ask This Old House
62 tips, tricks, and answers to your home-improvement questions
Q Over the years, I’ve acquired all sorts of pruners and loppers, both the bypass and anvil types. When should I use each kind?
—BOB ROTH, DENNIS, MA
A Bypass pruners, and bypass loppers like the one at left, have a curved blade that sweeps past a lower jaw. Use them to make clean cuts in live branches, which is 90 percent of most pruning. The anvil types have a straight blade that strikes a metal plate. Their cuts tend to crush, so use them only on dead wood. Hand pruners are meant for twigs and branches no more than ½ inch across. Most loppers can handle branches up to 2 inches thick, thanks to the leverage of their long handles. This 30-inch Centurion lopper (centurionbrands.com) has telescoping handles and a geared jaw. Together, they multiply leverage twofold.
—ROGER COOK, TOH LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR
Q I want to put in a natural-stone pathway so that I won’t have to walk through the mud in
