12 December 2016
A cut above
I suspect many professional gardeners like myself started out
with a pair of very pedestrian secateurs before being introduced to
the eponymous Felco no2 by some wise council and from that point
they never looked back. Felcos are light, sturdy, powerful, hold a
good edge and every piece is replaceable, meaning that with a
little care a pair of Felcos will last you a lifetime. Many
gardeners will therefore think this comparison post is irrelevant,
and I don't mind if you do. Secateurs are perhaps a gardener's
most-used tool and, like a choice of footwear, the pair you choose
is intensely personal.
Until I was introduced to Niwaki a couple of years ago my Felcos
had never left my hip, but the promise of razor sharp, hand forged
secateurs turned my head and I bought myself a pair. I love my
Niwaki Tobishos and have used them daily ever since, which has led
me to wonder about other options I might be missing out on. And of
course the all important question: How much do I need to pay for a
decent pair of secateurs?
Secateurs should be fairly straightforward to test, they are in
effect a sharp cutting blade on a handle with a catch - simple! I
have chosen, more or less at random I must confess, six pairs of
secateurs which range in price from £22 to £79 and cover a wide
range of makes. I have then spent some time cutting roses, top
fruit and herbaceous material with each of them to represent the
typical lifetime duties of the tools.
Felco No2 £40
I thought I'd better start with the baseline by which all others
are judged. Felcos come in a range of sizes and styles to suit
every conceivable need. They are all lifetime guaranteed and can be
easily dismantled, cleaned, old bits replaced and then put back
together. Stories of their endurance are legendary; I personally
lost a pair in a compost heap for 9 months, the acid had pitted and
eaten away at the aluminium handles but after soaking them in oil
for a day or two they were free enough to be stripped down and
rebuilt, and although clearly not as good as new they went on to
lead a full and varied life.
Holding them again in my hand they feel like an old friend. They
are on the chunky side after so much time with the Tobishos (see
below), but they are easy to sharpen and hold up to a lot of abuse;
they can cope with tough woody material and you are likely to
develop a hernia before you will damage the blade.
Rough, tough and dependable, why did I ever leave them? The answer
is, they don't feel special. Now I know that that is not only
highly subjective but it's also dependant on how much more you want
to spend on a pair that does feel 'special'!
Lowe original £35
Most of you may not be familiar with the name Lowe, I know I
wasn't, but I was interested to know what had happened to Rolcut
secateurs. They used to be everywhere, everyone had a pair, and
then they disappeared. In fact I have never used a pair of anvil
secateurs since Rolcuts until these arrived a few weeks ago. The
story goes that Lowe designed what we know as Rolcut secateurs
which were manufactured in the UK under the Rolcut brand. The brand
was then discontinued after being bought by Fiskars in the
1990s.
I chose the original pattern without the plastic grip handles,
mainly because I prefer the look but also because I wanted to get
as close as possible to Rolcuts. The only difference in fact is the
catch, which although plastic is very easy to operate and feels
good quality, in fact everything feels good quality, the blade is
strong and the action feels sturdy, solid and positive. I really
enjoy using them. Anvil secateurs have a reputation for bruising
and flattening the opposite side of the stem to the blade and in
the case of very thick rose stems this is just about noticeable.
The cut is very clean however, especially on thicker woody growth
where it proved superior to its rivals.
There is a drawback; on light herbaceous stems they are next to
useless, chewing fretfully where others positively glide through
the soft growth. I so wanted to love these secateurs and in many
ways I do, but if you are looking for a single pair of secateurs
that will do every job in the garden, then I'm afraid these aren't
it. That said I will certainly be using them for tougher
work.
Tenartis vintage grape shears £22
I have, for a long time now, had my eyes pealed for a good pair of
vintage french grape shears but it's very hard to explain why in a
singe sentence. I suppose that many of the best tools I use at
Allt-y-bela are vintage handmade tools, they are rugged, strong and
have a beauty which has been earned over decades of use. I guess I
wanted to know if the same attributes could be found in vintage
secateurs. I found these Tenartis on Amazon for a very reasonable
price and wanted to see if they would give me a feel for the
ergonomics of vintage pruners of the same shape.
They look rather roughly cast with a leather catch that I knew
would be annoying. What I wasn't prepared for though was just how
tough the steel was - it is almost impossible to get a sharp edge
on the blade. After much mucking around and eventually filing down
the blade, I finally achieved a tolerably sharp edge. The pruning
experience was not really up to scratch to be perfectly honest,
although I suppose I didn't really expect it to be. I bought these
for their looks, for light home use and flower work and for that
they are perfectly adequate. They will also look lovely in the tool
shed.
Burgon & Ball Sophie Conran secateurs
£25
When we first ran our rose dome course a couple of years ago we
asked that people brought along their own secateurs. The result was
that many pairs were either blunt or not really up to the task.
