The blade then makes a smash cut with the stem against the anvil jaw or side. The blade and anvil create a cutting board type situation. Think about cutting something on a cutting board with a knife. The primary use is to cut dead wood. You can use it for live wood but it has a tendency of smashing or damaging the part that is left on the plant.
If the tissue is stringy you have to repeatedly cut at it. If you have a lot of dead stems and limbs then it will be worth investing in a good pair of anvil pruners. The jaw opening will range greatly depending on the pruner style and manufacturer. The bigger the opening the larger the diameter you can cut. Normally this is stated on the label or tag of the pruner at the store or in the online description. The ratchet part is a mechanical piece or pieces that will assist in cutting harder or bigger diameter limbs.
Some will have a cam system while others will use some extra lever pieces and others will use a mechanical ratching system. Benefit is that you can cut wood that is a bit thicker with the assistance. It can also help a person with a weaker grip or that has arthritis with normal pruning tasks. A disadvantage to this type of pruner is that they tend to be heavier so if you are going to be using them for a long period of time it can wear you out. They tend to be more expensive.
With the extra pieces they can also be harder to get into tight spaces within the plants to make good cuts. Anvil loppers are ideally used to either remove materials before finishing off with a bypass to create a clean look, to quickly and efficiently trim off large areas of dead vegetation, or to cut up branches for hauling and chipping. This is a very powerful tool that can handle tough material where precision and delicacy is not important, and with much more ease than a bypass lopper.
Keeping it sharp is important both to the life of your tool, and the well-being of the plant you are using it on. To keep a cutting surface sharp, apply the simple technique shown below:. If you have any sort of fruiting vegetation, ornamental trees or bushes, then you definitely will want to consider having a pair of bypass loppers available. Bypass loppers provide the clean cut, and precision delicate, green growth needs to stay healthy. For dead or dying branches, vegetation you need to get removed quickly, and tough to cut stems- consider an anvil lopper to provide the cutting power to rapidly move through your task with relative ease.
These are also extremely helpful for cutting naturally fallen branches to length for firewood, or disposal. We are reader supported. External links may earn us a commission.
Forgotten your Password? Please read through our Terms and Conditions. A guide to loppers and shears. Show more. Bypass action, anvil action, scissor action If you're looking at choosing a cutting tool, the terminology around loppers and shears can be a bit confusing. We take a look at the different types of cutting tools, how they work, and what's best to use for which garden jobs.
Includes a handy glossary. Anvil, bypass or scissor? Which cutting tool do I need? The million-dollar question: what are you cutting? If the plant is alive, whether flower, shrub or tree, you want to select a bypass action tool, or a scissor action tool. Anvil action cutting tools are ideal for cutting old, dead or very hard wood, or when a clean cut is less important than simply removing the stem or branch. Jump to more information on anvil action tools. Most of our cutting tools use a bypass cutting action, because as gardeners, we're very often making cuts on living plant tissue, where keeping our plants healthy is the main aim.
Bypass action tools give a clean, precise cut on the soft green growth of living plants, reducing the risk of introducing infection and keeping the plant healthy. Use anvil tools where you don't need to worry about plant health. Scissor action — A cutting action which features two sharpened blades moving against each other to make a cut. Suitable for making precise, healthy cuts on the soft green growth of living plants. The ratchet design allows the gardener to cut through thicker branches, or to complete regular cuts more easily.
To use a ratchet action cutting tool, start to make the cut, closing the handles as far as they will go; they will come to a stop part way through the cut. This is the first stage of the ratchet action. Anvil pruners do work a bit better than bypass pruners for cutting up old dead wood but for most of us, that is not a very common job in the garden. You are usually pruning live plant material or wood that has recently died.
Think about cutting back a branch to a fresh bud. The diagram below shows the correct cut, which is just above a bud.
In order to make the cut this close to the bud, the pruner needs to be held very close to the bud. With the anvil pruner there is a risk that the bud or the tissue around the bud sits on the anvil and gets damaged during the cut. Using bypass pruners, you can hold the pruner so that none of it touches the bud during the cutting process.
The diagram below shows the proper way to hold the pruner to cut off a branch from the trunk. The right side of the diagram — the wrong cut — will result in a stub and the metal parts of the pruner will touch and damage the stub — neither is good for the plant. The important point to understand is that the secateur should be held so that only the blade touches the wood or stem that will be left on the plant. This does mean that you might need to turn your hand depending on your relative position to the bud.
If you follow this rule, you will have very little damage to the plant. I tried out a large anvil type pruner a couple years ago. Next day it started hurting pretty bad, and took a few days to get worked out. So that is something else to consider as an advantage for by-pass type pruners. That is very clear including pics. The guy in the garden center unfortunately knew no difference between anvil and bypass pruners. Looks like you need to take out a bolt…. Tightly closed now.
Thank you. No one in the garden centre knew the difference between a bypass and anvil secateurs. Probably because I needed a set of anvil ones! Fabulous information. I finally understand the proper way to prune. The diagrams are priceless! Thanks of this it add up to my knowledge.
0コメント