Gilmour® Ltd, a division of Robert Bosch Tool Company  Anvil Hand Pruners.

Pros: readily available, cost under $20, good sturdy tool, easy to use

Cons: none noted
Gilmour® Ltd, a division of Robert Bosch Tool Company offers a wide range of garden supplies including  short handled, handy anvil and by pass pruners.
This is the time of year when the long handle and shorter hand pruners are getting a work out as I work to ready our gardens for the winter. I like both anvil and by pass blades, each has its own job and each have a place in my tool bucket.

I especially like the Lifetime Replacement Policy provided by Gilmour: A Gilmour® product will provide complete satisfaction for the life of the product or it will be replaced free of charge (Industrial and Commercial uses are excluded.) Look for the seal on most Gilmour products.
This useful  8 inch, Gearlever ™, pruner is dandy for removing dry, hard to cut wood. Gilmour offers a range of nearly 20 pruners including by pass, anvil, long and short handle, garden scissors, home and commercial use, basic, mid-size and large as well as traditional models. This review is offered for the traditional short handled, anvil pruner having ¾ inch cutting diameter, cushioned grips, plastic lever lock and adjustable tension. Hardened, tempered non-stick steel blades are precision ground; brass anvil is replaceable.
The Gearlever cutting action provides twice the robustness of conventional tools, cutting diameter is ¾ inch. Anvil pruners sever using compression along with a somewhat chopping effort as opposed to the more scissors type motion of the bypass pruners. Anvil pruners are designed for chiseling through more sizeable, woody shoots and branches as opposed to the less substantial stems presented by flowering cultivars. Because the blade does not tend to slide off a branch once the device blade has bitten into the cane; gardener’s hand is shielded.  Anvil blades can be expected to crush stalks or mangle the canes rather than producing the sliced by pass blade cut.

I find the plastic lever lock is something even my arthritic fingers can manipulate with little difficulty.
A good bit of my pruning is one into green wood, my by-pass pruner is used for those branches, however the past two winters have been especially cold, icy and miserable. As a result I am seeing more, hard, dead wood appearing especially in my crepe myrtle. Unlike Rose of Sharon branches, Crepe myrtle canes tend to be particularly hard when dead.
The by-pass long handle or short handle pruners are not up to the job, and were not meant to be. Anvil pruners are actually designed to cut away the hard dry dead canes.

A semi lightweight, robust tool having sharp, rust thwarting stainless steel blades, is a real plus as I work in the garden. I find the strong anvil design having precision-ground stainless steel blade retains the sharp edge rarely, if ever, needs sharpening, is excellent for removing dead growth during pruning episodes and is easy for my arthritic hands to use without becoming achey and tired. I enjoy gardening and have no intention to stop simply because the hands are becoming gnarly, bent and feel repetitive action more than in years past.
Since this implement is an anvil pruner it can be expected to stay in place without slippage as I am cutting out that dead, hard woody material. Due to the arthritis in my hands weight of hand tools is most important as I ponder a new gardening gizmo.  I am more able to manipulate the shorter handle of the smaller hand tools than the longer handled pruners I also have. I do reach for the longer tools now and then, but have learned to improvise and rely on whole body for leverage rather than trying to simply grab the handles whack and cut. I am petite, arthritis reduces the strength in hands and shoulders, so longer handles are gripped with my right hand while the left handle is pressed against my side and pressure exerted both with arm and with body. If all fails to remove the large, dead branches then Husband is asked to intervene. However, I enjoy the challenge and the gardening including the occasional bruise or scrape on arms as rough branches snag.
While many tools are designed particularly for the right or left handed user I find the handles provided with this particular pruner can likely be used with either the right or left hand. I am right handed, however, there are times when it is easier to move the pruner to the left hand as I am whacking into tightly grouped branches, I am

Unlike many pruners this Gilmour pruner does not have a hang hole molded into the handle, not a problem, I do not hang small hand garden tools. I keep mine in a bucket. At the end of a work session I spritz blades and opening close mechanism with WD40 and put the tool into the bucket. I find tools cleaned and oiled at end of work sessions tend to last longer and do not become difficult to open or close. Note: to lessen danger of cuts to hands, care should be taken if wiping the blades clean at end of pruning period is undertaken.
Because the cutting blade is quite sharp; I keep the clip closed when the pruner is not in use.
Span across handles is not quite 4 inches, and is easily held and manipulated by my hand despite the arthritis. Tools have broader span do cause me some problem if I have a longer work session planned. My hand are small and arthritic.   While I do not experience a lot of crippling yet in time I may have to say goodbye to these pruners and move to others my hands can manipulate more easily as the arthritis continues to progress.
From spring into summer I tend to do a good bit of continuing pruning of living wood as I shape and thin crepe myrtle, rose bushes, and Rose of Sharon, as well as shearing of minor branches found at base of various of shade trees in the yard adjacent our house. My anvil blade pruners are used more for fall into autumn, end of season, pruning and shaping.
By tradition, pruners tend to be offered as one of three fundamental types including by pass, anvil and rachet; each has a place in the tool bucket.
Cutting blades of anvil pruners tend to be heftier than is found with those of the bypass pruners; the anvil cutting blade, sharpened on both sides thumps straight down against the anvil. The flat lower edge is designed to separate the branch from the body of the bush or tree being pruned.  Slashes made by anvil pruners are not as tidy and will not mend as rapidly as cuts made by a bypass blade should green wood be pruned back.
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I like to know something of the companies from which I purchase goods. Internet search including noting the Gilmour web site indicates:
From the Gilmour webpage:  The plant that makes “the last hose you’ll ever buy” was a much different business when it was founded in 1947. Although they were plastic, the products were injection-molded parts for everything from can opener housings to pantyhose containers and car parts.
Gilmour is an innovative developer and manufacturer of four full lines of American-made lawn and garden products. Focused on the gardener’s needs, the company creates tools that are efficient, effective, comfortable and easy to use.
Watering changed forever in 1949 when Robert Gilmour began Gilmour Manufacturing Company and introduced the first pistol grip nozzle. A new owner would continue the focus on quality and innovation. With a focus on garden hoses, the company set the standard for quality with the introduction of its patented Flexogen hose. Gilmour now is headquartered in Somerset, Pennsylvania, home of the original Gilmour plant, with additional manufacturing in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
With a rich history of gardening innovation, Gilmour constantly challenges itself to meet the needs of gardeners for today and tomorrow.
TRADEMARK NOTICE All-Seasons, Dial-A-Mix, Flexate, Flexogen, Foamaster, Full-Flo, Gilmour, Grime Blaster, Handi-Sand Blaster, Pattern Master, Perfect Cover, Select-A-Spray, Snap-Cut, Spray Doc, Super 75, Trim-EZ, and Water Weeper are registered trademarks of the Gilmour Group. Easy Reach, Flow Guard Plus, Gearlever, and WoodMaster are trademarks of the Gilmour Group. Gilmour is now part of Robert Bosch Tool Company.
Gilmour Group
P.O. Box 838  492 Drum Ave  Somerset, PA 15501
Robert Bosch Tool Corp.
One Sprinkler Lane Peoria, IL 61615
Gilmour Ltd.
6975 Creditview Road, Unit #3
Mississauga, Ontario Canada L5N 8E9