Hand Tools Reviews

I bought this after a bad experience with an extended reach hedge trimmer. It's perfect for those areas that are out of reach but don't require the big extendable pole pruner. I use it frequently to trim the web worms out of my pecan tree.

excellent trimmer!!! i have a couple of hedges that are "a few feet" out of reach of my cordless trimmer. i looked around for awhile and all i saw were these ENORMOUS "telescopic" trimmers with dangling strings that looked IMPOSSIBLY "un-wieldy". with the aid of my stepladder i was able to EFFORTLESSLY trim branches at the top of my tallest hedges and the lower regions of the trees in my yard. you can cut the limbs SIMPLY by pulling the "ball-end" of the trimmer OR (in closer corners) the sliding-handle midway up the shaft. IN EITHER CASE the cuts are EFFORTLESS. perhaps it's the "chain drive" of the cutting mechanism. ALL IN ALL,..this is a QUALITY tool. do you REALLY need a HEAVY "extension" trimmer that weighs in a 10-15 pounds?? (like me) maybe not. the Fiskar is 2 lbs. (tops) and is EASY to handle whilst navigating an average ladder AND it stores away easily in a closet/shed AND it cuts through moderately sized twigs and limbs LIKE BUTTER . PERFECT i say...just PERFECT.

VERY HANDY AND LIGHT, AVAILABLE AT TARGET FOR 39.99. I LIKE THE ADJUSTABLE ANGLE OF THE HEAD AND NO DANGLY ROPE TO TANGLE UP!

Ok, I know what you're thinking. I'm a girl with a large pocketknife...hmmm. But honestly, I love this thing. Now, I don't use it to saw wood or cut wire fences, but this is very useful for me to have. I don't use this as a "pocket" knife....more or less, it's a "purse" knife. It has gotten me out of quite a few jams in the year that I've owned it. It is always with me, and I'm thinking about buying another one to keep in my car for when I forget it. You never know when you may need this handy tool. It has everything you could possibly need, maybe a little more than I would need, but still, I love it. I also don't have many tools in my home, so when there's a small need for a screwdriver or a small pair of pliers, I just go to my swiss army knife, and it does the job.

Guys, get your girls one - to keep in their cars. They may laugh and think you're crazy for buying them a pocketknife, but what are they going to do if they are in a bind and you're not around with your knife?

Very pleased with this knife. Easy to open, right in size. Perfect design on every single piece tool. This is the best $40 you can spend on.

Swiss army knives are an excellent investment. Victorinox is known for its reliability, durability and usefullness, and this knife is one of the best. There are so many tools here that you just can't go wrong with it.

Victorinox knives are a great gift for men. I think women would like this too, once they see how useful it is (there are various other Victorinox knives for every type of taste). Your friends will be impressed when they see your super-utile tool. This knife is worth every penny (it's the cost of a few movie and restaurant outings after all), and make sure you keep it with you whenever you go camping, around the house, in the car, or anywhere. Having this Victorinox knife is like having a whole toolshed in a small, compact, portable, and elegant package. There are two main blades, a long one and a small one. Then there are the very useful scissors, which work very well. There's a little saw, an awl, a corkscrew, a fish scaler with doubles as a small ruler, and even a magnifying lense. There's also a really cool little pen. There are screw drivers and can openers, and much more.

When I first borrowed a friend's mini cultivator a few years ago, I was in heaven. Finally, something I could use to till my soil that was light enough for me to handle and easy enough for me to start, yet tough enough to really churn up the dirt. Unfortunately, when I got around to buying one of my own, I didn't buy the same brand. Instead, I bought a Ryobi. Since I also needed a weed eater, I figured that going with the attachment plan would save me money.

Although I like the trimmer very much, I'm not as impressed as the other reviewers with the cultivator attachment. It just doesn't feel very powerful. I attempted to use the Ryobi cultivator to work an established herb garden, and am about to give up and rent a more powerful cultivator. Perhaps my soil was too hard and compacted to work well with a mini cultivator. The Ryobi barely dug into the ground, turning up only the surface soil. I was extremely disappointed.

