Best Folding Pruning Saws of 2026

The detail that makes the Laplander our default isn't the blade — it's the lock. It clicks into place open and closed, so a saw dropped back into a pack or a truck box has no tooth waiting to find a finger or a stuff sack. Of everything here, this is the one we stopped thinking about, which is the best thing you can say about a folding tool.

The 7-1/2-inch blade with 7 TPI XT teeth is mid-length for this group, and we liked how little it cares about the condition of the wood: green limbs, dry deadfall, a bit of sappy pine, all of it comes off in fast, clean strokes. The blade is thick enough that it doesn't wander in a deep cut, and the low-friction coating keeps it moving once the kerf closes around it. The teeth take wood on both strokes, so a hesitant, badly angled push still removes material instead of polishing the bark.

The handle is a two-component plastic and rubber grip that stays put in wet weather, with a leather strap for hanging it off a belt. At 7.52 ounces it disappears in a daypack, yet there's enough handle to get a second hand on it for a stubborn cut — a combination the tiny saws here can't offer. It sits in the middle of the range on price, well under the Japanese blades and a step or two above the budget ones, which is the right place for a saw you'll use for years.

What it won't do is make a four-inch limb disappear in three strokes the way the GomBoy will. This is a saw for the branches a lopper can't reach, and for that job we never felt it come up short.

Nine and a half inches of 1.5 mm steel, a 4.7-inch cut capacity, and a taper-ground blade that only cuts on the pull — this is a different tool from the Laplander, not a longer version of it. Where the Bahco forgives a clumsy stroke, the GomBoy rewards a deliberate one: load the teeth, pull, and the saw does most of the work.

Impulse-hardened, non-set teeth leave a narrow kerf, which is why it moves through a four-inch limb so quickly, and the hard hinged plastic case means it can ride in a truck or a pack without the teeth finding something else to cut. We appreciated that the case is rigid; a soft sheath around a blade this sharp is an invitation to a sliced pack.

The trade-off is the blade itself. At 1.5 mm it's among the thinnest steel here, and thin steel punishes impatience — force a stroke, or lever the tip to free it from a pinched kerf, and the tip is what goes. Used as intended, with light pressure and the teeth tracking their own line, it's the fastest cutter in this set and the one we reach for first when a branch is too big for the others. At 250 g it's light for the reach.

The Japanese handle is the other thing we noticed: it's shaped to fill the palm, so a long session of limbing doesn't leave the web of your hand sore the way a skinny budget handle does.

The blade is curved, and that curve is the whole argument for this saw: it keeps the teeth loaded against the wood through the stroke instead of skating over bark, so a seven-inch blade cuts like something longer. We used it on shrubs, roses, and the mess of sucker growth along a fence line, and it's the one here that felt made for garden work rather than for camping.

Six razor teeth to the inch on a high-carbon SK5 blade, a push-button lock-back, and a cushioned handle that still works with gloves on. That button matters more than it sounds: it releases the blade easily, so you can fold the saw away with one hand while the other holds a branch out of the way. At 9.6 ounces it hangs on a belt all afternoon without you noticing.

Where it stops is size. A seven-inch blade is a pruning blade, and a six-inch limb will have you sawing long enough to reconsider the plan. Everything else about it is built to last: the steel is high-carbon SK5, the pivot feels tight rather than loose, and Corona backs it with a limited lifetime warranty.

A belt pouch, an auto-lock that clicks over when the blade reaches full open, and no exposed teeth once it's folded — that's most of the way a folding saw should behave, and it's the budget one here that gets it right.

The blade is a D6A and M2 bimetal with a Teflon coating, 7 inches long with 7 TPI triple-ground teeth. The coating isn't decoration: sap and resin wipe off instead of setting, which matters if you cut much pine. Packed dimensions come in at 9.2 by 2 by 1 inches, small enough for a jacket pocket or the pouch, and the handle has a lanyard hole and a non-slip grip that stays usable in the wet.

What we liked most is how much capability comes with it. It cuts wet green wood cleanly and doesn't demand the delicate touch the thin Japanese blades do. What we didn't love is the flex. On dry hardwood the blade loads up and you can feel it give, so steady pressure beats muscling through — the saw will finish the cut, but it wants to be guided rather than forced.

The pouch has a belt loop and a snap, so this is the saw that stays on you instead of sinking to the bottom of a bag, which is the small thing that decides whether a folding saw gets carried.

Felco grinds this blade conical — thinner along the top edge, thicker toward the teeth — so the kerf widens behind the cut and wet, sappy wood clears instead of packing in. We noticed it first on green growth, where other saws start to drag halfway through a cut and this one keeps its rhythm.

It's the shortest blade in this set at six inches with 6 TPI, and the pull-stroke action makes it feel sharper than the length suggests. What it's for is precision: taking out a crossed branch inside a shrub, cutting a stub back to a collar, working where a lopper won't fit and a longer saw won't turn. The handle is a slim TPE grip that stays put in wet weather, and at 6.4 ounces it folds down to something you can drop in a jacket pocket.

The blade is the delicate part. It's fine enough at the tip that levering it out of a tight kerf can snap it, so cut cleanly and don't use the point as a pry bar. Everything else carries Felco's usual build quality, and the saw is backed by a limited lifetime warranty.

Eight inches of SK5 steel with 7 TPI staggered teeth, and a stated appetite for branches four to five inches across. On paper this is the most blade for the money in the group, and it's the saw we kept for the rough jobs: sappy pine, dirty storm limbs, anything we didn't want near a premium edge.

The handle is the longest here, a rubber-coated polymer grip that leaves room for a second hand on a stubborn cut, and at 9.76 ounces it still packs down small. The teeth are aggressive and cut on both strokes, which makes short work of green wood and a slower job of dry hardwood.

Where it gives ground is stiffness: the blade is the flexiest here, and in a deep kerf you can feel it load up. Steer it through the cut instead of leaning on it and it tracks straight; force it and you'll spend the rest of the branch fighting the saw.

We think it earns a place anyway, because nothing else here gives you this much reach so cheaply. Go in knowing it's a workhorse rather than a lifer, and the money you save buys a saw you won't mind abusing.

This is the least expensive saw in the group by a wide margin, and it doesn't pretend otherwise: a 7.7-inch high-carbon blade, 7 TPI staggered teeth, a rubber handle, a push-button lock. No case, no pouch, no extras.

The blade is actually longer than the top pick's, and on soft green wood it cuts like a saw costing more — the teeth are aggressive, the handle fits a gloved hand, and at 8.48 ounces it's light enough to live in a shed or a truck door pocket without anyone noticing. It claims branches up to four inches, which is about right on green wood and optimistic on dry hardwood.

The edge is where the money went missing. Its teeth are the least convincing in this group, and it's the saw we trust least to still be cutting cleanly after a hard season. That's a fair trade for something that gets used on shrubs and sappy volunteers, and a poor one if it's going to be your only saw.

Where it earns its place is as the second saw: one for the shed, one for the truck, one for the plot you only visit at weekends. We kept reaching for it for exactly the jobs where a nicer blade felt like a waste — a sappy stump, a branch dragged out of a hedge, a dirty limb off a fence line.