Landscape shears

[scottg]

As promised, I rounded up my favorite shears.
 L to R
1 German curved shears. Nothing special except they work real good.
2  Pexto bypass pruners. You know how I am always telling you to bake your Rustoleum paint in the oven?  That is what I did to these 5 years ago. And they still look like this!
3  Short pruners I made up for an old head and bicycle handebar tubing. Makes a handy small pruner for tight places. 
4 Vintage Wiss hedge trimmers. Everything in my area is too big for standard hedge trimmers with short skinny handles. It takes about this much leverage to be effective.
5 Even older unmarked hedge trimmers. Super thick, massive blades! For these I made 22" long handles. I also extended the tangs to go all the way though and the handles are actually bolted on.  We have some mean brush in this area that takes too long for a short bypass pruner blade, but totally kicks the crap out of standard hedge trimmer, hand or electric either one. These will bite it effortlessly though.
6 Heavy bypass pruner head on custom super long handles. A lot of reach and tremendous leverage, but they don't weigh 100 pounds.
  yours Scott

[RedVise]

Whoa!! Wait a minute here... the last set, no.6 ??
Plain jane wooden handles, no stain, no finish, no fancy grain ????
I will give you credit for the paint, but ...
plain wood ?
Brian

[bonneyman]

Yeah Scott - what gives? Not sanded smooth as a baby bottom with about 20 coats of lacquer? Just plain wood handles?

You're slipping. lol lol

In the spirit of full disclosure, though, I wouldn't post my grouping of garden tools. As there are some Taiwanese implements among them. he he

[scottg]

 Geeze, pick on a guy!      heehehheeheh

 Its a wood problem.
 Know how hard it is for me to get hickory, or even premium ash? The nearest supply is about 1500 miles away.
Neither of the other two garden shears are made from it. Because I could get by with other woods.
  The small hedge shears are old growth "bear's claw" Douglas Fir.
 Its kind of a defect that makes the grain twist up inside. Makes it a lot stronger than usual fir like you see in a lumberyard.  For this job it was good enough.
 Not right for long loppers though.

 The big hedge shear handles are black oak. Usually black oak is nowhere near strong enough for this duty. But this particular piece was stronger than usual
 "Wood is not a uniform substance" <tm>
And with the bolts all the way way though, that made it good enough.

 But loppers lead a truly brutal life. Nothing softer than hickory will do.
Old used hickory was all I could get,............... so far.
   
  I do have some yew that may work, but its still green and drying.

  Like a putz I forgot to go "shopping" for dogwood again this year.  I only have a week, when its blooming, to be able to spot it in the woods. I just found the motherland of it last year anyway. There is a section about a mile long and 1/2 a mile wide that has lots of it. Its about 15 miles up Indian Creek. Its otherwise a really rare tree here.
 I do have a little old stuff laid by, from years past, but can't afford to squander it on a garden tool. Not until I have a lot more laid away! 
    yours Scott

[Branson]

We likes dogwood!  Had some, but don't know where I put the stuff.

[amecks]

Scott, what's the details on the baked-on paint process?  Temperature?  How long?  I have a project that could use some heavy protection.
Al.