I do think that once I work up the soil with something stronger, the Ryobi cultivator will work well for maintenance tilling. I was impressed with how maneuverable the cultivator was. I could work around fairly densely planted herbs and perennials without destroying any desirable plants.

Based on my initial use, the blades seem quite durable and don't seem to get tangled with weeds very easily. Switching the attachments works well, too.

One design aspect that I expect to remain a drawback is the handle style. I found the handle bars on the other cultivator (unfortunately, the brand name escapes me--Stihl, I think) much easier to handle than the one-long-handle arrangement on the Ryobi.

For looser soil, the Ryobi should work fine for you, but unfortunately, my yard just isn't as cooperative as the other reviewers.

I've never touched a lawnmower, weedeater, or any other garden tool up until 2 months ago when I bought my first home. The landscaping needs a complete overhaul, and thanks to this cultivator, I think I'll be able to do it myself. I've already redone the rock-hard old raised beds in the front of the house. Now if only I could buy an Add-On Handyperson attachment!

You can't hurt this thing. It tears through ANY soil, roots etc and does so as well as the big tillers that don't fit in a household garden. This is useful for small vegetable gardens, but the best use is refreshing the soil around shrubs in your foundation beds. Its litle head gets in tight spaces, and you can drop it straight down into a spot you couldn't wheel a big tiller into. It gets roots tangled around it, but clears easily. The tines are indestructible, as is all the rest. I'm glad I got the 4-cycle 875R trimmer, because this thing uses all the torque it puts out. A very good investment. Saves a whale of a lot of storage in the garage, too!!!

These loppers cut extremely well and are very easy to use! My husband's only complaint is that the handles must be open to a very wide angle before you can make a cut. This can be a problem if you are trying to cut a branch that is deep within a bush or a tree.

These Fiskar PowerGear Loppers work well. We use two of them and just ordered another. Thanks!

Years ago, after reading about the Fiskars cutters, I went to Home Depot to purchase a pruner for trees and large shrubs. Home Depot carried only another brand of ratchet lopper to cut up to 1 ¾ inch branches and having a length of 28"; it came with a lifetime warranty. The lopper was excellent, and would complete a cut with no effort other than a few easy to make cranks of the arm. I like the long arms - can reach higher branches and don't have to bend for low shrub branches. When a neighbor gave it a little too much to cut, the blade broke. After getting the distributors information from my file, I found the company no longer existed: no more life in this lifetime warranty. I had no idea where to purchase a new blade and considered it not worth the time and cost to find out.

Appreciating the ease of a ratchet lopper, I went shopping for a similar cutter. I wasn't finding a long arm ratchet lopper, and web research introduced me to the gear driven lopper. Checking Fiskars, I found their 32" PowerGear Pro Bypass Lopper 91546935 with 2" cutting capacity. The best price was on Amazon. I hoped to like it as much as the ratchet... and I do. An arm does not have to be cranked; only steady pressure needs to be applied to the arms, using it is easier than slicing a firm stick of butter; I have no idea how this works.

I don't expect Fiskars to have a short Lifetime warranty.

The Leatherman Super-Tool 200 is for the most part the finest tool of it's' kind.
It has the largest knife blades, a very secure locking mechanism, the best saw, as well the widest variety of flat screwdriver sizes. It will do just about anything.
The only down side to this tool for me is the needle-nose pliers, not much good for a quick turn on a nut or bolt. But if you only want to carry one tool on your belt, this is the one to have!

I've owned SOG, Proto, Gerber and a few other Leathermans but without a doubt, this is the very, very best one that I have used to date. It has heft, a comfortable yet powerful pliers grip that doesn't bite into your palms, backwards compatibilty with the earlier Leatherman accessories, a well-thought-out array of "tools" and a terrific positive lock mechanism that secures the selected "tool" in the open position. The leather case is a bit obtuse for quick access but one quick visit to the Leatherman website and I purchased a ballistic nylon case with velcro closure and a loop for my Mag-Lite AA flashlight. I wear it every day and have reached for it countless times. If you're in the market for a quality big-league multi-tool, do yourself a favor and take a long, hard and close look at this beauty from Leatherman. I don't believe you'll be disappointed.

