I figure a few good seasons and they are done

Well, aside from the handles, no plastic components here! The first thing I noticed when I pulled these out of the box was 'Oh my gosh they are HEAVY'

And yes, they tackle good side branches (1/2) easily with no bending or struggle

Most of the others had plastic rivets, doomed to quick failure

They are really solid and sharp

I was positively biased towards the Fiskars name but when I looked at many of their pruners, they had plastic components that reviewers complained broke easily