I was unable to complete testing for the Flexrake LRB168 Ratchet Anvil Pruner because a tiny screw that holds the ratchet to the blades popped out and disappeared. The EZ Kut Heavy Duty Ratchet Pruner used to be a pick. Do yourself a favor and get the ARS HP-VS8Z or Okatsune 101 instead. $ 59) requires no cords, oil, or gas, as it … Felco also has made every individual part of the pruners available, so if anything on them ever does break it’s an easy task to source and replace the broken part. When to use these pruners: These are pruners for sharing. If you have smaller hands, this pair is a great option. It tended to crush the dowels, but it did sever them, and it made good, flat cuts in live branches. The Coronas are stiffer. They did a better job of cutting thick branches than any other pruners in our sample. Chain saws, chain saw chains, and accessories can take down dead trees. Still using same pair and they still work as good as new!” This extreme level of durability sets Felco products apart from all the cheaper pruners you can get (and really, most products in the modern world). It isn’t as pleasingly smooth as the ARS or Felco pruners, and can feel as though it’s pushing back on your hands. Felco pruners have a solid reputation for a good reason: They cut cleanly through every plant you’re likely to encounter in your garden, from delicate flower stems to half-inch diameter branches. The Corona BP 3180’s handles are also large enough, and splay out widely enough, to feel unwieldy for many people with small to medium hands—but if you have big hands and a small budget, the Corona BP 3180 is a solid choice. A great pair of pruning shears also feels comfortable in your hands, and is easy to sharpen and repair. I judged the tools by the quality of their cut—whether they mashed the material or left fibers hanging, whether they required a great deal of force to make the cut, and whether they cut consistently throughout the testing. Team them with the Bosch Cordless Garden Saw and the Bosch Cordless Shrub Shears and you have yourself a fantastically efficient, all round set of pruning tools. I cut through each one 10 times apiece, and then I snipped through the scallions again and washed and dried the pruners so that my home office wouldn’t smell like onions while I was writing this review. Slim and short, they open very wide (6 inches across at the base), making it hard for users with smaller hands (like me) to grasp them, and the handles feel slightly slippery in damp conditions. The latch is difficult to close with one hand. The Gardena 8757 Classic Vine Bypass Hand Pruner required more force overall to close than other bypass pruners. Pruner handles matter because handles that are too big or too small for your hand will be unwieldy and uncomfortable. According to Fiskars, the Fiskars PowerGear2 “multiplies leverage to give you up to 3.2x more power on every cut.” However, power is not the same as finesse. DUP362 is a battery powered pruning shear powered by two 18V LXT batteries in series, and developed on the model DUP361. Torn, ragged cuts are a sign that the pruner blades have become dull. We also wanted pruners that could perfectly fit a user’s grip and permit opening and closing with one hand, which is key to having a great pair. Uneven cuts make it harder for a plant to heal, expose more area to insects and disease, and create crevices in which water can collect, increasing the chance of infection and rot. © 2020 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company, Corona BP 3180 Classic Cut Forged Bypass Pruner, Corona BP 3130 Classic Cut Forged Bypass Pruner, Tierra Pro 38-1713 7.5″ Bypass Pruning Shears, Tierra Pro 38-1710 8.5″ Bypass Pruning Shears, Burgon & Ball Professional Compact Bypass Secateur GTO/PRL, Tierra Garden 35-1731 Ergo Forged Bypass Pruners, Gardena 8757 Classic Vine Bypass Hand Pruner, Tierra Pro 38-1707 7″ Bypass Pruning Shears, Corona BP 3350 Bypass Pruner with Adjustable Grip, AM Leonard 1286 Traditional Bypass Pruners, ARS HP-VS8R Signature Heavy Duty Rotating Handle Hand Pruner, Corona RP 3230 Ratchet Action Anvil Pruner, Flexrake CLA349 Classic 8-Inch Ratchet Pruner, Lawn and Garden Gear to Get Your Yard Cleaned Up, Tools for Autumn Yard Work (and Spring Prep). If you can find this tool for less than a Felco, there’s no reason to pass it up. It has the same sharp blades, but with