Resources: Felco Nos. 8 and 9 Pruners
After Nearly 40 Years, There’s Still Nothing Better
To control exuberant canes and vines and have full crops of grapes or raspberries, for instance, or to shape a young apple tree, it’s essential to prune. Felco pruners with their red-plastic-coated handles are an icon in their home country of Switzerland. They’re unusually well-designed and well-made, produced in both left- and right-handed models. They fit your grip; they’re comfortable and effective, a pleasure to use. Around our house, they’re so popular, being equally useful on nonedible landscaping, that this summer I bought a second pair. A backyard gardener might never dull them, but the cast-aluminum handles are fitted with an easily replaceable carbon-steel blade and counterblade. During the ten or 12 years since I bought my originals, they’ve been used a lot. At one point, I replaced the blade, and now it’s time again. In fact, every part of the tool is replaceable (there’s a complete list on felco.com), but it’s hard to imagine that anything apart from the blade would wear out. The pruners run around $45 on various US websites; oddly, European prices are higher. Note that Felco 8 is for righties, Felco 9 is for lefties. ● From issue 102By Edward Behr