A pruner has a movable handle/blade assembly pivotally coupled to a static handle/blade assembly by a pivot assembly carried by the static handle. The pivot assembly further has a bush within the static handle and on which the movable handle/blade assembly is pivotally mounted, a spring for pivotally biasing the movable handle/blade assembly to an open position being retained by the pivot assembly within the static handle. Both the movable blade and static blade are mounted on the bush and are clamped laterally between two separate parts of the bush which are assembled together in screw threaded engagement, and the two blades are supported from the bush by a bearing ring of low friction material.