slightly shorter handles (7¼ inches, not 8½), a lighter weight (7.5 ounces, not 8.5), and a smaller blade capacity (0.8 inch, not 1 inch). It’s hard to shut the latch one-handed. Our best value pick is the Fiskars Softgrip Bypass Pruner (available at Amazon for $8.99), which are surprisingly sharp and powerful for the price. Proper gardening equipment makes the job easier and reduces the time and effort you need to make your garden look beautiful. The Tierra Pro 38-1713 7.5″ Bypass Pruning Shears and the Tierra Pro 38-1710 8.5″ Bypass Pruning Shears failed to cut one of the 10 scallion samples, they slightly crushed raspberry canes and dowels, and they needed extra force to close around a ¾-inch buckthorn branch. Strengths: The simple style of the Corona ClassicCUT pruners has a retro appeal. Pruning shears are a basic tool for beginner gardeners and experts alike. Corona's blades are made out of high carbon SK5 steel, and should keep their edge for a long time after sharpening. A good pair of pruning shears lets you cut dead branches off shrubs and trees, remove rose canes that are rubbing and damaging other canes, and deadhead perennials to spur new blooms—all without tearing or splintering your plants. They don’t need them; they just work. By: Laecaby. Our top pick is the tropical-colored Grüntek Pruning Shears “Flamingo” (available on Amazon for $13.19). Beyond a sharp edge, we wanted an overall design that allowed the pruners to cut well, and that came down to the center nut or screw controlling the distance between the blades. Features 【Sharp & Strong Blade】Our Electric pruning shears can be quickly pruned, clean and flat, does not damage the branches.Blade is forged from the Swiss SK5 high carbon steel and powered by brush less motor, it is extremely sharp and durable, making it easy to cut 1.2 inch / … For $30, the Okatsune 101 is a better deal. Strengths: The blades are sharp, and the pruners are lightweight. The best in class for cordless power tool technology. The Burgon & Ball RHS GTO/SC Bypass Secateur is like the Royal Horticultural Society that endorses it: respectable. Their adjustment lever makes it easy for users with different-sized hands to use them. When to use these pruners: These sturdy pruners are good for most garden chores—but there are better choices for your precision-trimmed bonsai tree. It also crushed the raspberry canes, crushed both dowels, tore off some of the outer layer of the ½-inch dowel, and left strips of wood hanging from the Norway maple cuts. Keep your home gardens looking neat and healthy by pruning herbs and trees with this great pruner. Its bypass blades opened and closed smoothly, and required only slight force to cut thick branches. New Tools NEW 40V max XGT Cordless Electrical Pneumatic Outdoor Power Equipment Cleaning Solutions The LXT Advantage - x2 Get Maximum Performance. And with 22 different replacement parts available, you can keep these pruners in good repair pretty much forever. Pruning shears are essentially big, heavy scissors with a spring in the middle that makes them re-open after each cut. The Corona handles are straight with just a slight arc at the end, which partly explains why they can feel awkward if your hands aren’t quite large enough to grasp them. They could not cut anything without hard squeezing, even raspberry canes, and they just barely cut the ½-inch dowel and ¾-inch buckthorn branch. People with medium to small hands will struggle to constantly reclose these pruners. The Felco 6 model is a smaller version of our top pick. I would also say that I have above-average hand strength (from climbing), and find that they have more resistance than I’d like.”. The ARS HP-VS8Z and the Felco 2 performed almost identically in testing. The Quantum also cut the ⅜-inch Norway Maple branch unevenly and tore bark. The Gardeners’ Friend pair also comes with a little mineral-oil-saturated sponge embedded in the handle for cleaning and oiling the blade, which saves you the bother of getting a rag out. Bonus features: The Felcos don’t have any special bells or whistles, like adjustable-width handles or ratcheting action found in ratchet pruning shears. If you need to cut off branches that are thicker than your thumb, consider buying long-handled loppers, which will give you more leverage for powerful cuts. I give frequent talks to historical societies, garden clubs, and book