Corona-Long-Reach-Cut-N-Hold-featured-image Stick or Pole Pruner / Saw

Corona Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold Bypass Pruner (LR 3460): Product Review

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GPR RECOMMENDATION

Ease of Use
Quality
Performance
Final Thoughts

An extendable long handled bypass pruner with a lot of great features

Overall Score 5

Available on Amazon

Buy It

If you’re looking for a supplement to your bypass hand pruners to get to those areas that are hard to reach, then Corona’s Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold Bypass pruner (LR 3460) may be for you. Think of it as a bypass hand pruner attached to a long stick with a handle at the end to activate the blades.

SPECIFICATIONS

  • Overall Length: 46″
  • Blades: High carbon steel
  • Blade Coating: Non-Stick PTFE (helps prevent sap buildup and reduces cutting friction)
  • Handle: Squeeze grip at end of the pole (opposite cutting blades). Top squeeze handle has rubberized grip.
  • Foam Grip: 5 ½ inch long movable grip that slides up and down the aluminum shaft
  • Cut ‘n’ Hold Feature: Holds onto stems until released
  • Weight: 1 lb. ¼ oz.
  • Shaft Material: Aluminum
  • Stated Maximum Cutting Capacity: ½ inch

WHAT IS “CUT ‘N’ HOLD”?

Caution

Virtually all stick-style pruners are constructed with an aluminum shaft to reduce the weight. A cautionary note, aluminum is an excellent conductor of electricity, so an aluminum stick pruner should never be used around power lines.

Conventional bypass or pole pruners have blades that cut through a stem or branch, letting the cut part drop to the ground or into the canopy of the tree or shrub that you’re pruning. If the pruning debris gets caught in the canopy, you’ll have to fish it out with a rake, stick or another implement lest you have a bunch of dead, unsightly stuff left in your trees or shrubs. This can be a complete pain in the butt if you’re doing a lot of pruning and have to do all that extra clean-up.
Corona Long Handled Pruner caution

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a pruning tool that held onto the branch after it was cut so that you could pull it out and toss it away from your pruning area? Well, Corona has developed such a product – it’s called the Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold pruner (LR 3460).

The Cut ‘n’ Hold pruner grips cut plant material with twin plastic jaws that are bolted on either side of the cutting blades.

Corona Long Reach Pruner cutting head with plastic jaws

Plastic jaws bolted to both the top and bottom blades hold the branch in place after it is cut

VIDEO

Check out the video below to see how the Cut ‘n’ Hold pruner works, as well as the key features.

EXTENDABLE HANDLE TO LENGTHEN YOUR REACH

The Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold pruner has an extendable handle that lengthens your reach so you don’t have to bend over or kneel to reach into a shrub (where you couldn’t easily reach without bulling your way into the area and possibly hurting yourself or snapping off pieces of the shrub). It also makes it possible to prune above your head without the use of a ladder or step stool and not have the prunings drop on your head.

The sliding foam handle let me extend my reach by up to 68 inches; just slide this handle up and down the shaft while holding the comfortable foam tube that surrounds the aluminum shaft.

Corona Long Reach Pruner fully extended

I could reach out nearly 6 feet

To work closer in, pull the shaft backward, slide the foam handle forward and you basically have a regular bypass hand pruner.

Corona Long Reach Pruner close in pruning

With the handles fully retracted I could use the product like a bypass hand pruner

MAKING THE CUT

It’s critical that the plastic cutting jaws be placed so that they are on the outside of the branch you want to cut, and the cutting blades are facing toward the piece you don’t want to cut. If you reverse this procedure the plastic jaws will not grip the cut off branch, and you defeat the Cut ‘n’ Hold’s purpose – the cut piece will just fall to the ground.

Corona Long Reach Pruner cut on the correct side of branch

Make sure the cutting blades are toward the remaining branch while the plastic jaws are on the cut side of the branch

CUTTING DIAMETER

The Cut ‘n’ Hold claims it will cut “up to a ½ inch” diameter material. However, I was only able to cut material in the ¼-inch realm. Like most cutting tools I’ve reviewed over the years, the stated maximum cutting capacity must’ve been based on very soft wood.

I would say that the practical limit of this bypass pruner is somewhere between 1/4 to 3/8 inch. But my experience with very similar long reach bypass pole pruners is that none of them to date have cut up to their maximum stated cutting diameter (so I didn’t lower my overall rating because the LR 3640 didn’t cut ½-inch mesquite branches).

