Heavy Duty Pruner & Lopper Tools

Power Pruners and Loppers

• The generic term "power pruners" refers to lopping and pruning tools powered by pneumatic force, hydraulics or electricity. Like manually-operated pruners, power pruners slice through plant material with a set of two, sharp-edged blades. Power pruners' blades typically mimic the crescent-shaped design of lopping shears' blades.

  To use power pruners, the landscaper places the tool's open cutting jaw around a limb or branch and pulls a trigger to activate the tool's scissor-like cutting action. Pneumatic, hydraulic or electric assistance allows power pruners to quickly and repeatedly cut through thick branches.

Ratcheting Pruners

• Ratcheting pruners allow the landscaper to apply force in small increments. A gear attached to the ratcheting tool's head locks its blades in position as the landscaper compresses the tool's handles. Therefore, if a landscaper compresses the tool's handles halfway and lets go, the blades remain partially embedded within the plant material. This feature, called ratcheting action, allows a landscaper to readjust his grip between cuts and complete the cut with several small bursts of force rather than a single, large burst of force.

Gear-Driven Loppers

• Gear-driven loppers take advantage of mechanical leverage with an internal, compound-action cutting mechanism. Similar to many metal-cutting snips, gear-driven loppers increase, or compound, the compressive force exerted by the tool's operator. In other words, the gear-driven lopper's internal mechanism amplifies your pressing power. Some gear-driven loppers combine their compound action with the locking capabilities of a ratcheting lopper. Aside from an assembly beneath the cutting blades, gear-driven loppers are the same size as standard loppers.

Pole-mounted Tools

• Pole-mounted pruning tools allow landscapers to sever elevated limbs and branches without ladders and climbing rigs. In general, the term "pole-mounted pruning tools" refers to any pruning tool attached to a long, straight extension pole. The cutting attachments mounted onto a pole-mounted pruner's pole range from manually-operated lopping blades to pneumatically-powered blades and chain saws.