groups about New England landscape history and agriculture. MAKITA 36V (18Vx2) Brushless Pruning Shear Skin DUP362Z is available at Total Tools. With anvil pruners, a sharpened blade simply stops on a hard, flat surface; this design is better suited for dry, dead brush. Cutting through ½-inch dowels and ¾-inch branches with the Gardener’s Friend requires significantly less force than doing so with most other ratchet pruners, even though it takes the same number of ratchets for each pruner to cut through (two to three for the dowel, three for the ¾-inch branch). You can adjust and fine-tune Felcos whenever you wish. In this review article from Outside Pursuits we have helped narrow down your options with our list of the 6 top-rated best pruning shears. They do a decent job of cutting through twigs and sticks, although they require more effort to close than the Felco or Fiskars. The Zavaland Pruning Shears were the only pruners in my sample that were completely incapable of cutting through scallions. They probably want regular oiling that I’m not giving them.” Still, even with these issues, you could keep the pruners going for years with replacement top blades, springs, and screws. New Tools NEW 40V max XGT Cordless Electrical Pneumatic Outdoor Power Equipment Cleaning Solutions The LXT Advantage - x2 Get Maximum Performance. Features 【Sharp & Strong Blade】Our Electric pruning shears can be quickly pruned, clean and flat, does not damage the branches.Blade is forged from the Swiss SK5 high carbon steel and powered by brush less motor, it is extremely sharp and durable, making it easy to cut 1.2 inch / 30mm hard branches. It sounds like marketing hype to say that, but they really can work like new for as long as you need them. Makita Cordless Pruning Shears 36v Features: - 35% more Torque compare to DUP361 - Up to 71,000 Cuts* using 2 x 5.0Ah Batteries - Maximum Cutting Capacity: 33mm / Blade Opening: 54mm - Blade can be interlocked with the trigger, providing smooth blade movement similar to that of a hand pruner - Comfortable backpack harness See our full line up of chainsaw, blower, trimmer, mower and other outdoor power equipment and tools for all your landscaping and forestry needs. Bonus features: None—you can probably find a pair of pruners that look like these in your grandfather’s basement somewhere. They’re also not as effective at cutting through branches over a half-inch in diameter as the Felco or the Fiskars, partly because of their unwieldy handles; it’s hard to bear down with enough pressure to make deep cuts. I got recommendations for seven pruner models (the Felcos were mentioned more than once), a small chainsaw, and an “extendable pruner-gun” from a Quebecois orchardist who I’m not entirely sure I understood correctly. The Corona pruners are sturdy, but a lot of women can barely get their hands around them when they're open. Strengths: Versatility. They’ll do the job right. High-quality, hardened steel, like SK-5 steel, and other metals are a good idea for pruner blades, because they will stay sharp longer than regular metal, but sooner or later, every pair of pruning shears needs sharpening. *At the time of publishing, the price was $50. Uneven cuts make it harder for a plant to heal, expose more area to insects and disease, and create crevices in which water can collect, increasing the chance of infection and rot. Grüntek “Flamingo” pruning shears are adjustable for different hand sizes, which is perfect if you have more than one gardener using them on a regular basis. The Felco 2 also has a construction quirk that’s either a flaw or a feature, depending on how you look at it. The plastic-coated metal handles feel sturdy, but they aren’t especially shaped or molded to fit your hands and fingers like the handles of an ARS or Felco pruner do. Drawbacks: The ARS 8-inch Hand Pruner can cut through half-inch branches and dowels, but it requires more effort than the Fiskars or Felco, and the light, springy mechanism makes the recoil from cutting hard branches painful. Odds are, you won’t need to do this, ever, judging by how long people keep their Felco pruners, but to my mind, it’s a slight flaw. We trimmed quarter-inch diameter currant bush twigs, one-third-inch raspberry canes, and half-inch cottonwood and pine branches, and sliced through a plain white T-shirt and a heavy plastic mulch bag. Bonus features: