A solid tool to add to your gardening/yard cleaning arsenal. Now up front these are a little different than an old pair that I am use to. It is this difference that for some you could rate this 4/5 instead of 5/5. The weight of these, the thickness, and the mechanism make for a bit more cumbersome tool to use. So for those who are not as strong, these would not be the best fit. ____ Now outside of that difficulty, I think for the rest of us the strength of this tool, the heft, the grip, the weight, the cutting mechanism will be just fine. And easy to get use to in time. For most there probably wouldn't even be a need to get use to. These are indeed well made and solid cutters. One of the cool features that this cutter offers is the ability to make it longer. There is a orange button on both bars that allow you to make incremental adjustments to the length if you wanted or needed. ____ Now I won't go to say that this is the sharpest tool and able to easily cut a branch thicker than intended, but for how it is designed, these cutters work very well. And as such should serve the user to do some decent trimming. Ive been doing so much trimming the past week, that my arms and hands are really sore. So be warned of the workout :-) ____ So if you are looking for a solid trimmer/cutting tool, give these a shot.