There is a gap in every shed between the secateurs and the chainsaw. Secateurs stop at about the thickness of your thumb. The chainsaw means fuel, ear muffs, chaps and a decision about whether the job is really worth it. In between sits most of what actually needs cutting in a backyard — the citrus branch rubbing on the roof, the sucker off the base of the jacaranda, the limb that came down in the storm and is lying across the path. This is the tool for that gap: 300 mm of SK5 steel on a moulded grip, carried in one hand, no setup at all.

Why It Stands Out

• 90 teeth over 300 mm — about 3 teeth per cm, which is coarse enough to clear wet green sawdust instead of packing solid on the first branch. This is the number that separates a pruning saw from a carpentry saw.
• Three-sided ground teeth — each tooth is ground on three faces rather than simply set and filed, giving it three cutting edges and the reason a Japanese-style blade slices rather than scrapes.
• SK5 carbon tool steel — hardened for edge retention rather than the mild stamped stock most cheap garden saws use.
• A curved blade — the curve keeps teeth engaged through the stroke on a round branch, where a straight blade skips off the top.
• A heat-treated coating, not paint — the black finish is baked into the steel rather than sprayed on, so it resists the sap and damp that mark a bare blade.
• A contoured grip — ribbed and shaped so your hand stays put through a long cut, which is when cheap straight handles start to hurt.
• A sheath with a belt loop — it travels on you rather than loose in the bottom of a bucket, which is also what keeps the teeth sharp.

Where to Use It

• In the fruit trees over winter — citrus, stone fruit and apples in July and August, when Australian pruning actually happens.
• On the branch rubbing the roof or the gutter — the one you notice every time it rains and never get to.
• Taking suckers and water shoots off the base — too thick for secateurs, not worth starting anything with a motor for.
• After a storm — cutting a fallen limb into pieces you can actually carry to the green bin.
• Up a ladder in the canopy — where light weight and one free hand matter more than power.
• Through a hedge or a screen — on the woody stems at the base that a hedge trimmer bounces off.
• In the ute or the camping gear — firewood, a track blocked by a branch, anything you did not plan for.

How It Works

1. The teeth cut and the gullets clear — the space between the teeth carries green sawdust out of the kerf, which is what stops a garden saw binding in wet wood.
2. The three-sided grind gives each tooth three cutting edges — so it severs the wood fibres rather than tearing them, and the cut face comes out clean enough for the tree to seal.
3. The curve holds the blade in contact — through the stroke the arc keeps more teeth against a round branch than a flat blade can.
4. The hardened steel keeps its edge — SK5 stays sharp through a season of green timber instead of going dull in an afternoon.

How to Use It

1. Start the cut with light strokes — three or four gentle passes to open a groove, then settle into the full stroke. Starting hard is how a blade skates across the bark and marks the tree.
2. Let the blade do the work — long, steady strokes using the full 300 mm. Pushing down hard slows the cut and bends the blade.
3. Undercut first on anything heavy — a shallow cut on the underside before you cut from the top stops the bark tearing a strip down the trunk when the limb drops.
4. Cut outside the collar — the slightly swollen ring where the branch meets the trunk. Leave it intact and the tree seals the wound itself.
5. Clear the sawdust as you go — a saw packed with wet green dust stops cutting and feels blunt when it is not.
Tip: prune in the dry. Everybody does their fruit trees on a damp winter weekend because that is when the time is, but wet green wood clogs a blade far faster and the cuts seal more slowly. The same saw on a dry day feels like a different tool.

NB: this is a cutting tool with a hardened exposed blade, and it rewards the same habits every time — cut away from your body, keep your spare hand behind the line of the blade, and set yourself properly on a ladder before you start rather than reaching across. Keep it dry between uses: the coating handles sap and damp far better than a bare blade, but SK5 is carbon steel underneath and carbon steel spots if it is put away wet. Through an Australian winter pruning season, a wipe with an oily rag after each job is the whole of the maintenance.

Care and Maintenance

• Wipe the blade dry after every use. Sap and green moisture are what start the spotting, coating or no coating.
• Run an oily rag along it before it goes away. Ten seconds, and it comes out next season the way it went in.
• Clean the sap off with methylated spirits. Built-up resin drags the blade and makes a sharp saw feel blunt.
• Put it back in the sheath. Loose in a drawer with other tools is how the teeth get knocked over.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Pruning saw
• 1 × Protective sheath