Tough Loppers for the Home Gardener

by Jason Dyck
(last updated April 9, 2014)

8

With the advent of warmer weather, it's time to tackle some of the garden work I've been looking forward to. I had cut down a small fruit tree, but I needed to chop up the smaller branches that the chainsaw wasn't suited for. For the job, I chose the Corona Compound Action Bypass Lopper. It was one of the less expensive options, but Corona is a reliable brand and the compound action promised better leverage for the larger branches.

(For more information on Corona's wide range of lawn and garden tools, check out their website at http://www.coronaclipper.com.)

I'm comfortable using simple bypass loppers, which take a lot of force to use. The compound action made my life a lot easier, but it introduced a few challenges as well. Some aspects of the tool I only discovered after I had gotten it home. For instance, Corona tempers the metal in the whole blade, where some manufacturers only temper the edge. This way, not only is the tool stronger, but if the blade has to be sharpened later the new edge will still have the tempering.

The tree branches I needed cut varied in size from whip thin to a couple of inches thick. The Compound Action Bypass Lopper is supposed to be able to handle branches up to an inch and a half thick. I found that it could handle larger than that, but it became very hard to avoid twisting by accident, and knocking the blades out of alignment. If it twists the wrong way, blades can collide and break. Because of this, we accidentally broke a blade on the first loppers we bought and we had to replace them. Limiting the tool to use as directed is always a good idea!

Half a tree has been chopped up now, so here are my thoughts on the loppers' performance.

  • Ease of use. The levering effect of the compound action made the Corona loppers much smoother and powerful to use than simple bypass ones. They are a little heavy over time, but I could cut branches much longer without my arms wearing out than with ordinary loppers. This was especially good for large branches. The one drawback is that the handles have to swing further for that leverage. This only really became an issue when I was trying to chop inside my waste can or among dense groups of branches. Those tasks were very difficult with the limited space.
  • Maintenance. After I had done quite a bit of cutting, I noticed that the blades were not lining up as closely. Because of this, some branches were not cutting cleanly, especially small flexible ones. The complexity of the compound action leaves more room for things to get out of whack, especially if you cut branches that are a little larger than prescribed. A little tightening of the bolts was enough for me to resolve that, but being careful and preventing the problem would have been better.
  • Pros. The power and smooth handling are great. For big jobs the loppers allow you to cut things you might otherwise need a power tool for, and for small jobs the easy motion cuts down on fatigue. The sharp, quality blades are nice and also make the work more efficient and comfortable.
  • Cons. The slightly more complex action of the compound makes it more prone to problems if you are not careful enough in the size of the branches you cut. You need to pay attention to the size of your branches and err on the side of caution. The larger swing of the handles makes this a poor choice in dense trees for pruning out just some branches, or in any other use where the space to work is limited.
  • Overall experience. I really enjoyed using the Corona loppers. They did the job I needed much more easily than I had expected. I look forward to finding more jobs to use them on!

Note: For important information about Tips.Net product reviews, see our review policy.

Author Bio

Jason Dyck

Jason has been a cook, a hotel clerk, a website developer, a landscaper, a dance instructor, a financial auditor, and the list goes on. He holds Associate degrees in English and Social Science. Jason lives in Utah with his wife and two sons. ...

MORE FROM JASON

A Decent Dyson for Light Work

Dyson has been a stand-out company in the vacuum business for over twenty years. Their latest handheld vacuum boasts ...

Discover More

A Fantastic Grease Cleaning Product

Cleaning up grease and oil is a tough job. CLR Grease Magnet promises to make that easier. Read on to see how the Grease ...

Discover More

A Handy Electric Chain Saw

A chain saw can be a handy tool to have around. The Poulan PLN1514 electric chain saw is light and easy to handle, but ...

Discover More
More Gardening Tips

One Heck of a Hedge Trimmer

Keeping trees and bushes trimmed is a big part of keeping a healthy, attractive yard. A good set of hedge trimmers can ...

Discover More

A Handy Pruner for Your Toolshed

When working with trees, bushes, and brush, the right pruner can make quick work of the tasks you need to do. The Corona ...

Discover More

Choosing the Right Rake

Choosing the right rake for a lawn or garden task will help you complete the chore more efficiently and quickly. There ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Receive an e-mail several times each week with a featured gardening tip. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 3?

2021-01-05 12:38:22

Jane Lawson

I have found another solution. Before copying and pasting, set the format to "text" of the column that will contain the feet and inches . Then "Paste Special" using the "text" option


2020-10-06 10:40:12

Jane Lawson

Thank you, Peter!! That made life a lot easier.


2020-10-05 04:45:09

Peter Atherton

@Jane Lawson
Have you tried using Data, Transform? There are plenty of videos on this and once you have done it once it will then remember the steps for next time. If the data is always from the same source it will save lots of time.


2020-09-29 13:51:04

Stacey M Rogers

Do you have videos of tips?


2020-09-26 14:00:12

Jane Lawson

Thank you for your help, but it does not quite solve my specific problem. The offending data is in one column of tabular information and I cannot simply copy just the column -- I must copy the whole table. When I try to Paste Special, I am not given a Paste Values option so am left with only the Text option. And I am still left with the oddity of how to handle 6-0 (for 6' 0"). I was hoping that there was a way to convert the resultant copied column through a format change.

I have resorted to a inserting a column adjacent to the offending column and inserting the following formula in the new column: =CONCATENATE(IF(MONTH(E2)=6,"6-","5-"),IF(YEAR(E2)=2000, "0",DAY(E2))) where the offending column is column E. I then hide column E


2020-09-26 13:25:28

Ray McAllister

This solves a problem I’ve suffered for a long time Many times I’ve copied to Excel long lists of chemical codes of the format:
123456-78-9
The first number may be 1 to 6 digits. If it is between values 1900 and 9999; and second number is 01 to 12; and third number is >0, Excel wants to interpret it as a date value (yyyy-mo-d).


2020-09-26 10:41:04

J. Woolley

I have Paste Values in the 4th position on my Quick Access Toolbar; therefore, Alt+4 is its keyboard shortcut.
I also recommend PureText: http://stevemiller.net/PureText/
PureText works with any app. I use Ctrl+Shift+V for my PureText keyboard shortcut (a.k.a. Hotkey).


2020-09-26 07:11:13

Mark

For us keyboard-centric users:
Alt-E, S opens the Paste Special dialog box

Excel will open 1 of 2 Paste Special dialog boxes based on the contents of the clipboard

1.) It appears that if Excel thinks the clipboard contents are formatted text such as a hyperlink, sentence, etc. the Paste Special version gives some or all choices for pasting as Text, Unicode Text, HTML, hyperlink

2.) If Excel thinks the clipboard contents are data it shows the Paste Special dialog box with the "Values" choice. From the keyboard Alt-E, S, V provides an extremely fast Paste Special Values.

I frequently forget to Paste Special and when I look at the cell contents interpreted by Excel I'll mutter "Crap", Ctrl-Z (undo), followed by Alt-E, S, V


Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Receive an e-mail several times each week with a featured gardening tip. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)