a year) so, in all honesty, I think they are a bit tougher than the regualr as they are solid core. The fiskars wouldnt survive a day in the ROW enviroment, first time it was stepped on it be broke in half, rendered useless. You can drive over Marvins, I have done it, the cutting mechanism is built like it should be, tough, and SIMPLE, should anything ever happen, chances are I can repair it in the field, they are just very simple time proven work horses. Not trying to hate on your thread Nick, you are a super hekpful guy, theres just no reason for me to want to do that, but?? Have you ever tried a Marvin, with the bull pruner head, if not you really should try too, youll only have to ever buy one of them, unless of course you like it so much you just gotta have more of em.
Peace, and be safe. Why not just buy a Marvin Nick? Do they make one with a pivoting cutter head and that DOESN'T have a rope hanging off it? This thing is just EASIER to use. There's no bones about it. And it's the perfect size for the work we do. Every time I used 'normal' pole pruners (which is what every other tree service I've ever worked for carried.and there have been about 7 of them).
I hated them. They were too heavy and too clumsy for me. I never felt like I could make a half decent cut with them.
And the whole business of having to hold the pole with one hand and the rope with the other- it just seemed awkward and not thought out. So though the pruning stik is not made robustly enough to supremely rock my world, I doubt I'll ever switch to what everyone else is using. I'll happily replace these things even if I gotta buy a new one every month.
And no offense taken. I know they are not for everyone. I'm just super picky! Ok, if you guys are muscling around huge big ass trees then go for your marvin whatevers. But for precision pruning out on tips NOT whacking off great lumps of wood, the Fiskars is invaluable.
Nick might have broken nine of them, I'm still going on mine five years in with minor adjustments. Tip pruning and thinning elms, poinciana, avocado, golden shower, callophylum.30-50'.fantastic tool. My marvin makes precision cuts on small wood. In fact it doesn't really make huge cuts on huge big ass trees.
Its just built to handle the wear and tear of a life of tree work. Do they make one with a pivoting cutter head and that DOESN'T have a rope hanging off it? This thing is just EASIER to use. There's no bones about it. And it's the perfect size for the work we do.
Every time I used 'normal' pole pruners (which is what every other tree service I've ever worked for carried.and there have been about 7 of them). Download template id card. I hated them. They were too heavy and too clumsy for me. I never felt like I could make a half decent cut with them. And the whole business of having to hold the pole with one hand and the rope with the other- it just seemed awkward and not thought out. So though the pruning stik is not made robustly enough to supremely rock my world, I doubt I'll ever switch to what everyone else is using.
I'll happily replace these things even if I gotta buy a new one every month. And no offense taken. I know they are not for everyone. I'm just super picky! Love nick You seem to have found a tool that works for you.
Cant really argue that if your happy with it. And the Marvins are bloody heavy and not really suited for the finer pruning so on those points I gotta agree with you.
Im whacking branches off trees in a ROW, 95% of the time, so the odd ugly cut is not the end of the world, and we accept that for the enviroment we work in. Now if we are in someone front yard, we obviously use a different skillset and prune appropriatley. Out on the ROW the Marvins are king. Stay safe all.
So you're saying that you'll go ahead and make the less than perfect cut from where you are, or you'll move to another part of the tree to get the right angle? I know you're not saying your cuts are perfect no matter where you are in the tree all the time!
Either way, you're spending money by spending more time in the tree. I'm spending more at home depot. I think it all comes out in the wash. As long as Home Depot keeps refunding me my money when they break prematurely, you won't hear me complaining! I work a prune with strategy. If I cant get it at the angle I want from where Im at, I revisit the cut from my next position.
Hey, if the tool works for you, that's money in the bank. I have to be cautious about the durability of what I buy. Other guys use the stuff. As much as I like to think they treat my gear as well, as I do, its simply never the case. Tools get moved from truck to truck, around the job, in and out of the garage, and up and down the tree.
