Corona BP 6250 Forged Steel Bypass Pruner

I do a tremendous amount of pruning and have for quite a number of years now. I have, for the most part, always used Felco products and as a matter of fact have two Felco F-2 pruners which are in constant use. I never thought I would say this about another product of this ilk, but these Corona By Pass Pruners, BP 6250 are just as good as my old reliable Felcos. Not only that but these things cost about half as much as the last pair of Felco pruners I cost.

Now I cannot say they are better; no, I won’t go that far, but I will say that their performance is equal and ease of maintenance is equal. I bought this pair simply because I needed another pair as I have forced my grandson into hard labor in pruning some of our ornamental bushes, roses, bush, etc., and he will be forced to prune grapes when the time comes. This has taken approximately five hours a week away from his golf, tennis, girls, X-Box and staring off into space time, and he feels quite abused. I am a cruel taskmaster though, and will not relent. He will be going into the military soon and I need to get as much work out of him as possible until that time.

Anyway….

These pruners come right out of the box very sharp and very ready to go to work. They have proven to be extremely durable and if you do not ask them to do jobs they were not meant to perform, they go through branches up to one inch like they were going through butter…just as they say they will. The forged aluminum handle make them light enough so that your arm feels much better after a couple of hours of steady work.

Fortunately the blade is made from carbon steel. This is good because you can put a very nice edge on the blade and it holds well. Sharpening with a fine file or using a fine grit stones works great as long as you know how to sharpen a blade. The blades are easy to remove and are replaceable (I have not had to do this yet). As with all carbon blades though, this tool needs to be cleaned and lightly oiled after every use as the blade will rust…staining and patina is okay, but you most certainly want to keep the rust away.

The volute spring action is smooth and most certainly resists clogging.

The locking mechanism is good and can be engaged with one thumb. The pivot bold allows for easy adjustments; very precise adjustments as a matter of fact. This pruner does have a self-cleaning sap groove which allows for a nice clean blade at all times. The handles fit my hand (and grandson’s, who actually has much larger hands than I have) perfectly so there is little strain and hand fatigue.

All in all, while I cannot say that I would ever actually replace my Felcos with these, I certainly have no qualms about recommending this pruner and when all is said and done, especially if you are not going to be using these things on a full time basis, these are probably a better by for your money than the Felco.
There is certainly no reason for these not to give the part time gardener many years of good service.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

I took a chance on this tool, since it costs 2-3X as much as the cheap ones at the local hardware that I used my whole life. I justified the purchase based on the fact that I had a tremendous amount of pruning to do (too cheap to pay anyone), and the cheaper pruners I had were dull, jamming up, not cutting thick limbs easily, and giving me blisters. Plus I’m getting older and having some joint and hand strength issues.

I’ve now owned the tool for 11 months, used it for many hours, and frankly cut a lot of brush down that is way beyond what a sensible person would take on with pruners. The BP6250 is still working like new, although it’s not pretty as it used to be. I keep it super sharp with the AC8300, definitely worth the ten bux. I consider these “fancy” pruners to be one of the finest tools in my tool chest. Would buy again, but years sooner, if I could.

Very well built And the fit of the blade to the “anvil” probably the wrong term is perfect. Cutting peach branches with these is like trimming hair. And very easy to wipe clean.