How the Fiskars PowerGear2 Loppers Changed My Weekend Brush Clearing

The back fence line on our place had been gone for years before we ever bought the property. Privet had taken the top of it, blackberry bramble had taken the bottom, and somewhere in between there were sweetgum saplings thick as your wrist. I knew when we closed on the 22 acres in 2019 that clearing that strip was going to be a job. I just figured it would be a tractor job and that the tractor would make short work of it.

Turns out the tractor only gets you so far. It handles the big cedar and the open ground fine, but the saplings and bramble grow right up against the good trees, and you can't run a bucket in there without tearing up something you want to keep. So that fence line came down to hand tools. For two summers I fought it with a pair of loppers that were older than our pickup, blades dull, handles flexing, arms aching by mid-morning.

A few springs back, I finally got tired of it. Carol had heard me complain enough that she ordered the Fiskars PowerGear2 loppers and told me to try them before I bought another cheap pair. I'll admit I was skeptical. A lopper is a lopper, I figured. One squeeze on a wrist-thick sweetgum changed my mind.

The gearing is what does it. PowerGear2 means the blade gets more force as it closes, so you're not muscling the last half inch of the cut the way you do with an ordinary pair. The bypass blade is fully hardened steel with a low-friction coating, so it cuts clean instead of crushing the wood. On a two-inch branch, it goes through like the branch is wet. I don't have to tell you what a difference that makes by the end of a long morning.

By the end of that first afternoon I'd cleared a section of fence line I'd been putting off for two years. Not because I got stronger in a single day. Because the tool stopped fighting me. The rounded SoftGrip handles are comfortable to grip, and at 3.9 pounds it's light enough to carry the whole length of the property without it wearing on you the way heavier tools do.

That's the part people don't think about until they're in the middle of it. Clearing brush isn't one big cut. It's four hundred cuts, and every one of them adds up. A tool that makes each cut easier changes the whole job, not just the part where you're actually cutting.

One squeeze on a wrist-thick sweetgum and I was sold. The fence line I'd fought for two summers finally felt doable.

Over that weekend I worked the whole section between the old oak and the creek. Privet came out in armfuls. Blackberry canes I'd been fighting for years pulled loose at the root. The sweetgums under two inches dropped with one cut each. Anything bigger than that I left for the saw, and I'll get to those this fall. It felt good to see the fence line again, even if the fence itself is still lying on the ground in pieces.

I'm not saying these loppers turned me into a young man. My back still tells me when I've been at it too long, and I still take breaks I wouldn't have needed thirty years ago. But the difference between fighting a tool and working with one is real. I cleared more brush that weekend than I had in the two summers before it put together.

Carol came out to see what all the racket was about and ended up helping me haul brush to the burn pile. She's not one to get excited about gear, but she took the loppers herself to a privet clump and said it was the first tool I've bought that didn't make her want to hide in the house when I used it. Coming from Carol, that's about as close to a ringing endorsement as you'll ever hear.

A few things worth knowing if you're thinking about these. The full lifetime warranty is real, and Fiskars stands behind it. I've put mine through three seasons of weekend work and the blade still cuts clean. I wipe it down after I use it and hang it in the shed, and that's the whole maintenance routine.

One more honest note. These will handle anything up to two inches, and in my experience that's a real two inches, not a marketing two inches. But if you've got a hillside of mature cedar or trunks bigger than your arm, that's a job for a saw or a mulcher. I'd rent the equipment or hire it out before I'd wreck a good pair of loppers trying to be a hero. Know what the tool is for and it'll treat you right.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you came over and we sat down at the kitchen table with coffee, here's what I'd say. If you've got a few acres of saplings, bramble, and old fence line to clean up, and you're doing it yourself because hiring it out costs more than the land is worth, the Fiskars PowerGear2 is worth every penny of today's price. It won't clear your property for you. You'll still put in the hours, and you'll still be sore at the end of the day. But it will stop the tool from being the thing that slows you down, and that's the whole difference between a job you dread and a job you just do. I'd also tell you to buy a good pair of gloves and some eye protection, take your time, and pace yourself. The brush will still be there tomorrow, and so will you, if you're careful. That's the advice I'd give my own neighbor, and it's the advice I'd give you.