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

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.
http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID47893.../OK0101-1.aspx
Or even better coronas
http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID47893...OBP6250-C.aspx
As 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 www.leevalley.com 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.

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:18:09 +0000, Phisherman wrote:

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

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

http://www.felcostore.com/pruners.jsp

--
http://resources.ywgc.com/info

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
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

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

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

On 12 Mar 2006 09:40:40 -0800, wrote:

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.
http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID47893.../OK0101-1.aspx
Or even better coronas
http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID47893...OBP6250-C.aspx
As 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 www.leevalley.com 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.

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

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

My wife got me a pair of Felco's for Christmas, and they are the best I
have ever seen (I was out in the snow testing them). I think you could
cut hair with them, too. They're Swiss, and I have yet to see a Swiss
tool that isn't really well made.

Phisherman wrote:
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

Which makes me wonder about the Swiss.

I took my Corona pruners back to Home Depot, got a full refund, and
ordered a pair of Felco F2 pruners ($35 delivered from Amazon.) Thanks
to all for the suggestions, and I agree, "Life is too short for cheap
tools."

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:18:09 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

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

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!!


On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:04:06 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

I took my Corona pruners back to Home Depot, got a full refund, and
ordered a pair of Felco F2 pruners ($35 delivered from Amazon.) Thanks
to all for the suggestions, and I agree, "Life is too short for cheap
tools."

In article ,
Phisherman wrote:

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

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

--
The way to a man's heart is between the fourth and the fifth rib.