I simply have no choice but to make sure I buy stuff that is pro grade. Now, rewind a bunch of years to when I was a one man band, Id buy it to try, knowing that I could ensure it got handled gently. Im talking about changing the orientation of the blade to the collar by moving the branch rather than moving the pruner. If i need to make a cut say, and the stem is facing out and away from my position, i hook the intended stem as close to the collar as i can and then pull the whole branch around till the stem is 90 deg to the blade. If the stem is too big to bend then it is usually big enough to get with a handsaw or from my next work position.
On thinning jobs i almost never even use a pole pruner nowadays. Most of our jobs are monterey cypress or coast live oak.
Both of which are very easy to get around in (esp with the HH!). Plus i have a 6'6' arm span and a 16' handsaw;). Truth be told, I don't really use a pole pruner much. More polesaw use then anything. I get some ornamental prunings here and there, but more of my pruning is trees larger then what can be done from the ground.
I wish I could sell more ornamental work. Hour for hour, pound for pound, the profit is better for me. I have tried and tried to sell it, and now and again I do. But around here, people prefer their ornamental trees be handled with a set of hedge trimmers, and I don't do that. They want ornamentals groomed into a perfectly round ball.
For what it's worth, I think Fiskars has cheapened the design to cut costs. I've noticed some if the levers for the adjusters are flimsier.
And in the past few months we've noticed a marked reduction in how long they are lasting on the jobsite. Right now it's no skin off my back. I am usually going to Home Depot once a month for this or that anyway- so I just take the broken pruners with me as keep swapping them out. As long as they keep honoring the 90 day return policy, I don't care how long they last. I love these things. You got a point! I only remember once or twice ever sharpening them!
Recent failures include: 1- Blade snapped - this happens in like 10% of our failures. It's pretty rare 2- Internal mechanisms of pivoting head failing- not the pivoting part- but the pulley stuff on the inside that transfers your pulling power into a cutting motion. This is the most common failure for us. It happens randomly it seems. Id say 70-90% of our failures are from this. 3- Chain link failure- this happens rarely. It's a short piece of chain up by the cutter head.
Maybe 5-10-% of failures are from this. 4- Fiberglass splitting lengthwise- only had this happen once to a brand new pole. And I know why it happened. There is a plastic screw on ferrule where the fiberglass and aluminum meet in the middle. Those bolts were not tightened properly at the factory so the ferrule slipped up and the end of the fiberglass got flexed with the weight. 5- general disfunction: nothing broke, but things aren't working any more. Like the spring isn't strong enough to open the blade, the webbing constantly gets jammed under the lock lever- stuff like that.
If I can't figure out how to fix it in ten minutes, I take it back to Home Depot. Again- this one is rare.
Usually things just straight up break. I'd never recommend this for general tree guy use, but there is nothing else on the market that is as versatile AND light.
Fiskars Pruning Stik Manual
And a pivoting head? Who else has that? That corona one is too short. Less than 6'. The Fiskars extends to 12' Yesterday I got 2 more of the Fiskars- free exchanges from Home Depot. I've been noticing changes in the design.
Things are getting flimsier and I'm noticing that they aren't lasting as long. I'm gonna etch the date into these two. They should last a lot longer.
I just bought a 10' adjustable ARS one. I've had a 6' one for like 4 yrs. Never sharpened it. Works like a champ. I ordered this one: the 6-10 footer with pivoting head. $135 (vs $80 for the fiskars) but if it lasts more than 2 months it'll be well worth it. It gets here next week.but there is nothing else on the market that is as versatile AND light.
And a pivoting head? Who else has that? I ordered this one: the 6-10 footer with pivoting head. $135 (vs $80 for the fiskars) but if it lasts more than 2 months it'll be well worth it. I havent used the fiskars but I have that 6-10' ARS. Its a fantastic tool.
Its really ingenuitive and for light detail work its unmatched. HOWEVER you still need a standard pruner, the ARS is. Just brought 2 more to Home Depot for swapping.
Same prob on both of them- jammed in a mostly-shut fashion like this: 49325 Both were put into service on 6/26. Didn't get 2 months out of 2 of them and we haven't been using them that much lately- doing a few removals and lots of handsaw works, soooo.
