Products with a multiple-purpose design and various uses are good value. Kango’s pruning recipro blades are an excellent example. The blades can tackle many cutting tasks, saving time and money in the process.
Unlike a chainsaw, there is nearly always a recipro saw on site or in the work vehicle. Kango’s pruning blades aren’t a replacement for a chainsaw when there’s serious logging to be done, but for tradies who need to cut back branches, shrubs and small trees to set up scaffolding, or maybe to cut back branches blocking work on a new deck or pergola, the Kango blades are ideal.
Keeping this in mind, we decided to see exactly what these blades were capable of, pushing the blades – and a recipro saw – to the limit.
TEST #1: STUMP REMOVAL
We found a cut-off tree stump poking up through the grass which was too tall to mow over. It measured around 230mm-240mm in girth and was a pain. It made for the perfect first test.
Let’s be clear: this was taking things to the extreme for a pruning blade. But what the hell? If anything was going to show us what these blades were made of, it was this particular challenge.
The whole purpose of the Kango pruning blade is to tackle jobs around the building site or home where picking up a chainsaw from off-site, setting it up and using it would burn up a heap of time and effort. Instead a Kango pruning blade can be slipped into a recipro which is already available and ready to go.
It was easy to position the saw on its side and slowly angle left and right as the bi-directional, induction-hardened teeth sliced their way through the stump. It allowed cutting low enough to the ground, close to grass level, that a mower would be able to run straight over the top of the remaining stump. Due to the reduced weight of the recipro compared to a chainsaw, the saw was easy to hold and control throughout the cut. The wide gullets of the blade did a great job removing the material that was sliced and diced by the heat-inducted, ultra-sharp teeth.
Will arborists scrap their chainsaws and start using recipros with these Kango pruning blades?
Of course not. Professionals who use chainsaws all day long and carry them in their work trucks will continue to do so. But for those of us who don’t, this is a real option. In most worksite cases the cut would be finished and the next job started before a chainsaw in the shed would’ve been found, let alone fuelled, juiced up with bar oil and started.
For most builders and tradies this is going to be a great option.
TEST #2: ACTUAL PRUNING
As good as the result from the first test was, we figured we’d better use the pruning blade and recipro for what it was designed for: pruning.
The blade sliced so effortlessly through smaller branches that there was no doubt it fitted into the pruning category, but we decided to ramp it up to medium-sized and larger tree growth around the 60mm-90mm size. Again, the pruning blade destroyed these in seconds, which made working up high or out wide a great deal easier.
Nobody wants cuts taking a long time when they’re at full stretch.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
There was plenty of good and even great on this test, including the sharpness and durability of the teeth. There didn’t seem to be any dulling of the blade edge throughout our few-dozen cuts. The team at Kango has tested and rated the durability and performance of these blades and they’re expected to last for hundreds of cuts. From our time with them, and the work we asked them to do, we have no problem vouching for the quality of the Kango pruning recipro blades.
Visit: www.kangotools.com.au