Ever tried to cut off a limb of a tree with a carpenter’s saw? If the limb was small or dead, you probably didn’t encounter many serious difficulties, but if it was reasonably good-sized and green. You had a tussle on your hands.
Better use a pruning saw next time — the job will seem much easier and give you much more satisfaction! The cured lumber with which the carpenter works is considerably different from the green wood of a tree or shrub.
Choosing The Proper Pruning Tool
By choosing the pruning tool for the job, one can get the best results most easily. These results should be a good, clean cut with a minimum of damage to the plant tissues on the part of the plant to remain.
The bark around the cut should not be crushed or torn loose, and the wood itself should not be split, or the healing of the wound will be impeded.
For efficient operation, the tool should be designed for ease of handling. Therefore, one with good balance, and one which does not require specially-developed skills to guide it, is always preferred.
Knife with a Curved Blade
A knife is often handy for pruning out small branches of shrubs or young trees. A pocket knife carried in one’s gardening clothes is always at hand for the little, unexpected cutting tasks.
If care is used, good clean cuts can be made; but a slip of the knife in less careful hands may result in the loss of a desired branch. A curved blade is preferred, as it will cut into the wood easier with a pull stroke.
Such a knife can smooth up saw cuts’ edges to promote more rapid healing. For removing berry canes, a hook blade with a handle about two feet long is advantageous in cutting out old canes.
Shear-Type Blades
For all-around use, a pair with curved, shear-type blades is most satisfactory.
Those with a cutting blade and one handle forged from one piece of steel usually give less trouble from being sprung than those in which the blade is made separately and then riveted onto the handle piece.
Some of the newer style shears are designed to not close at the handle end, an improvement that eliminates the danger of a badly pinched hand.
A catch on the shears, which will not close accidentally while the shears are in use, is a great convenience; often, a short loop of leather riveted to one handle serves this purpose well.
Always try a shear in hand before buying — look for one that seems to fit your hand and won’t tire you unnecessarily.
The blades should be narrow so they can be used in a narrow crotch; the cutting blade should be thin so it will slice through the wood easily.
A leather shear case that can be worn on a belt is a great convenience in keeping the shears at hand.
Lopping Shears
To quickly remove wood too large for the hand-pruning shears, use a pair of lopping shears. The blades are quite similar to hand shears, except heavier and with a more curved hook-blade.
Those with wood hand grips on long, steel handles will usually be harder to use than those with long wooden handles. But, again, those with reasonably narrow blades will be better for making close cuts in tight places.
Pole Pruner
Where a small branch is to be removed above the worker’s reach, the problem often can be solved by using a pole pruner.
Tine hook and shear blade both must be heavy enough to withstand the rough use, which is inevitable in a tool used on a ten, twelve, fourteen, or even a sixteen-foot pole.
For general-purpose use, a pole pruner with a rope pull to operate the blade is preferred over one using a small rod with a lever near the bottom of the pole.
The lever to which the rope is attached occasionally interferes; however, this is not a serious disadvantage. Some pole pruners use a pulley to increase the mechanical advantage for the operator.
Indispensable Hedge Shears
A good pair of hedge shears are indispensable for general hedge trimming, especially where the growth is allowed to harden up.
It will cut one-year-old wood, or using a tiny notch usually found at the base of one blade, even larger steins can be eaten.
The hedge shear is most practical for the short hedge or the longer one, which is cut only once a year.
Useful, too, for sharing evergreens to keep them from growing too large, the hedge shear rises to its greatest triumphs in the hands of the topiary artist.
An electric hedge clipper will shorten the tusk for trimming the longer hedge, especially if the stems are cut before the wood gets hard.
Where electricity is unavailable, some hand power hedge clippers will speed up the job of cutting soft, lush shoot growth; but if the trimming is not done often enough, it will be hard to cut with hand devices except hedge shears.
Curved-Blade Pruning Saw
For removing limbs up to approximately 4” inches in diameter, a small, curved-blade pruning saw with short teeth pointing toward the handle so that the saw cuts mostly on the pull stroke is most satisfactory.
These saws, with a blade approximately fourteen inches long, not over two inches wide near the handle, and tapering to less than an inch at the tip, can be easily maneuvered for cutting in a narrow crotch or to remove one stem from a cluster of several in a thickly-grown shrub.
The similar saw having long, needle-point teeth are almost as good, but the points of the teeth seem to dull faster.
The straight-bladed saw with fine teeth on one edge and coarse ones on the other edge, usually sold as a double-duty pruning saw, is unsatisfactory in close quarters where it is so often necessary to cut to prune properly.
While the teeth on one edge are used to cut, those on the other edge usually rip through the bark of the branch, which is to remain, causing an unnecessary wound.
Special Kinds Of Saws
The pruning saws, which have a removable swivel blade in a frame somewhat similar to a hack-saw frame, are good when carefully used.
For one who has more than a few hours of pruning to do each year, the necessity of twisting the blade to set it for the cuts may be aggravating; otherwise, these saws will cut surprisingly well, even in close quarters.
With these saws, the blades are replaced rather than sharpened.
The larger saws with a twenty-four-inch blade, similar to a one-man crosscut saw, and usually having four cutting points to two raker points are generally satisfactory for large cuts.
For faster work, a saw about the same size with a curved blade and with cutting and raker teeth pointing back toward the handle, so they cut mostly on the pull stroke, is widely used.
These latter saws may not make as smooth a cut, but this difference is not a serious consideration in most cases.
Using A Pole Saw
To see off limbs when it is impossible to get up close, a pole saw is a great help. The saw blade most widely used is about fourteen inches long, curved, with long needle-pointed teeth.
Unlike hand pruning saws, long needle-pointed teeth are best for this use.
A pole about 12’ feet long is most satisfactory; longer, they are too heavy to use at arm’s length, and shorter, they will not reach far enough.
These saws should always be used with care because cutting at the correct angle at such a distance is often harder.
Most Important Tool: Rope
The professional tree pruner regards his rope as one of his most important tools. It enables him to get around in a tree easier and acts as a lifesaver if he should slip.
The 120′ feet of half-inch, best-quality manila rope is well worth its cost and careful care to these men.
Selecting Pruning Tools
Select the pruning tools most suited to your work. Care for them by keeping them sharp, rust-free, and clean.
The tools can’t do the job alone, but the proper tools will make it easier and more pleasurable for the one using them to accomplish it efficiently.
44659 by Robert G. Williams