The Hyperlogos

I am not ashamed to admit that I have a tendency to display what is commonly referred to by weasels and snakes alike everywhere as the "true" laziness, which dictates that I will spend a hundred hours automating a task that I do four times a year for fifteen minutes. Along with this particular disease comes an inordinate love of fancy gadgets which reduce work by any degree. One such work-reducer is the Fiskars PowerGear bypass lopper.

I've been enamored with Fiskars products since I first began stealing my mother's sewing scissors to cut basically everything as a child. Those big orange-handled shears could seemingly cut through anything short of steel and I misappropriated them for this purpose frequently. Eventually they were left too close to a lamp (not by me, of course — honestly, who do you think I am?) and became mine. I've long since graduated to more powerful cutting devices like a set of "aviation" tin snips and a Model 77 saw, but my fondness for the Fiskars brand remains.

Since moving onto a rented 12+ acre piece of land in the hills of Lake County, California, the amount of yard work I'm expected to do has increased dramatically over any previous time in my life. Even though we really only use a small portion of the land, there are a number of slashing, whacking, and hacking tasks which must be carried out on even this slice. One of the more entertaining jobs is limb control of the various trees and bushes around here, some of which grow like something exotic you left in the fridge last summer. The idea behind a bypass lopper is that it works like a pair of scissors, with one blade passing past another. At least one blade is curved (to hold the branch) and there need be only one blade; the other side of the lopper can be an anvil (just a hard, rigid surface.) This is how these Fiskars loppers are designed, and it makes them much more predictable than the two-blade type.

Of course, what really makes these special is the Gear mechanism built into them, and which gives them their snazzy brand name. Lever-type bypass loppers lose their force towards the end of the stroke because the angle changes, but these geared units don't have that problem. The result is a clean, consistent stroke all the way through your cut. Fiskars also claims that the flat shape of the handles improves ergonomics and reduces hand strain, but perhaps my hands are just too large to see any benefit; if anything I prefer a rounder handle. In a world of metal and fiberglass handles, though, it's much easier to make a handle thicker than thinner.

The other issue that I personally ran into with these loppers (at this length even; they do come in a variety of sizes) is that they are not as sturdy as is claimed. While they are advertised as being able to cut live branches up to one and a half inches in thickness, you shouldn't try this on a hardwood. I damaged the blade just trying to cut some oak at three-quarters of an inch. If you must cut this sort of hard, heavy wood, do not cut at an angle as is ordinary and as Fiskars suggests. I just got off the phone with them (I even left a message and got a call back) and I'll allegedly be getting my replacement blade shipped within ten days. Why would I suggest buying a somewhat flimsy1 pair of loppers? Because they come with a lifetime warranty. I also advocate purchasing Craftsman hand tools from Sears; they have the same warranty as Snap-On or Mac tools several times their price.

All in all, these are well worth buying and I haven't encountered anything I like better. These are by far the lightest loppers I have ever seen that will do the amount of work that they will do, which is a major benefit for anyone who has to do a lot of heavy pruning or cutting. And as always, a good warranty is a strong inducement to purchase. I wasn't asked to send my old, damaged blade in as proof that I own the tool or any nonsense like that; I gave my contact information and a brief account of what happened along with my model number and was told I'd have a part coming. This is of course the minimum we should expect from any company, but it seems to be difficult to find this level of service today.

• 1. What "flimsy" means to me is almost certainly different from what it means to you; I am two meters tall and fairly proportional all around.