I am a woman in my late 50s with tendinitis in both of my wrists from years of typing. I bought these ratchet pruners knowing that other reviewers had said they would not consistently open or close cuz the locking mechanism was too stiff. At first that was true for me also – could not get the darn things to open a time or two and then regularly could not get them to close. However, I did two things: First I wrapped a little piece of Velcro strap around the handle, so that if it wouldn’t close while I was out in the garden, I could always just strap it shut for safety. Second, I figured out that if I squeezed the handles together slightly, to relieve pressure on the locking mechanism, I could open and close them pretty consistently. Just *every* once in a while the lock still kind of hangs up, and I think that happens especially after a lot of ratcheting, and that is when I use the Velcro strap. This was my first time buying ratchet pruners and I did not know how to use them, and there are no instructions basically. So at first I had no idea what I was doing and I found them very frustrating. For me the trick is to gently “pump” them – you squeeze until you feel some resistance from the branch or stem, you let go slightly and then squeeze again and you will probably hear the ratchet click, and then you can do that one more time. Once I started gently “pumping” them, they’ve worked great, and I am very happy to have them.
