to the branch 50 in the direction of cut c to bring the sawing blade 20 into contact with the branch 50 and to move the reciprocating saw blade through the branch 50 during this movement the sliding element 30 performs its linear sliding movement relative to the cutting blade 20 in a direction opposite to the direction of cut since it is clamped to the branch 50 thus the branch is guided across the blade 20 and is accurately cut with the clamping mechanism described the user simply holds the saw as usual with the object to be sawn near the front portion below the reciprocating saw blade when the drive mechanism of the saw is activated the vibration of the saw as a whole induces the rotational movement of the clamping arm as described and rapidly closes the clamping mechanism so that the object is clamped between the clamping arm and the supporting surface of the slide element thus the user can saw branches of trees while holding the pruning saw in one hand without the need to grip the branch with the second hand a second embodiment of the clamping mechanism is disclosed in fig4 to 12 as shown in fig4.