Fiskars PowerGear X-series L Bypass Pruner P961

THE WORST PRUNERS I HAVE USED – I have owned a pair of cheap ratchet pruners for 2 years, I found them easy to use & I was completely happy with them until they developed a fault & became unusable. To replace them I was looking for something more durable, & a pruner that would cut easily. Fiskars claims that their pruners required one third the effort to use, & being a well established brand & more expensive I thought that they would be ideal. I WAS WRONG. They were nowhere near as easy to use as the cheapies I’d been using previously. I also compared them to an old pair of standard pruners & found them only marginally easier to use. I am a mechanic so my hands are pretty strong & I couldn’t cut through a 20 mm hardwood branch, so no way would a person of average strength be able to cut through a 25mm branch as claimed in their advertising, unless it was extremely soft. They are advertised as “Soft Grip”, yes, the fixed handle does have some padding, but the rotating handle is hard plastic. I personally found the rotating handle to be a menace. When cutting through a 12mm hardwood branch the action of the handles suddenly closing & rotating repeatedly gave me a painfull wack on the finger ends. I am right handed, so when doing a lot of pruning I like to use my left hand to ease the strain on the right, it is extremely difficult to use them left handed. I couldn’t find anything in their advertising that mentioned they were mainly suitable for right hand use. I couldn’t find anything to like about this product. AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED FOR ME THEY ARE UNUSABLE, BACK TO THE CHEAPIES WHICH WERE A PLEASURE TO USE BY COMPARISON.