Corona Professional Bypass Pruner BP6190

[Phisherman]

I bought a pair of Corona Professional Bypass Pruner (BP6190). They are forged, heat-treated, cushioned grips, 1" cutting capacity, and a shock absorbing bumper. Out of the box, I started trimming my sage bush, removing all the dead branches. These pruners locked up. The cutting edge curled over preventing the pruners to close. I sanded the edge, and continued pruning. Same thing happens. My guess is these have not been heat-treated. These are going to be returned to Lowes and I'm getting my $25 back. Figures, these are made in Taiwan. Any recommendations for good by-pass pruners? I think I prefer "Made in USA," under $30 if possible. TIA

[bamboo]

You may find a good pair of coronas , I think you got one that was poorly heat treated. Who knows what the big box stores get shipped. Step up a notch to an over 30$ pair and you can have some Okatsune shears.

even better coronas for cutting capacity just because 1" will fit inside the jaws doesn't make it so. My speedometer goes past 120 but my car won't ;ast very long at that speed either. Go see what has also, they tend to avoid junk. The box stores ain't gonna carry the better tools because they move out the door slower than the crap ones.

[Timothy]

Good day, I by corona's for my workers due to their good quality and cheaper cost. I've never had that type of issue with corona before. I buy the cheaper line down from the BP6190 and never had a quality issue. The only reasons I could see the pruner's failure would be that you got a bad one or there was some sort of 'twisting' action that was applied when cutting through the hard, dead wood. This could of bent the blade edge and caused the pruner to fail.

If you could find the money for them, I would suggest that you look at the Felco brand pruners. These (IMHO) are the best pruners on the market. Evey piece of a Felco can be removed and replaced. I use the Felco 13, which are a two handed pruner designed for smaller hands / women. My hands are large and the felco 13 fit just right in my hand which is rare for me.

Felco's in your price range would be:

Felco 400 pruner $31.49

Felco 5 pruner $29.74

[Doug Kanter]

You have just 3 choices: Felco, Felco or Felco. End of discussion. And, get yourself a pair of anvil pruners, too.

[told2b]

Why anvil too? I was told that bypass was the better of the two. Are there instances when an anvil pruner would be of better use than a bypass pruner? TIA

[Chuckie]

Yes anvil pruners are better for dead wood. I am surprised at the problem you had with the corona trimmers. I have the same ones and I have never had a problem. Chuckie in the blooming north, zone 5

[Persephone]

I had one pair of Coronas go bad -- can't remember what was the problem; I think it was my fault. I sent them back with a polite letter and they sent a replacement.

Persephone

[bamboo]

Here the shop is a bit more evolved, if I can guess at the type of steel I can usually reharden and temper it. But you shouldn't have to.

Life is too short to work with cheap tools.

Tom Daily Grind Sharpening Service

[Not]

[Chuckie]

Which makes me wonder about the Swiss.

[Phisherman]

[Louis P Quist]

I just replaced all 30 for my staff, I went from Felco to Bahco, unbelievable how much better they cut with the ergonomic design!!!! Pricey but for someone who prunes a lot, well worth it!!

[Jan Flora]

Buy Felcos. I bought my snips in 1982. They have very high mileage on them, as I used to prune fruit orchards for a living, and did commercial landscape maintanence contracts for awhile. (That's aside from doing my own gardens.)

I sharpen and oil them once in awhile. Haven't needed to replace the blades yet.

I'm surprised that you got a bad tool from Corona, as my loppers are all Corona brand, and I love them!

Felco makes a by-pass snipper model now. My snips are Model 8, but apparently I have big hands for a woman. (I've never wished for the small-frame snips that they make for small hands now.)

It DOES sound like you got a pair of snips that didn't get heat-treated properly. I'll bet Corona would fall all over themselves to make you a happy customer, if you contact them. They don't need you here on a worldwide ng, being an unhappy customer...

Jan, in Alaska