Which Harbor Freight Branch-Cutting Tool Is Best For Your Yard?

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Keeping your backyard trees and bushes in top health is good for them and for you. If you've invested the time and energy to plant a tree canopy for shade and privacy, maintenance is critical, and pruning is a necessity. You don't want a dead limb to fall on your pergola, a scraggly branch to damage your roof gutter, or an aggressive shrub to shade out your flower garden. The right pruner is a gardening tool you absolutely need, and Harbor Freight has some affordable options with good reviews.

When choosing a branch-cutting tool, there are a few things to consider. Pruners come in a variety of designs for different pruning challenges. Do you have a lot of small branches to clean up within easy reach? If so, a simple long-handled lopper is a go-to tool. Do you have taller trees with limbs that are out of reach? A pole pruner, or pole saw, is what you need. Whatever you choose, you'll want a durable tool powerful enough to take down those branches with ease, so that this important yard maintenance project doesn't become yet another chore you want to avoid.

Unlike short-handled pruners, loppers have longer handles and generally cut through limbs up to 2 ½ inches in diameter. Loppers allow you to use the power of your upper body to cut through tougher branches, as long as those branches are within easy reach. There are two main types of loppers: bypass loppers and anvil loppers. Bypass loppers create clean cuts with blades that cross over like a pair of scissors, and are good for light pruning jobs and on trees or bushes where regrowth is needed. Anvil loppers have one blade that crushes the branch into a flat or serrated piece of metal (the anvil); they are less delicate, and are suited to dead branches and harder wood.

Harbor Freight carries both types of loppers, and the Doyle brand has particularly good reviews from purchasers. The Doyle 31 ½-inch Forged Steel Bypass Lopper has 47 five-star reviews that cite the quality and ease of its cuts, with 94% of customers strongly recommending the tool. The Doyle 31 ½-inch Forged Steel Anvil Lopper will handle tougher limbs and has 79 five-star reviews, with 99% of customers wholeheartedly recommending them.  Reviewers highlighted their lightweight feel, durability, and the easy way they handle thick branches. 

These loppers retail at $44.99 each. Cheaper models are available on the market, but many of these will be smaller and won't have the same cutting strength as the Doyle loppers. For their size and cutting capacity, Harbor Freight's selections compare well for cost against other highly-rated loppers out there, like the five-star Tabor Tools GG12A Anvil Lopper (retailing at $59.24 from Amazon), or the similarly lauded Fiskars PowerGear2 32-inch Stainless Steel Bypass Lopper from Ace Hardware (which cost about $50). 

To reach higher branches, a pole pruner like the One Stop Gardens Tree Pruner from Harbor Freight is the more appropriate tool. A pole saw pruner works by hooking the top of a long pole around the branch you wish to cut, then pulling on a rope to bring down the saw or cutting piece. High-end pole pruners can cost you three figures thanks to options like different blade attachments and extendable poles that can reach heights of 30 feet. The Harbor Freight model comes with one 12-inch saw blade and can only reach branches up to 8 feet high. It isn't extendable, but it is a bargain at $21.99 if those specs meet your pruning needs. With over 1100 five-star reviews and more than 600 four-star reviews, purchasers liked its affordability and ease of use.

Because you are holding a pole over your head to do the hard work of pruning, lightweight models of pole saw branch-cutters are best. Users liked the relatively lightweight feel of the aforementioned Harbor Freight One Stop Gardens model, which weighs 4.52 pounds according to the manufacturer. Longer pruners are usually heavier, like the 14-foot Fiskars PowerLever Tree Pruner from Home Depot, weighing 6 pounds and retailing for $59.98.

There are even lighter yet still long pole saw pruners on the market, like the significantly more expensive EZ Kut Kamikaze 15-Foot Extendable Tree Trimmer Pole Saw, which only weighs 4 pounds and available on Amazon for $219.95. If you have a lot of very tall branches to reach, a long-reach, lightweight pruner may be worth the bigger investment.