My favorite gardening weapon......the Fiskars Pruning Stik!
Written: Oct 02 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lightweight, easy to use.
Cons: None whatsoever.
The Bottom Line: Try one.....you'll like it!
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| patsyv's Full Review: Fiskars Pruning Stik 9234 |
“Weapon,” you ask? Yes, indeed! Florida is full of critters, lurking in the trees, shrubs, foliage........lurking, lurking, waiting to attack with bites and stings. Some of the foliage is just as bad, inflicting scrapes, cuts, poisons, and allergens on the unsuspecting gardener.
Sound like Stephen King? No. It’s Florida gardening. The last time my palm trees were trimmed, the trimmer found (and killed) a coral snake that was lolling around in the top of a 12 foot tall cabbage palm. Up to that time, I didn’t know that coral snakes could climb trees.
I found the perfect answer to my pruning and weeding problem at Home Depot. It was the Fiskars Pruning Stik. With this handy tool, I can easily and safely reach into thickets of foliage to prune out unwanted foliage. I can easily reach high into trees to prune unwanted branches. It is remarkably easy to use, requiring little strength to cut through either live or dead wood. As long as any branch would fit into the jaws of the pruner, I have been able to cut through that branch. The stick is rated as having a 1 1\4” cutting capacity.
This pruner weighs less than two pounds, so it is very easy to manipulate. You can do all your pruning standing up.....no kneeling or bending. The blades are coated with Teflon, so they cut easily through anything. So far I have not found anything this pruner could not handle. The cutting head can be adjusted to almost any angle (it rotates 240 degrees). I have used it to trim the grass at the edge of my driveway, although this is not a labor efficient way to do that particular chore. (Oh well, I was standing there with the pruner, and there were the weeds, and, what the heck, I just went along the driveway and snipped. I doubt that I will do this again.)
The pruner has a chain-driven gearing that gives you a mechanical advantage. I am taking Fiskars’ word for this because the mechanism is inside the stick. You can see the end of the chain by the cutting blades. The pruner requires very little effort. The first day I used it at least two hours, and had no muscle aches or pains as a result of my work.
There are two ways to use this tool. The easiest is to use the pull-stroke handle in the middle of the stick. Just position the blades around the targeted branch, pull the handle towards yourself, and voila! the branch is cut. If you are reaching high into a tree, perhaps the handle will be too high to grab. In that case, you pull on an orange ball located on the end of the stick. This is somewhat harder to do, and sometimes the ball is wedged into the end of the stick if you have been using the handle method for a while. When I know I will be using the orange ball to make the cut, I check beforehand to make sure the ball is not stuck.
The Fiskars Pruning Stik is 62” long. With this tool, I estimate that I have pruned branches more than eleven feet from the ground, without using a ladder. That’s amazing.
Plan ahead. When pruning overhead, make sure you are standing far enough to the side so that the branch does not come crashing down on your head.
The Fiskars Pruning Stik has a lifetime warranty. I paid $40 at Home Depot. This is my favorite and most used gardening tool, er, weapon..
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
patsyv
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Member: Pat
Location: Florida
Reviews written: 55
Trusted by: 194 members
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