Looks like I will soon be stripping a LOT of fallen pine branches (so they can be piled in less space). That tends to require holding the branch in one hand and pruner in the other.
Years ago I bought a ratchet hand pruner, that seemed to be the right design for such a job and worked great for a short time until it broke. I think it was the EZ KUT 3130 (otherwise one with exactly that same shape and green color).
Once it broke, the design flow seems obvious. Look at a picture of one of these online (sorry I couldn't find a URL that doesn't depend on the cookies that got me there): The ratchet mechanism is in between the two handles. In side view, you see a dot in ratchet mechanism, which is the end view of a pin. That pin is the heart of what makes it all work, but also the place the maximum forces are focused. Unless that pin is made out of something incredibly strong, it will wear out once you've cut 100 moderate branches. Some other brands have and advertise titanium for the sharp blade, to keep it sharp. But that pin is still junk and would wear out long before the blade.
Ratchet hand pruners are great to use, but not if an expensive tool is going to wear out that fast.
Have any of you seen a different design ratchet that doesn't put all the force on a rapid wear component? Or one that makes that pin thicker or from a stronger material? Or one where that high wear pin is designed to be removed and replaced (rather than the rivet-like installation of most of them, which means it must be softer metal than the rivet machine that installed it, and it can't be replaced by the end user.
