How do you prune bushes that are very low, plants that have thorns and can hurt you, or branches and stems that are above you and cannot be reached without using an extendable pruner or a ladder? The new and well-made stick-style pruner created by ARS is named the ARS Long Reach Pruner.

What is a Fixed Length Stick-Style Pruning Tool?

Normally, this type of pruner is between 5-6 inches in length, and it’s created with a straight aluminum shaft to hold down the weight. Two kinds of cutting heads are available, and they’re a fixed cutting head that rolls around a pair of handles or a modifiable cutting head that rotates around a fixed shaft.

The blades of the pruner are a pair of grip handles at the rear opposite the blades.

Stipulations for the ARS LongReach Pruner

  • · Total length of the pruner: 1846mm
  • · Total length of pruning blade: 53mm
  • · Element of the Blade: High Carbon Steel
  • · Surface Finish: Hard-Chrome Plating
  • · Grip Substance: Aluminum Die Casting
  • · Highest Cutting Diameter: 22mm

Design of the Cutting Head

The blade features a sharp cutting head and a balance blade (counter blade) opposite the cutting blade. The counter blade serves as a gripping instrument; it’s not used for cutting, and that’s why it is not sharp.

To cut a branch with the pruner, press the handles at the rear of the shaft. There is a strong rod that shots inside the shaft and activates or deactivates the blades.

Also, springs inside the handles keep the blades on standby until they’re ready for use.

The handle of the saw is coated with rubber grips. This helps make the pruner comfortable, enhance the grip, and reduce heat when working with the pruner under the sun.

There’s another lovely design of the cutting edge that you’ll love; it has a hook built into the pruner and serves as a hanger. This will be very useful when you want to hang the tool on a branch while moving to another place without stopping to take it up from the floor.

Hanging the blades on the branch is better than keeping them on the floor because they get dulled on the floor.

The ARS LongReach pruner features a stabilized blade assembly joined with two pins to a spinning aluminum shaft. The shaft rotates about 100 degrees from side to side, allowing it to fix the cutting blade in any desired pruning form.

Also, the grip of the shaft is covered with rubber about 12 inches above the handles. The aim of this is that it makes the pruner very relaxed to hold and allows you to easily spin the shaft so that you can cut any angle easily. You can also hold on to the aluminum handle itself rather than holding the grip.

Safety Issues with the Blade Locking Mechanism

A vital safety feature of stick-style is that it can lock the blades in a bolted position so the blades can be safely transported, or it can be used to prevent the blades from dulling if you decide to put the pruner on the ground. This is very important because the blades are very sharp.

It might be disappointing to find out that the blades of the LongReach ARS pruner don’t close properly when it is locked.

A plastic locking tab has been integrated to one side of the grip handle, and all you need to do is squeeze the handles together and slip the plastic piece into a fixed position, so it blocks itself against the other grip handle.

The test unit that comes with the pruner doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. When you try to lock the blade, you’ll notice that the blade is still a bit open by about ¼ inches, which can cause a safety hazard. This is because the plastic locking tab isn’t long enough.

After detecting that the blade isn’t covered enough, you can use the plastic sheath that comes with the package to cover the cutting head, but this will not last long.

How Deep Can It Cut?

The specifications claim that the LongReach pruner will cut live wood up to a diameter as wide as 22 mm, which is just a little below 7/8 inches. This has been tested to be true because it comes with a caveat, and you’ll need to modify the length of the connecting rod to let the blade open as wide as you want it.

After you’ve done this, the problem of the locking mechanism becomes worse because the blades are separated even more. The highest blade distance should be just below ¾ inches.

It is advisable to test this by loosening the connecting rod from the cutting blade and adjusting it to make it longer. You’ll notice that the more you made the rod longer, the farther the blades open. The blades even stay farther open when locked.

When you’re trying to do this, it is better that you’re alert to the fact that if you modify the connecting rod by stretching it too far out, the blade will not completely be closed.

Excellent Blades

When cutting a ¾ inches live-wood, the excellently-sharp blades were seen to have made very clean cuts. The blades were developed with chrome-plated high-carbon steel, and this makes them very sharp.

The chrome plating helps to prevent the blade from rusting, but it’s still good that you clean and dry the blades when you’re done using them for the day.

When you’re cutting deadwood, you’ll notice that the LongReach ARS 180LR-18 can cut over a range of a little above ¼ inches. It’s also highly advisable to remember that this tool was created mainly to cut or trim live wood. When trying to cut through strong deadwood, it’s better to use an anvil hand pruner or loppers.

The LongReach pruners’ handles are very convenient to hold, and they give you a solid grip on the tool while moving from one place to another. The blades also have hooks at the back of them.

The hooks are useful because they let you hang the pruner on a tree branch when you want to adjust your position before making another cut.

Conclusion

This article is a review of the ARS LongReach (180LR-1.8) pruner. It thoroughly talks about the features of this tool and explains how to use it. The post also talks about the safety measures involved when using this tool.

Thank you so much for your time reading this article and if you have any questions about this review, please kindly leave your comment below, and I’ll be happy to write back to you.


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