Love nick I saw your post and thought: 'When's that gonna happen to me?' So, it happened today and I thought: 'Dayum, Nick.:lol:' Anyway. When I got home, I took it apart.
Apparently if the nut in the orange locking lever gets too loose the cord can jam under internal drum. Rewound the cord. Back together. Good to go.:) I HOPE.:.
Devils advocate: They must be make like crap if you have had 8 in the past few years. Marvins are easy to replace parts when needed and they literally last for decades. Does the different angle help you guys make difficult cuts easier? Do you guys use them while climbing? They must be light then. You got that right.
Complete garbage. And the pruning hook needs to be set just right, or it leaves a small stub, or worse, tears. This pruner is perfect for the homeowner who's only going to use it once a year and doesn't mind the crappy scarring left on the callus roll. My buddy had gone thru three within a few years before I kicked him down my old Marvin fiberglass pole pruners. Spend a few dollars more the first time, to avoid spending less -multiple times. Just to catch you up to speed, I do not buy this whole printer to avoid the expense of getting a proper pruner. In fact I'm sure I spend more per year in pole pruners then many of you guys combined!
Ha ha I prefer this tool because there is no tool on the market that allows you to adjust the cutting head to make a perfect cut on every cut. That means a lot to me and my clients. There is no way around this. And as soon as someone comes out with a better tool for the job, I really do not care the price, I will purchase that tool. But until that day, I'll tolerate the Stik love nick. I did two fruit trees at all sorta of crazy angles (leaving a couple bad cuts out of 100, maybe, and they're my trees).
I have another to do tomorrow at home, and try it on some plum (dense) suckers. Didn't leave the ground.
The cherry was at max extension. I did make a point to sharpen the blade before use today. Well worth it. I don't know if the blade was banging on other tools in the box or what. I think about getting a second for fruit trees. So much less ladder work!!!
This will be true on all of our repeat fruit tree customers (Feb/ March work).
Comfort Grip, Curved, Fiskars Pruning Stik Extendable Tree Pruner (8' to 12'). Our versatile, resists rust and cuts smoothl.y Included 15' WoodZig saw blade powers through thicker branches. Quick-release thumb lock provides easy adjustment of the cutting head angle.
Lightweight aluminum pole weighs less than five pounds to minimize fatigue during extended use. Replacement saw blade available (item no. Black., rope-free tree pruner extends up to 12 feet to take down high branches without a ladder or make low cuts without kneeling or bending. Ideal for pruning high branches and reaching tight spaces. Rope-free design gives you two-handed control and eliminates snags and tangles. Power-Stroke chain-drive gearing provides maximum cutting power.
Actuating ball at the end of the pole lets you extend your reach even further. Cutting head rotates up to 230 degrees to prune and saw at tough angles. Fully hardened steel pruning blade with non-stick coating stays sharp, Lifetime Warranty, Rope-free design, ExtendableTree Pruning Stik, Replaceable Blade, Power Stroke cutting, Cutting Head rotates 230 degrees, Ropeless, easy-to-grip sliding handle, Outdoor, Lightweight, Coated.
How do you prune branches and limbs that are just out of reach that would either require a ladder or a full-fledged extendable pole pruner to get the job done? Or conversely, how would you reach into a shrub and prune it to ground level? Traditional methods, such as using a ladder, can make for unstable and potentially unsafe pruning (without the proper arborist safety equipment), and extendable pole pruners are sometimes heavy/awkward and have exterior ropes that can get hung-up in tree branches or brushy shrubs. I tested an intermediary product from Fiskars that reaches pruning area that are somewhere between 7’ and 10’ off the ground, and on or near the ground (so that you don’t have to bend over or kneel to make the cut). It has a rotating and locking cutting head, is “ropeless,” and should cut through wood up to 1.25-inches in diameter. About Fixed Length Pruners (Stick-Style) Short, stick-style pruners typically range in length from 5’- 6’ and are an excellent way to make pruning cuts when you physically can’t reach the pruning site. Design Fixed length, short stick pruners usually come in two designs: a fixed shaft with an adjustable cutting head, or a fixed cutting head with blades that can be rotated by spinning the pruning shaft.
