We get through lots of secateurs sadly as our employees and volunteers have a habit of misplacing them – we are often finding them when sifting compost from the compost heap etc!
So now we hang onto a good pair each, and have given gifts of nice pairs to a few volunteers and keep a batch of cheaper ones available for people to use and hopefully put back!
The cheaper ones work just as well at first, but you do get what you pay for – we found our favourite pair of felcos at the bottom of a compost pile, some oil, a spare spring (felco stocks all the spare parts and a sharpen and they were as good as new!).
Our top 3 suggestions for bypass secateurs – Good enough, great and wonderful if you can afford it!
Good enough: Spear & Jackson Razorsharp
Great! These Spear & Jackson “Professional” have lasted years and years.
Wonderful if you can afford it – your wrists will thank you for the Felco Model 12!
NOTE All of the above are bypass secateurs. For cutting tough woody stems, we use anvil secateurs, we checked our Amazon history – we bought this Wolf-Garten pair over 8 years ago and they are still going strong – they are great value.
No secateurs are any use ,and risk damaging your plants and your tendons! if they are not razor sharp.
These little sharpeners by Spear & Jackson are wonderfully easy to use and highly effective.
NOTE We also bought the 6 in 1 version for a few extra pounds, but the other functions are not as useful as the main one!
If you are happy to get a bit more technical, this Felco Diamond steel sharpener is best solution, diamond coated toughened steel will maximise the life of your blades and the sharpener will last years and years
If you want to learn more about pruning, including when to use anvil vs bypass vs loppers vs pruning saw etc, from the very basics of pruning to the very advanced including how to care for each variety of plants, we highly recommend the excellent RHS Pruning & Training book. It provides step-by-step guidance on how to prune and shape more than 800 different plants, including climbing plants, fruiting vines, conifers, and palm trees.
