It can be overwhelming to select pruning tools for beginning gardeners. There are several tools and each one is designed to make a certain cut. If you use only one tool, as I did, you'll probably make bad cuts. The bypass pruners will cut a branch much more cleanly. The anvil type has much more of a pinching effect and leaves behind bruised tissues.
Hand pruners are best for most pruning jobs of wood less than a half-inch in diameter.
Use a lopper for cuts up to 1 inch. Remove anything larger than 4 inches with a sharp handsaw. After that, the chain saw becomes appropriate, but I don't recommend it. Use long scissors like the pruning shears, which have two blades to shear formal hedges and topiary. Use hand pruners to remove any branch that is relatively easy to cut.