If every company produced products like Leatherman and backed their products like Leatherman, the world would be a better place. I use my Supertool every day and feel lost without it. It's like a comprehensive tool kit in one small and sturdy package. Even if I forget every other tool I need for a job, I usually can still manage if I have my Supertool with me. Thanks Leatherman for making something actually worth every penny I paid... times 1,000!

After owning mine for a couple of months now, I have to say that I'm thoroughly pleased with this multi-tool. I had previously questioned how much use I'd actually get out of it (I've been living the first 22 years of my life without one), but I have to say that I find myself using it at least 2-3 times a week (I'm a programmer/developer, so it wouldn't seem like I'd have that much use for it).

The design is nice in that it's compact, very sturdy, and really not that heavy. The whole thing, when folded up, is barely (just barely) wider than my thumb.

It contains a total of 7 tools:
1. Blade. *Very* sharp. I often use it to cut open that annoying plastic packaging that's sealed around the edges that's popular now with electronics.

2. File. Haven't used it yet, but it's large and has two different textures. Too coarse for filing my nails ;)

3. Small Screw Driver. Perfect size for tightening screws on the frames of my glasses.

4. Letter Opener. Heh, I typically use the blade :)

5. "Single Axis"/Compact Philips Head Screw Driver. I questioned how well this design would work at first, but it saved me quite a bit of time once when I was installing a door knob and realized that I had forgotten to bring a Phillips head screw driver and my cordless drill's battery died.

6. Flat Head Screw Driver/Bottle Opener. Both very useful.

7. Pliers. I've had trouble getting myself to exert a lot of pressure on it in fear of snapping it, but it seems very sturdy. When you open the pliers, there's a nice satisfying mechanical "snap snap" :) Excellent for manipulating small objects. The "spring" mechanism has an excellent feel to it.

Overall, a great tool that you'll find yourself using more than you think you would. I think a tool of this size is better for the average Joe whereas a bigger, more comprehensive multi-tool would server powerusers better.

I gave a pair of these, with the pliers, to my husband for his birthday. He loves them! He uses them all the time and they are sturdy! The best part is Leatherman has a lifetime warranty if something happens to break.

I own the model with the pliers. This thing is a lifesaver! I work in a library - a pretty tame place, tool-wise - but no matter where you work, you seldom go very long without needing a tool of some kind. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you won't need anything that isn't on the Squirt.

All the tools on the Squirt are top quality. My favorites are the steel file and the excellent pliers. These are tools that, when you need them, you often REALLY need them, and it's great to have them in your pocket!

Rugged, well made. Will twist around today's spiral 2X stock.

I have a friend who lost his hand during a construction accident last summer. Well, he wasn't much of a friend...more of an aquaintence who would call you on the weekends and act like he knew you better than he did. Anyways, he lost his hand on my day off, so I only heard about the incident second-hand (no pun intended). Of course, it was weird for a couple weeks, but by the contractor's Christmas party that year, everyone thought it would be funny to buy him a gag gift, as is the tradition.

We decided to buy him the Mayhew 41500 TWEAKER, because it looks like a hand, and is also very handy (no pun intended.) Now, he actually uses it for a hand. He absolutely loves this unintended miracle. It's sort of a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, we're all really happy that he found a tool to replace his hand with. On the other hand, we're all sort of sad that our malicious scheme backfired on us. I may be weighing the outcome in my head for the rest of my life.

But all that said, I really recommend the Mayhew 41500 TWEAKER for its handiness. If a crippled, one-handed man can get all that use and love out of it, think of what you can do with two.

Great tool, I've used it several times and it actually does more than I expected. It is a must-have.

This is a fabulous little saw. With a 0.020" kerf, I use it for cutting fret slots in guitar fingerboards. It cuts beautifully and stays much sharper than my gents saw from Crown. I think Japanese saws are inherently superior to Western saws, and this one is a real winner. For 13 bucks, just get it! You WILL love it.

