A place I worked here on Maui provided the garden designers with some brand new Fiskars Softgrip Bypass Pruner (79436997J).
They worked…but the quality of the cuts deteriorated quickly. Now to their defense I must say, Maui’s wet, salty air puts products of all sorts of qualities to the ultimate test. Still they should have held up better than they did. If they were mine I would have returned them.
The way the Fiskars felt in my hand is very disappointing. They didn’t open and close smoothly and the handle even bit my hand… This should not happen. The blades would not stay in contact with one another, the cutting surface would be pulled apart by whatever I was trying to cut. The closing latch was positioned in such a way I kept locking the things closed. This is very annoying when on a mission.
The Fiskar Soft Grip Pruners are the same size as my 10 year old Felco 2 pruners (that have never been sharpened and no parts replaced) so I thought it would be no problem to cut through a moist 1 inch cordyline branch… Nope not even close. These things made a tiny scratch on the branch but no matter how hard I squeezed they would not cut through.
It is probably not fair for me to compare a $10 Fiskar to $60 Felco 2 but come on, my Felco Pruners have been used HEAVILY for 10 years and the Fiskars were brand new. My Felcos cut through the branch like it was butter and they are no where near new condition. I have used these clippers in South Florida for about 7 years vigorously and ferociously for 3 years on Maui in the jungle. And they still out perform a brand new Fiskar.
I would only recommend you purchase the Fiskars Soft Grip Pruner if you don’t want to spend the additional money to buy Coronas or Felcos.
Products used and mentioned in this post about pruning snips: