Customer Reviews

Fiskars 9234 62-Inch Pruning Stik

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This pruning stick is the best thing to come along in a long time. I had been trying to figure out how to prune our big Rhododendron bush without ruining its shape, but no matter how I tried, I just couldn't get at the top. This stick allows selective pruning while on a ladder or from the ground. It is lightweight and comfortable to handle. Definitely well worth the price.

I can't say enough good things about this tool. I've been through traditional "pole pruners", but this is the next generation. It's strong and sturdy. This pruner uses kind of an internal chain (like a bike chain) rather than a rope, as is used on a traditional pruner. You won't fight a streching cord while cutting, you'll have the strength and stability of the chain. It also has two handles for cutting. The obvious pole handle, but also a knob at the end of the stick that pulls out of the handle and allows cutting. It provides added reach. If you need a pole pruner, this is the best I've seen...any other pruner is just a waste compared to this one.

At 5'3", I've always had trouble pruning trees and bushes that were just out of my reach. Standing on a step-stool in the garden not only was inconvenient, but not very safe, either. Now that I am 55, my hands are beginning to show the effects of arthritis, too.

I read about this pruning device in one of my gardening magazines and decided it was worth a try. WOW! What a pruner!

Not only does it allow me to prune branches up to 1-1/4" in diameter that are out of my reach, the mechanism doesn't hurt my hands, either. What a smooth and effortless cut!

I would recommend this lifesaver to anyone who is seeking a better solution to what seems like a full-time garden job.

I had a cable driven long pruner, and besides the fact that it ... near broke my hand to clip a large branch with it, the thing was fragile. I used to live on nearly and acre of property with a row of pines along the back. They would get all brown near the bottom so I would try and prune them up to about the point where they could get enough sun to stay green. To do that you need a pruner with a little reach to it?

I saw this model on TV and hunted it down, finding it first on Amazon. I could barely believe the price quoted on the TV show, (it wasn't a commercial, it was a how-to show) they said the stick only cost about [$$$]. Its not quite that cheap, but the quality here is excellent. It uses a chain, not unlike a bike chain, to drive the extended cutter. It uses a slider, leverage system to pull the chain to make the cuts. The cutting blades themselves are very sharp and can be adjusted to any angle. This becomes an important concern when you have about a dozen pine trees to trip.

The stick will also do fine when you don't need the extended length. Remember those hedge trimmers that looked like a huge pair of scissors? I used to hurt my wrists every year, trying to get enough momentum to trim the bushes in front of the house I was renting. If you tried to cut too, slow it would get stuck, too fast, and the handles would stop abruptly hurting my wrists! This cutter, although smaller than a hedge trimmer, cut so quick and easily that it made trimming the bushes a pleasure. I could even get lazy, and sit down in a chair, and do them from a distance. Try that with your electric model! The bushes never shaped up so well before.

The blades will cut close to a one-inch branch, and I haven't had to sharpen it yet. Just keep the chain free of dirt, and keep a little mower oil on it, or cycle spray and it continues to work like new. Sometimes they just make a tool that becomes the defacto standard for a while, and for my money this is it. Don't risk cutting your arm off with a chainsaw. If you've got a little pruning to do, get this Pruning Stik and start clipping away.

I unfortunately have tendonitis in my elbows at the moment from doing too much pruning this spring with my regular 24-inch lopper (I'm only 42, for crying out loud). That tool will now see only limited use.

The Pruning Stick's action is smooth and it makes a very clean cut. The rotating head is great because instead of reaching out from a distance and fighting gravity for the correct angle, I can hold the shaft more vertically and just rotate the jaws. Using either the handle on the shaft or the ball at the end are both more natural movements than a regular lopper.

It's not a problem, but the head rotation axis is not what I had expected from the picture. If the tool was lying on the ground, it would be ready to cut a stick that was also lying on the ground, no matter how the jaws are rotated.

The only negative thing I would say is that there are serrations in the head that make it difficult to adjust the angle. There's a quick release lever to loosen the head up, but it doesn't move until you pry the two halves apart from each other. I suppose that without the serrations, it would need too much clamping pressure and crack the plastic. I'll probably have to group the cuts for a certain jaw orientation and rotate the head only every once in a while.

Great product.

Length:: 2:13 Mins

I use this pruning stik in my landscaping business to keep us all safe and off of ladders whenever possible. It's lightweight enough you can prune for some time over your head, unlike any other pruning stick I have ever tried.

Now I notice most rate the Fiskars Pruning Stik higher than I do and for the most part don't disagree with what most have to say, good design, lightweight, looks nice, and the power stroke is smooth and well geared. But being a professional gardener I tend to work my tools harder and the two that I bought broke within a day, admitadly under heavy load, now some might say that's like the old joke, patient sais "Doctor Doctor it hurts when I do this" Doc answers "Then don't do that". But the problem is if the tool claims to cut 1.25" greenwood then it should. I noticed the tool also struggles a bit with smaller stuff, sometimes branches will double up and jam, and also the blade lacking rigidity if it snaps through something will sometimes hop the anvil like crossed fingers and jam, it does do very well in the middle ranges. My recomendation, read other reviewes that might be more pertinent to you, because from where I stand as a big box/homeowner quality tool I could give it four stars but as pro/avid gardener tool only two, hence the three stars.

Any green branch that you can get the jaws on will be easily cut with this pruner. A pleasure to use.

excellent trimmer!!! i have a couple of hedges that are "a few feet" out of reach of my cordless trimmer. i looked around for awhile and all i saw were these ENORMOUS "telescopic" trimmers with dangling strings that looked IMPOSSIBLY "un-wieldy". with the aid of my stepladder i was able to EFFORTLESSLY trim branches at the top of my tallest hedges and the lower regions of the trees in my yard. you can cut the limbs SIMPLY by pulling the "ball-end" of the trimmer OR (in closer corners) the sliding-handle midway up the shaft. IN EITHER CASE the cuts are EFFORTLESS. perhaps it's the "chain drive" of the cutting mechanism. ALL IN ALL,..this is a QUALITY tool. do you REALLY need a HEAVY "extension" trimmer that weighs in a 10-15 pounds?? (like me) maybe not. the Fiskar is 2 lbs. (tops) and is EASY to handle whilst navigating an average ladder AND it stores away easily in a closet/shed AND it cuts through moderately sized twigs and limbs LIKE BUTTER . PERFECT i say...just PERFECT.

This is one of the best garden tools I've ever bought because of its reach and sharpness. I've used it for three years now and wouldn't want to do without it. No more using ladders to get to the tops of my three dwarf apple trees or the upper branches of the grape vines growing up the side of my house or the lower branches of a maple tree, as well as the too-long ends of the climbing roses that grow so exuberantly.