And, as a final note, the sharper and more burr-free you keep the pruner blades, the cleaner the pruning cuts will be and the greater diameter material you’ll be able to cut through.

I recommend using the Corona SolidCARBIDE sharpening tool (AC 8300). It’s an inexpensive tool that does an excellent job at keeping your blades razor sharp and burr-free.

ROTATING CUTTING HEAD FOR PROPER PRUNING CUTS

Another nice feature of the Corona Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold Pruner (LR 3460) is that the shaft/blade mechanism rotates around the cutting handle grips. This makes it really easy to adjust the cutting angle to achieve the proper pruning cut.

All too often, I’ve seen improper pruning cuts that leave behind a stub (a piece of wood that sticks out from a branch that has been pruned and usually dies back over time). This is detrimental to the health of the shrub or tree as pests and disease can enter the tree through the stub.

Corona Long Reach Pruner stub cut

Improper pruning cut leaving a stub

Stubs are especially common when using long reach pruning tools that don’t have an adjustable, angled cutting head. The nice thing about this Corona pruner is that the rotating shaft lets you easily position the cutting blades to make a proper cut.

Corona Long Reach Pruner proper pruning cut

Proper pruning cut

HOW TO ROTATE THE CUTTING HEAD

The design of the Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold gives you plenty of flexibility to make a proper pruning cut simply by rotating the cutting head.

To rotate the head, hold onto the handles (in either your right or left hand) so that the grip handles face straight down. Now spin the shaft in a clockwise direction. The shaft will rotate 180 degrees (the cutting head will go from being right side up to upside down).

The sliding foam handle on the shaft can either be gripped tightly to perform this task or just holding onto the aluminum shaft alone will do the trick. I prefer the latter since I don’t have to grip so hard to achieve the same result. I also found that if I held the pruner in either hand and rotated the handles counterclockwise, I could achieve another 45 degrees of cutting angle.

OTHER FEATURES

The pruner is equipped with a locking tab, located between the two cutting handles, allowing you to safely transport the tool without the risk of accidentally cutting something.

Corona Long Reach Pruner locking mechanism

Locking tab located on the handles makes for safe transport

There is also a rubberized grip on the top of the upper cutting handle. I found it provided excellent grip with both dry and wet hands. And the sliding foam handle on the aluminum shaft made for a very comfortable pruning grip.

Corona Long Handled Pruner rubberized handle grip

Rubberized handle (top red portion of handle) makes for easy secure gripping

Corona Long Reach Pruner foam handle

A sliding foam handle attached to the aluminum shaft made for comfortable pruning

The pruner is very light (only 1 lb. ¼ oz), so I could prune all day with this light weight.

WARRANTY

Corona offers a limited lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship.

RECOMMENDATION

I liked this little bypass pole pruner very much. It let me work on low shrubs without stooping or kneeling, gave me extendable reach for larger shrubs and small trees, allowed for close-in pruning when needed and reduced the cleanup time considerably. It’s great for getting into hard to reach places, snipping off that piece of branch and extracting it without having to reach in with your arm and pull it out. Would I add this tool my tool arsenal? You bet I would!

WHERE TO BUY

The Corona Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold Bypass Pruner (LR 3460) is available on Amazon. It can also be purchased directly from Corona Tools.

Price Reduction
Corona Long Reach Cut n Hold Bypass Pruner LR 3460
I liked this extendable bypass pole pruner very much. It’s lightweight, makes clean cuts, and is comfortable and easy to handle.

Last update on 2024-03-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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Disclaimer – GPReview would like to thank Corona for giving us a free sample to review. There was no expectation that it would be a positive review and we received no compensation for writing it. All opinions expressed here are those of the author based on personal experience using the product.

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2 Comments on Corona Long Reach Cut ‘n’ Hold Bypass Pruner (LR 3460): Product Review

  1. John

    Great Review!
    How would you compare the Corona 3460 to the ARS cut and hold long reach pruners?
    Thanks!

    • Thanks John! The biggest difference is in length – the ARS is almost 2 feet longer so it’s better in trees than the Corona. The ARS is also a little more durable, with a plastic grip instead of foam, and metal grab and squeeze handle instead of plastic. For close-in pruning (such as shrubs), I’d go with the Corona (it’s also 1/3 the price…). For trees and someone doing a LOT of pruning, go with ARS.

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