Last year we bought 12 pairs of these for each guest on the course
and being totally honest I chose them because they looked like my
much more expensive Japanese pair, were very reasonably priced and
were made by a well-known manufacturer. When they arrived,
beautifully gift boxed, they very much looked the part too and
performed faultlessly through both our rose dome course and our
plant supports course.
I felt I should include them here because I had them around the
shed, where they reside waiting for our next set of courses. Using
them now I am pleasantly surprised at how sharp they are and how
well they sharpen - the steel seems to be a really fine quality -
and they are tough enough for the rougher tasks, yet precise enough
for detailed work. The chunky brass catch looks lovely and works
well. In fact my only criticism would be that the bypassed side of
the secateur blade is very chunky which makes getting the shear in
to tight spaces difficult, I would love to see that edge ground
down a little. It's such a small point though and so if you are
looking for a quality pair of secateurs, perhaps as a gift, and you
don't want to spend a fortune then these are a great buy. They will
last forever, cut really well and look beautiful.
Tobisho SR-1 by Niwaki £79
Since arriving at Allt-y-bela I've become increasingly aware of
the importance of detail and craftsmanship. The Tobisho SR-1s look
perfectly at home here, perhaps with the exception of the slightly
jazzy yellow and red covers on the handles. They arrived in a
beautiful box, polished and gleaming and have settled to an
understated gunmetal grey. I have often thought of removing the
plastic covers but I fear I would lose them and also they do
protect your hand from the worst of the cold!
The Tobishos are hand-forged from two pieces of very fine steel in
a family workshop in Japan, and everything about them feels
special. The clacking sound they make is somehow joyous where it
should be irritating, so much so that I spent much of my first
month using them thinking about how much I loved the sound! The cut
too is perfect, razor sharp and precise. They feel like a tool that
will help you to become better at your job.
The downsides are two fold, they steel is fragile as I found
very early on when I took a knick out of the blade (ouch!) and
although they make a lovely sound as the back pieces come together
behind the blade, they can become an unwitting trap for a stray
thumb. (The same is true for the Sophie Conran pair, and the
results are painful and bloody!) The Tobishos are heavy compared to
the Felco pair too. However, I love the Tobishos despite, or
perhaps partly because of their faults. Using them feels like a
privilege although I'm not sure I can explain why.
Bahco Professional £40
The other secateurs here at Allt-y-bela have been bought over
time, mostly by myself to try or just because I like the look of
them. These Bahcos have been sent for me to try by Arthur &
Strange and I must first confess that they are not my usual style.
I tend to buy secateurs that are generally all metal and look
fairly traditional. The Bahcos are certainly neither. They are
designed to be ergonomic and to reduce strain on the wrist from
constant use, they are also available in three handle sizes and
blade types meaning that you can customise them to suit your needs.
They can also be stripped down and every part is replaceable like
the Felcos.
Bahco makes good cutting tools. There are few professional
gardener's sheds which do not contain a pair of Bahco loppers,
probably much like ours, having seen much better days and having
faced the worst that gardening has to offer. Ours are battered and
the bump stops are pretty perished, the blade however is sharp and
they always get the job done. I think that they are great and so
it's slightly odd I suppose that I've never tried a pair of Bahco
secateurs.
Let's get a negative out of the way first. The catch is slightly
awkward and it's quite small and stiff to operate although I think
it would wear in with use. The other negative I found was that when
pruning up a ladder I tend to want to move the secateurs from hand
to hand to reach as much as possible from my position and of course
as soon as you change hands with the Bahcos the ergonomics become a
little odd, having been designed for one-handed use.
The Bahcos don't make a fuss about getting on with the job, they
are very quiet in action, which seems to have a slight bounce,
making cutting satisfyingly easy over a longer period of time. I
think that the Bahcos will come into their own over time and in
some ways a short test perhaps doesn't see them at their best. Of
all of the secateurs I've tried it has probably been the Bahcos
that I have come back to the most. For me though I wish that they
were all metal, I wish that the catch was easier to operate and
also that the spring felt a little better secured. They are
certainly a great quality tool and you can't fault the cut but if
they are going to challenge the likes of Felco it will probably be
on the superior ergonomics and that will take a leap of faith. I
think they deserve a closer look though.
Conclusions
Did I find an all-round secateur to beat the ubiquitous Felco No2?
Probably not. Will I personally go back to the Felcos? Again,
probably not. This is perhaps the crux of the matter; the choice of
secateurs is incredibly personal. I would encourage everyone to try
something different though, especially if you use secateurs every
day. Most pruners are fairly inexpensive and each will give you a
different experience. I don't think that I will ever stick to one
brand or model for too long, next I have my eye on the Tobisho
Hiryu which look incredible but come with a price tag to match and
the Bahco P3 which seem to combine my love of simplicity and style
with hopefully the ruggedness of Bahco's loppers.
Words: Steve Lannin, Head Gardener at Allt-y-bela
Photographs: Britt Willoughby Dyer
© Arne Maynard Garden Design 2016 - reproduction of content and
/ or photographs only by request.
