Tools

Pruning requires certain equipment without which you will injure yourself, the bush, or both.

First are gloves, preferably leather ones. Rose thorns are vicious particularly at pruning time when dormancy has allowed them to harden and winter has whittled them sharp.  You won't be able to make the necessary cuts without holding onto canes and thorny areas, so gloves are a must.

You will need shears, of course.  Fortunately, you can use the same ones I recommended for maintenance and cutting.  Just make sure they're sharp and remain so for as long as you prune.  Cuts have to be clean, and stems must never be crushed or torn.  Sharpen shears well before you begin, and again each time you feel them compromise a clean cut.

You can now buy shears that have a ratchet action.  Progressive squeezes of the handle are made until the shears are tight enough to make an effortless cut.  Pruning requires some hard squeezing, and ratchets may prove welcome after a short while.

If your bushes have been planted for more than one year, canes will have developed that are too thick to cut with shears, even ratchet-action one.  For those, you will need loppers or a saw.  Loppers are those cutting tools with relatively small blades and handles twenty inches long.  The extension of the arms provides the leverage needed for hard cuts.  If canes you need to cut are in the way of each other, the only entries to the bud union may be small, requiring a narrow saw blade with which cuts flush with the bud union can be made.  I have found that even with older bushes, I'm able to make 70 percent of my cuts with shears, and 20 percent with loppers.  For the remaining 10 percent that hands, even in gloves, can't reach into, I must resort to a saw.  Pruning saws designed specifically for these situations are ideal, and so are those saws called keyhole.