Fiskars has adopted the first design. Some variants on design include two handles on a single aluminum tube (one in the center of the tube, and one at the end). And others are a squeeze-handle at the end opposite the cutting head. It comes down to personal choice on whatever works best for the individual and application. Caution Virtually all stick-style pruners are constructed with an aluminum shaft to reduce the weight. A cautionary note, aluminum is an excellent conductor of electricity, so an aluminum stick pruner should never be used around power lines.
Cutting Head Cutting heads may have an exposed spring to draw the cutting blade back into the open position once the pruning cut is finished. Other models have these same kinds of spring mechanisms built inside the aluminum shaft, cutting head, or handle at the opposite end of the pruner’s cutting blades. Most, if not all, have a bypass cutting head, much like the type you see on hand pruners and loppers. Blade Operation These types of shorter designs either incorporate a rope, nylon strap (also known as webbing), or a metal shaft to operate the blades. And virtually all the blade activation pulling mechanisms are incorporated inside the aluminum tube to eliminate exterior ropes, webbing or rods from getting stuck in whatever you’re trying to prune. Recommended Uses Like all tools, these shorter, fixed length pruners have a specific use.
They’re great for pruning above your head (when a ladder is unnecessary), reaching into areas that are hard to get to, eliminating scratches and pokes by thorny plants, and making cuts without kneeling or excessive bending at the knees or waist. Fiskars Pruning Stik in use Handles on the Fiskars Pruning Stik The Fiskars Pruning Stik Tree Pruner (ropeless) has an aluminum shaft that employs a plastic pull handle at the mid-section of the shaft and a plastic ball at the end of the pole (both for activating the cutting blade mechanism). The handle is a comfortable tubular design that’s flared at the end closest to you. The flare is treated with a rubberized compound that made for an even better grip and stronger pulling power.
I found this particularly useful when cutting through really hard wood. One really nice feature of this handle is that the nylon webbing that acts as the pulling mechanism to activate the blades emanates from the handle area.
The design lets you micro-adjust the tension of the nylon webbing. Most webbing (and rope) materials will stretch over time. This is particularly true if you pull really hard when making pruning cuts. As the webbing stretches, it’s vital to be able to take the slack out of the pulling system. Fiskars’ unique nylon webbing design allows you to do this easily and quickly.
And despite the fact that some extra webbing (about 4”) hung from the handle, I found that it never got stuck or tangled on any of the materials I was pruning. The mid-shaft pull handle and rubberized grip make the pruner easy to hold and is perfectly positioned at the middle of the aluminum shaft for shorter pruning cuts.
Is It Really “Ropeless”? Fiskars’ packaging highlights the word “ropeless”. Most of the interior pulling mechanism IS ropeless and uses nylon webbing. However, there is rope in the adjustable cutting head. I believe that rope must be used in this area as the nylon webbing would likely kink and cause binding, thereby rendering the cutting head inoperable. That said, the majority of the pulling mechanism is indeed “ropeless” and lives up to its advertising claim.
The blade closing material (a small rope) was neatly incorporated into the cutting head and never came loose, even when I was pruning in some incredibly dense brush. This was also true of the spring that kept the cutting blade in the open position when not in use. It never loosened or came off even when I jammed it into a shrub to make cuts that would be very difficult with a pair of hand pruners or loppers. Most of the Pruning Stik incorporates nylon webbing, but the cutting head uses a piece of rope to help eliminate the potential binding of the webbing. Sharperbrain program. Locking Mechanism I liked the thumb activated locking mechanism for the cutting head. It’s located right at the point where the cutting head bends.
Just loosen it, move the cutting head/blades into the position you want, and tighten the lock. I really put the tool through some brutal cutting tasks and the head stayed put. I attributed this to the superior locking feature.