I agree with most everyone else here...this is a great saw for the money. I have a dovetail saw, that I have used for years so I mostly use this little saw for trimming dowels and making wooden hinges. It is so easy to get an accurate cut and stop on the bottom cut line that I have quit using the bandsaw to make hinges. The blade, when sharp of course, cuts thru even the hardest hardwoods and leaves a very clean cut. Cleanup with chisel and file is almost totally eliminated. New blades are as cheap as paying to have it sharpened so there is no reason to have a dull saw. Recommend this one highly.

What a difference ... I'm a student, trying to come to grips with the different facets of woodworking.

I'm a rank beginner - so, i had nothing to "unlearn" - push vs
pull. it's very simple to use, the thin kerf and super sharp blade slicing wood like you won't believe !

The only "gripe" is the absence of a spine - you'll do well to
spend a bit more and get the Dozuki ..

All in all, a Great Saw !

The Swiss Army Cybertool 41 is the ultimate in key-chain pocket tools that WILL get used daily. While heavier and slightly larger than the Cybertool 29 or a "regular" Victorinox knife, the addition of the pliers and scissors alone make the Cybertool 41 worth the extra bulge in purse or pocket. For folks thinking of buying this tool: this is basically a Handyman knife with the addition of a replaceable bit screwdriver, a set of 10 common bits (hex socket, Torx, Pozidrive, Phillips, flat), a pen, a pin and a mini (eye glasses) screwdriver. The additions to the Handyman make this tool the daily workhorse it is: there is very little you can't do with this tool in daily life.

If you need more than this knife offers, I'd say go to the toolbox and get the full-size single-purpose tool. A Leatherman might be bigger on pliers, but the Cybertool beats is in size and comfort of use.

A GREAT Christmas or birthday gift for best friends, girlfriends and wives!

I'm a geek, but you probably wouldn't pick me out in a lineup (not that I've been in a lineup, but...). Anyway, I must say that the Cybertool Pocket Knife really is as great as other people say. It's easy to use, and I find myself carrying it with me far more than any other tool I have, just because it is so verstile.

Okay, I'm not the geek, my husband is, but I bought this knife for him months ago and he's not been to work without it yet. He is a software developer and does a bit of work with hardware as well. He says it's a great tool for anyone doing detail work with computers, eyeglasses or musical instruments. It has come in handy with (his glasses, obviously) and my flute. We've also found uses for it with kid's toys (getting those damned battery compartments open), cell phones, aquariums, baby monitors, stereo equipment, and as a handy-dandy package and letter opener. You don't need to be a geek to apprecaite all that!

This is a truly an amazing tool. The amount of time you will save in using this tool in crazy. I am removing a plywood subfloor placed ontop of an existing hardwood floor. The plywood was nailed all over the place and all of the nails were sunk deep into the plywood. Up until I got this tool I was chipping away the plywood to try and get at the nail heads. Now I just set the tool, slam the handle down and dig it out. After a little practice you will be cranking along and using the tool like a pro. Highly recommended.

This is one of the finest tools I have ever owned although it is also the ugliest. I found mine in a small hardware store in central New Hampshire 30 years ago. It was cheap then and I thought it was a hoot not realizing what it could do. Even though it weighs too much and is too long, I always keep it in my tool bag. I love to see the look on the faces of even experienced carpenters when I use it. Can't leave it lying around a job site if you know what I mean.

The secret to using it is to set one side of the jaws at the nail head and then lightly tap the sliding handle until the jaw seats under the head, then keep tapping it as you lever the tool over the head. When the other jaw is engaged just pull the nail out with a wonderful creaking sound. You can get pretty fast with it after a while.

Drive a 16d with an air powered framing nailer. If you don't like it, pull it right out with this. Any other bar or pliers will make a big old mess on your material. The way an air nailer countersinks a nail, you have to get below the surface of the wood. This tool does that, with a lift of the handle, then a firm slam down. Then when you rock it back onto the foot, the nail is pinched tighter than any thing else can pinch without cutting the nail. Keep a steady pull on the handle and the nail WILL come out. Amazing. Old ideas are still sometimes the best ideas.