Centurion Garden and Outdoor Living is a relative newbie to the gardening and landscape tool industry. Started by a former Fiskars executive, it’s viewed as an up and coming brand. We fulfilled the a few of the key gamers at the 2018 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, where they supplied us with their Powerful Link-Force ® Double-Gear drive Lopper for evaluation.
It’s a completely unique design that bears only a passing similarity to the traditional anvil design loppers you see on the market today, and it claims to have a 2 inch cutting capability.
Does it live up to that claim? Let’s find out.
PACKAGING
The lopper was shipped in a basic cardboard box and came through without a scratch. On the lopper itself was a placard noting the functions. I especially liked the back of the lopper placard as it offered guideline on how to make a proper pruning cut. It also noted safety, maintenance and service warranty details.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
” Different”, that was my initial impression of this lopper. I was fascinated by the Guillotine style and questioned, “does this thing truly work”? It’s such an extreme departure from all the loppers I’ve examined to date (and there have actually been numerous). And a claimed two-inch cutting capability is a big claim to make. At that diameter I’m normally grabbing my folding hand saw.
GUILLOTINE DESIGN
The cutting head is an anvil style, although the cutting blade and counter blade (in this case the hooked blade at the end of the lopper) are curved, rather of straight. This design has the benefit of slicing (like a knife) instead of cleaving (like a cleaver).
I discovered this setup assisted exceptionally when cutting through larger size wood. A few of the other loppers I’ve reviewed did cut through 2-inch diameter wood but it required significantly more force (arm strength) than the Centurion Powerful Link-Force Double-Gear drive Lopper.
The “hook” at the end of the lopper assisted it stay put on the branch I was pruning. It was likewise fantastic for dealing with branches overhead, as the lopper literally hung on the branch, making it extremely simple to keep it in location and requiring less arm strength to keep it in position. And slicing up dead branches already on the ground (to make them more workable to move) was incredibly simple too. The counter-blade hook did a nice job of hooking branches on the ground and lifting them to a more comfortable cutting height.
According to the placard attached to the lopper, the compound action of the internal tailored ratchet system magnifies the cutting force by 2x. I think this explains why it takes less arm strength to blast through those 2 inch pieces of Mesquite we have here in Tucson AZ. In case you didn’t understand it, Mesquite is some of the hardest wood on the planet. And if a pair of loppers that markets it can cut 2 inch things makes it through 2 inches of Mesquite– well, I’m amazed.
BUMPERS
In order to absorb the shock of deals with knocking together when the cut is finished, these loppers use pieces of rubber-like material that’s included into the curved counter blade. This material is fairly soft and did an excellent task at soaking up the manage shock.
STURDY CUTTING HEAD
In order to load a lot of punch, the head of this lopper is pretty big. It measures 9 1/2 inches long x 5 1/2 large to accommodate the blade, parts of the deal with, and the geared system.
This big head makes the tool relatively heavy overall (4 lbs. 1 1/4 oz) and front-heavy (even though the two halves of the assembly are machined from aluminum rather than much heavier steel). It needs a fair little bit of arm strength to hold up the lopper so this might not be the best tool for those with limited upper body strength.