The orange thumb lock was not only highly visible, but it I could feel the locking mechanism tighten the head into a fixed position. The “feel” of locking the head was distinct, as was the loosening of the lever. In both cases, I knew if the head was locked or not, even without looking at the icons on the head. The cutting head locking mechanism was extremely well designed. It never loosened up, even when pruning in the densest of pruning areas. Making the Cut The Puning Stik incorporates an “Activating Ball” (Fiskars-speak for a round plastic ball) at the end of the pole opposite the cutting head. It allows you to hold the pruner at arms length while pulling the ball with one hand, thereby activating the cutting head mechanism.
As a result, you can make pruning cuts farther away. The “Activation Ball” was easy to grasp and had a molded plastic tapered tube that slid into a rectangular plastic fitting in the pole shaft.
This kept the ball in place and also kept if from banging around. An easy-to-grasp ball at the end of the Pruning Stik to make those longer pruning cuts. Cutting The Pruning Stik made very nice cuts in live wood, especially in the ½” to 1” range. Although it’s rated to cut wood up to 1 ¼” in diameter, I found that at that diameter the handle or activation ball was hard to pull and cuts tended to be ragged. Then again, this is true with most of the pruners and loppers I’ve tried so far, where the maximum cutting diameter puts adverse stress on the tool and often results in messy cuts. The Pruning Stik excelled in that middle ground, where a pair of hand pruners would be too small and loppers too big.
In my test, I found that the cleanest pruning cuts were made when the non-cutting blade (also known as the “counter blade”) was on the top of the limb/branch and the cutting blade on the bottom. Maximum diameter cuts taxed the pruner and often made ragged cuts. But this is true for most pruners and loppers when they are asked to cut material at the limits of their pruning range. Blade Spread When Cutting Deadwood Another thing I discovered about the Pruning Stik is “blade- spread.” It happens primarily when cutting deadwood, especially when cutting on an angle. The piece of the deadwood spreads the blades apart and gets caught between the blades, resulting in the blades getting stuck in the closed position with the two blades held apart by the wood. Then again, this isn’t an issue specifically related to the Pruning Stik.
Bypass pruners and loppers are best used with live wood, rather than deadwood, and we’ve seen this issue with most of the bypass cutting blades we’ve tested here at the Gardening Products Review. The best solution is to use an anvil pruner instead.
Blade spread while cutting through deadwood. This happens to virtually all types of bypass pruners/loppers at one time. Rotational Cutting Head One of the most outstanding design features was the rotational cutting head that folds over in both directions. In one direction it bent 180 degrees and in the other 60 degrees, making for an impressive 240 degrees of head rotation.
The locking mechanism keeps the cutting head in whatever position you place it. This let me angle the head for literally any cutting position I needed. I found that the 60 degree “off-center” provided additional flexibility when pruning shrubs to the ground and kept the cutting blades out of the dirt. The 180 degree rotational head made for easy transport and storage by keeping the sharp blades tucked against the shaft.
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Its full range of motion from 0 degrees to 180 degrees made it ideal for adjusting the angle to make proper pruning cuts. Potential Problem With Older Models So, lots of good stuff for sure, but here’s where I ran into a problem. After several hours of pruning, I then used the Pruning Stik to cut some shrubs to ground level. When I forced the cutting head into a thickly branched shrub and pulled the “Activation Ball,” nothing happened. Puzzled, I pulled the head out of the shrub only to find that the quick-link (just like a bicycle chain) had been dislodged by the dense brush.
Literally, a chain link had fallen out of the “Power-Stroke” (another Fiskars trademarked name) chain drive that is attached to the cutting head. I discovered that the retaining clip that holds the two sections of steel bicycle-style chain together easily slipped off, rendering the pruner inoperable. Cutting in dense brush, where the old style quick-link chain link met with problems. When I called Fiskars to explain the problem, they sent me a replacement unit immediately. This replacement unit used a different chain link to secure the Power-Stroke chain to the pruning blade and it worked flawlessly – there’s no way that chain is going to fall apart. So if you buy a Fiskars Pruning Stik, which chain link will you end up with? Fiskars confirmed for me that this new linkage system is what’s currently being manufactured.
