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Pruners and secateurs, also known as pruning shears or hand pruners, are different types of gardening tools that one should have on hand for gardening.
They are essential and ideal tools for the maintenance of your orchards, lawns, nurseries, and flower gardens.
They are a type of heavy-duty scissors that come with different blade designs and handles and are used for trimming.
Some pruning shears feature sharpenable blades, and professional ones are built with blade replacement.
They are made up of different materials as well. Secateurs are small, easy to use, easy to carry, and can be used on different kinds of plants.
Their main purpose is to chop dead decaying hard shrub branches with damaged leaves.
The smaller ones are for thin stems and twigs, while the larger ones may cut heavy branches and even trunks. Thus, they help to maintain your plant’s health.
This is because unwanted diseased stems attract different harmful insects and do unimaginable harm to your plants by causing different diseases ultimately reducing the health status of your plants and causing rapid deterioration.
Pruners are made to trim small bits of wood as well as softer materials like perennial stems that aren’t woody. Go ahead and make your cut if the wood is thin enough.
Pruners don’t require any particular skills. Understandably, going through the many various varieties of hand pruners available might be overwhelming, but it’s critical to select the right tool for the task.
Also, remember that understanding when to use hand pruners and having the right-hand ones for the job makes it easier and reduces the unneeded pressure on your hands and wrists.
So, it’s very important to pick the right tool for the right job with the correct diameter and good material to avoid unnecessary damage to your plant.
What is the Difference Between Pruners and Secateurs?
There isn’t any significant difference between pruners and secateurs. Usually, the same term is used for both. It mainly depends on where you live.
The term “pruner” is mostly used in America, the Philippines, and some other countries while the term “secateurs” is common in the British language.
How Many Types of Secateurs are There?
There are mainly two types of secateurs, also known as pruners; anvil and bypass. Their details are mentioned below.
1) Bypass Secateurs
Bypass secateurs are just like scissors. They have a top big blade and a lower smaller blade. The top blade passes by the lower smaller one.
In most cases, one blade is narrow and sharp, while the opposite blade is thicker. There are several variants with various blade kinds and thicknesses.
They are ideal for cutting vegetables, flowers, fruits as well as woody branches and stems. They are used for making nice cuts.
Sharpening the cutting blade as it dulls is strongly advised to get the cleanest cuts that heal faster and put less stress on the plant.
They can also be used to dispose off dead debris. Sometimes this dead debris gets stuck in between the blades causing them to dull and to become less sharpened with time. Thus, keep a check on your tools and clean them timely.
2) Anvil Secateurs
Anvil secateurs are pruners having one blade on one side and an anvil (flat bottom) jaw with a groove on the other.
Thus, the blade makes a cut against the anvil side just like when we cut something with a knife on a cutting board.
This type is more likely to smash and crush the stems if they are not precisely polished and sharpened. This will also take some extra force to cut the woody branches.
Therefore, they are primarily used for cutting dead woody branches as it is difficult to get nice clean cuts with them. Avoid using them for cutting live tissues. it’s very important to sharpen your secateurs blade on both sides.
If you’re enjoying this article, check out our article on what is the best ergonomic garden kneeler and seat.
Top 3 Secateurs
Following are the top 3 Secateurs in the Amazon Market:
1) Professional Titanium Pruning Shears by Garden V Pro
It comes with a high-quality titanium blade and rubber-coated aluminum handles that give a perfect and comfortable grip.
These professional titanium pruning shears have the best locking mechanism and can be closed and opened with one hand, ensuring fast closure and opening.
It also offers a lifetime warranty and free bonuses.
2) Gonicc 8″ Professional Sharp Bypass Pruning Shears
Its handles are lightweight, strong, and easy to fit in your hands. It can cut up to ¾ diameter size tree branches.
3) Felco Pruning Shears (F 6) – High-Performance Swiss Made One-Hand Garden Pruners
It comes with a sharp precision ground blade with low resistance that gives you nice clean cuts. It also offers a lifetime warranty.
How Many Types of Pruners are There?
There are different types but here is a summary of common pruners used for gardening.
1) Bypass Pruners
They are ideal tools for making clean cuts on live plants. The bypass pruners can cut branches that are 1” thick or less. They have two curved blades.
2) Ratchet Pruners
Ratchet pruners, like anvil pruners, have straight blades for cutting down on dead stems and branches. They come with a mechanism that allows the user to cut in stages thus reducing the chances of wrist strains.
3) Anvil Pruners
They come with straight blades for cutting dead woody branches. They are not used for cutting live wood because they have scissor-like action and this can damage the live tissue on both sides of the blade.
4) Double-cut Pruners
They have two blades that meet in the middle. Double-cut pruners are flexible instruments that may be used to clip delicate stems or make clean cuts in both live and deadwood.
5) Loppers
They are also known as long-handled pruners. They are typically used to remove woody stems with a diameter of one inch or less. Their long handles help you to reach the higher branches.
Top 3 Pruners
Following are the top 3 pruners in the Amazon Market:
1) Felco F-2 068780 Classic Manual Hand Pruner (F-2)
2) Felco Pruning Shears (F 5) – High-Performance Swiss Made One-Hand Garden Pruners
The narrow anvil blade makes it easier to reach tangled branches and ensures a clean cut on the trunk.
3) Felco Pruning Shears (F 9) – High-Performance Swiss Made One-Hand Left-Handed Garden Pruners
A cushion stop, sap groove, wire-cutting notch, and precise blade adjustment are all included.
It also features a rotating handle and ergonomic shock absorbers for increased comfort.
Final Thoughts
Pruning shears play a major role in maintaining your gardens. Secateurs are used in gardening, flower arranging, and other horticultural fields.
This important gardening tool makes clean cuts on tiny branches on shrubs, trees, and herbaceous plants. They come in different shapes and varieties.
They primarily include an anvil and bypass pruners with different blade shapes and materials that are stainless steel, carbon steel, and titanium coated.
Their different sizes make them useful for pruning smaller stems as well as large woody branches. Some of them have large handles making them the perfect tool for cutting branches at heights.
Bypass pruners with their specific blade shapes allow us to make fine clean cuts while cutting live tissue plants.
Whereas anvil pruners allow us to cut the large decayed dead branches as they smash these branches while making cuts.
It is very important to choose the perfect tool with good comfortable handles with good grip for pruning to avoid wrist strain.
After each usage, brush off any residue and rub over the metal surfaces with an oiled towel to keep your secateurs in good shape.
Always go for recommendations. It is usually an excellent approach that helps you in decision-making.
The Felco F-2 Classic Manual Hand Pruner is a well-known brand name for secateurs, and many gardeners across the world believe it to be the most popular gardening secateurs.
Before you go, here are some more related articles I encourage you to read below to help solve more of your gardening issues:
A Dremel Sharpening Kit Review
Can a sickle be used for weeding?
About the Author:
Saad Ansar
Saad is an avid gardener himself and is a great lover of plants, animals, photography, & people. Currently, he is focused on photographing indoor plants & captioning beautiful outdoor sceneries. He writes and rewrites in-depth articles on nature and science.