None. deals, and helpful advice delivered to your inbox. Bonus features: None. The easy-access safety lock is appreciated. Makita has the advantage with a length that’s nearly 4″ shorter than Skil and close to an inch shorter than DeWalt. After researching 49 pairs of pruners and testing 39 models on dozens of maple branches, buckthorn limbs, scallions, raspberry canes, and wooden dowels, we found that the Felco 2 Classic Manual Hand Pruner is the best pruner for most people. Felco pruners are also easier to grip than cheaper models, with contoured handles and a modest open width. Drawbacks: Unlike our other top picks, the Fiskars didn’t cut cleanly through scallions after minimal use, leaving ragged stringy leaves instead of a straight cut. The Kenyon Forged Bypass Pruner 41406 did a decent job on scallions and raspberries, but it required more force to cut through wooden dowels and live branches than most other pruners in my sample. Despite the low price point, these were the best-performing pruners in our sample for cutting thick dowels, and they sliced easily through smaller branches, raspberry canes, and rose twigs. As one blogger put it, “ARS stands for ‘Always Really Sharp.’” The pruners’ blades, made of what the manufacturer calls “high-carbon granular spheroid annealing steel,” have a Rockwell hardness scale rating of 59 (900 on the Vickers scale). When to use these pruners: These pruners are good, sharp tools for short rounds of everyday pruning. They’re sharp, durable, smooth, easy to repair, and easy to find. Strengths: Sharp blades, comfortable handles, and an easy-open, easy-close latch make these pruners perfect for all-around yard work. Drawbacks: The Bugui pruning shears are definitely lightweights. Bypass pruning shears have two blades that “pass” each other, like a pair of scissors. Strengths: These low-cost shears have comfortable non-slip handles with a comfortable rubber coating on the lower handle. After testing garden gloves for sensitivity, grip, and protection by peeling grapes, picking up oiled marbles, and grabbing raspberry canes, we found the Atlas Nitrile Garden Gloves are the best option. When to use these pruners: The Fiskars Softgrip bypass pruning shears are great all-around pruners, although they lack the Felco’s finesse. Their replacement parts are easy to find. The black, white, and red color scheme is more subtle than other brands. We were also concerned about the availability of ARS models, as this Japanese brand isn’t as widespread as the Swiss brand Felco in the United States. The chrome blade is unlikely to rust. For an explanation of the difference between right- and left-handed cutting tools, see Wirecutter’s scissors and kitchen shears review. Wirecutter is reader-supported. These are minor differences, and most people might not even notice the distinction if they mainly prune branches smaller than ½ inch in diameter. Drawbacks: The action feels slightly crunchy and catches slightly at the close. (The ARS HP-120EU 8-Inch Hand Pruner we tested has a plastic handle, but it also costs $20 less than their premium pruner, the ARS HP-VS7XZ.). How to grow plants even if you know nothing about gardening, How to get the most out of your vegetable garden, 25 things to buy when you move into a new house, Haus & Garten EnduroPRO Titanium Pruning Shears, Corona BP 3160 ClassicCUT Forged Bypass Hand Pruner. Meg Muckenhoupt is an environmental and travel writer. We strongly considered whether the blades were damaged during testing, how comfortable the shears felt to use, whether they came in different sizes, whether they have replacement parts available, and how easy it was to use them overall. Women testers preferred the ARS over the Felco because of the way the ARS handles fit in their hands. That size differential holds for other equivalent models as well: The small Felco, the Felco 6, is ¼ inch longer than the small ARS, the HP-VS7Z, while the Felco 7 rotating-handle pruner is an inch longer than the ARS HP-VS8R. There are so various types of pruning shears. These are the best pruning shears we tested, ranked in order: Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. These shears performed almost as well as the Fiskars in testing, and a flick of the lever adjusts the Grüntek handles to fit either large or medium/small hands. The ARS HP-VS8R Signature Heavy Duty Rotating Handle Hand Pruner