There may still be some of the older models on the shelf at home improvement store or garden centers, but Fiskars confirmed that any old style linkages (using retaining clips) are covered under the Fiskars warrantee and will either be replaced with the new style chain link or the whole Pruning Stik will be replaced (at Fiskars’ discretion). I have to give Fiskars’ customer service and product development folks a heck of a lot of credit for listening to my feedback and responding so quickly. The new chain link design is already in production at the manufacturer. I experienced no problems.
It worked flawlessly! Blades and Replacement Parts I found that the cutting blade was extremely sharp and stayed that way after hundreds of cuts in both live and dead wood. By the time I had finished my testing, the blade was as sharp as when it came out of the original packaging. Hard to believe, but true. Fiskars claims that they employ, “fully hardened, precision-ground steel blades that stay sharp, even through heavy use”.
I can certainly attest to the fact that they do indeed stay sharp through heavy use. Having said that, it’s still important to sharpen the blade from time to time to maintain blade sharpness. The duller the blade, the more risk for improper cuts. It also takes more physical strength to pull the handle or “Activation Ball” when blades are dull. Be aware that if you do sharpen the blades, the blades are no longer covered under the warranty. If you’re unable to or uncertain about sharpening pruner blades, Fiskars offers a replacement blade kit for $12.99 plus shipping. If the cutting head is damaged, they also offer a complete replacement head assembly for $17.99 plus shipping.
Both can be found. Low Friction Coating Really Works Fiskars also claims that the blades are coated with a “low friction” coating that helps prevent the blades from gumming up and sticking together between cuts.
I couldn’t evaluate the coating itself but I was impressed as I cut my way through a lot of Brittle Bush. This shrub (native to the Southwest) exudes a really nasty, gummy, sticky sap after each pruning cut (sort of the consistency of wood glue). The Pruning Stik had no problem slicing through this material without binding.
Weight This cool tool weights less than 2 lbs. I weighed mine to check and it weighed exactly 1 lb. I found it very light and easy to work with. Its power to weight ratio was excellent. And when hauling this baby miles into the wilderness to prune hiking trails, weight really matters. I strapped it to my backpack and hardly knew it was there. Recommendation I have to admit, this is one of my favorite short stick-style pruners.
It’s strong, nimble, lightweight, makes precision cuts and held up to most of the toughest pruning I could put it through. I really liked the locking pruning head; it stayed put and gave me a great deal of flexibility whether pruning above my head or at ground level. The blades stayed factory sharp, the cutting head spring stayed in place, the “Activation Ball” and center of the stick handle were perfectly placed and designed, and the range of motion of the cutting head was awesome. All in all a great tool. Where to Buy The Fiskars Pruning Stik can be purchased online through the Fiskars website, as well as in hardware store such as Home Depot and True Value. The retail price is $49.99 (shipping charges may apply). Or if you prefer, you can.
Now over to you – What’s the most effective stick-style pruning tool you’ve tried? Let us know in the comments below! If you liked this review, please with reviews, special offers and giveaways. Related Reviews.
Best Loppers for Pruning Disclaimer – GPReview would like to thank Fiskars for giving us a free pruning stick to review. There was no expectation that it would be a positive review and we received no compensation for writing it. All opinions expressed here are those of the author based on personal experience using the product.
Please note that the Amazon links (and only the Amazon links) above are affiliate links. Should you choose to purchase products through these links, GPReview will make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) that helps to support this website and our gardening product reviews.
We don’t recommend that homeowners work within 10 feet of any power lines. If you need to prune anything closer to a power line of any kind, it’s best to hire a professional arborist with electrical hazard training.
If you’ll be doing it yourself (and outside the 10 foot distance), you can find fiberglass poles that have been tested to show that they don’t conduct electricity. Generally, you’ll have to buy the pole separately from the cutting head. You’ll find these kinds of tools at arborist supply outlets (I wouldn’t buy it from a big box store).
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