The Ames Company TP 3714 14' Compound Tree Pruner

I picked up one of these thinking I would trim up some of the low branches that were interfering with my grass cutting chores. Like the other reviewers said, the blade clogs up and binds and the damn tools wears you out in a few strokes. Now this is not new technology. My uncle, who worked for Ma Bell in NJ way back in the fifties had one of these that had Bamboo sections with aluminum end sockets that locked together and that saw would cut through a 4 inch limb like a hot knife through butter.With this saw, the top pole pulls out when you don't want it to because of the compression style lock, the blade sucks. I mean it sucks. Cmon People, we arent doing cabinet work we are trying to get through a wet, sappy tree limb. Longer Teeth, Fewer Teeth, More set to avoid bind, and a thicker blade made of higher carbon Steel. Once again, they tried to hit a price point and missed the whole point of the tool. I cant believe they could not get this right.Very DisappointedJimA

this has been a real bummer for me. I have had it back to the store twice and they couldn't get it to work. the problem was that the blade would not return and I thought it was jamming. I replaced the rope with a 3/16" diamond nylon cord - where the cord turned around, there was not enough space for the two [up and back]. I put washers on each side of the round thing the cord goes around to eliminate the smaller cord from getting stuck in there. my current problem is getting the limb into the space where the blade come down and cuts. there could be some operator problem here as this is my first attempt at using one of these. it is heavy and difficult for me to hold this thing up there and then not be able to get the limb into place and not know if the blade is stuck again. right now the blade does not return 100% and some blade is sticking out reducing the space for the limb to enter the cutting area; so I am now trying to figure out how to clean out any tree sap that might be in there. like the person said; "it is a work out" and very frustrating. no stars

The first few times I used this saw it worked great, but like the other reviewers stated, the limb cutter does jam. This tool will really give you a workout.

The handling of this tool is quite good but, the blade plugs all the time even though we put oil after every use, the worse is that the head of this pruner breaks on regular home. We use to have a Trupper pruner that lasted over 10 years, we are still looking for a new good pruner.

The metal on the top of this tool is too weak, and the screw that holds the balde turns into. The blade and tool can then not be used and the tool becomes useless. This occured with below normal home use.