resembles the ARS HP-VS8Z but has one handle that swivels on a pin in a 90-degree arc as you close your fingers. The action was smooth enough—and the blade was sharp enough—that I was able to cut through a ¾-inch branch single-handed with the Coronas. For a slightly lower price than the Felco 2 pruners, you could get the AM Leonard 1286 Traditional Bypass Pruners—and keep them for the long term, since AM Leonard also sells a replacement-part kit for about $8. Also, the steel will rust without proper care: Clean the pruners after each use, and wipe the blades with a thin coating of WD-40 or cooking oil. If you yearn for the perfect pruner, you’ll finally be satisfied with the ARS HP-VS8Z. The action feels stiff, as though the blades are rubbing against each other. If you’ve found different results in your own research, email us and we’ll compare notes. Then we dropped them on a concrete garage floor to see how they held up. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more. Meg Muckenhoupt is an environmental and travel writer. The HP-VS8Z is so good that we almost made it our top pick for this guide, but its pricing is inconsistent—and sometimes very high (we’ve seen it fluctuate between $50 and $80). Drawbacks: These pruners are a little stiffer and take slightly more force to close around larger twigs than the Fiskars or Felco pruning shears. Anvil pruning shears have a cutting blade that strikes a flat “anvil” blade. Although most pruning shears are sharp enough for snipping garden herbs, they’re primarily used for thicker, harder stems, twigs, and branches that your kitchen scissors can’t cut. We use standardized and scientific testing methods to scrutinize every product and provide you with objectively accurate results. No Cords Needed Power Equipment Rule the Outdoors with Cordless and Corded Dust Management Build … Olga Kraus, a certified horticulturist with over 20 years of experience working in the nursery trade, and one of the pro landscapers we consulted at the Ecological Landscape Alliance, said, “The Felco 2's I have been using for 25 years were joined last year by a pair of Felco 6's.” Gardeners writing reviews on the arborist supply site Tree Stuff have similar stories: One person has had the “same pair for 13 years and counting.” Another has owned a pair for 12 years—“longer than I've done tree work, and they're still on the first blade.” And here’s a perfect example, also from a Tree Stuff reviewer: “I have [had] ... a set of these pruners for 16 years for personal use and 5 of the years professionally. The Corona BP 3350 Bypass Pruner with Adjustable Grip is economical, and you can buy replacement blades. The handles come in three sizes: the ARS HP-VS8Z, the 8-inch model I tested; the ARS HP-VS9Z, a 9-inch model for larger hands; and the ARS HP-VS7Z, for smaller hands. The unit is designed to snip through branches and stems up to 8 mm. Cordless electric pruning shears are efficient in your pruning activities. The only other pruners in my sample that could do this, the ARS, Felco, and Bahco models, all cost more than twice as much as the Corona BP 3180. I am one of the pillars of the Menotomy Gardeners e-group. Replacement springs, bolts, and latches are available. That rivet means that the lower blade is firmly attached—but it also means that if you ever need to replace the lower blade, you’re going to need to rivet it, or find someone who can. Lost them for several months. Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser, Haus & Garten Enduro Pro Titanium Bypass Pruning Shears, Bugui Bypass Garden Pruning Shears - 2 Pack, 7 tips for staying safe during space heater season. Makita finishes with a slight advantage over Skil in the overall size race. Is a steam bath the secret to baking better bread? Our search focused on the bypass style, which has the precision you need to make clean cuts in live growth, whether it’s woody branches or delicate stems. They were the smoothest-feeling pruners we tried, slicing straight through both hefty branches and wispy scallion tops with no hesitation, jarring, or jerking, and they never got stuck. Are you interested in finding the best grass shear … The Felco 2 pair required some minor effort to close on a Norway maple branch—that task was easier with the ARS model—and the Felco blades slightly crushed a ¼-inch dowel, which the ARS managed to sever more smoothly.