hehe. a russian fella once told me, "cheap guy pay twice." Chinese disposable pruners are fine for the occasional user, but they won't last more than a couple of days under commercial stress.
My personal favorite is the felco 11. With a sharpening once every couple of months, the felco will last a lifetime.
As far as loppers goes, my favorite is a little known brand called Vaca Shears. The commercial lemon pruners in Southern Calipornia used those. A buddy of mine who worked in the lemon orchards bought Home Cheapo's best / most expensive loppers (corona), and within one 8 hour work day, the blade was destroyed. The next day he got a pair of vaca loppers which lasted through the entire season without the slightest problem. I eventually inherited them and still use them 13 years later :-).
http://www.vacashears.com/treeshears.html I use the 34 incher with aluminum handle.
For psycho tree hoarders who garden / graft after dark, Zebra Light makes what could be the best headlight on the market, even besting petzl's much higher priced counterpart in terms of small size, flexibility, and light output. It pupes out about 4 hours of near daylight output, perfect for top working mango trees in the middle of the night. Make sure to get the 3100 mah batteries and a good charger like the Pila.
http://www.zebralight.com/H600-Cree-XM-L-750Lm-Headlamp-18650_p_72.html It comes with a head-band, not sure why it's not in the product pictures.
Nothing like a cheap date at Christmas time!
I go for cheap, many and redundant like an RPG, anti-tank or a Silkworm missile. Or the modern jets flying on three redundant hydraulics and wiring.
