Pruners (also called clippers, pruning shears, or secateurs) are used to trim and shape plants, deadhead, prune out dead or damaged foliage and small branches, and cut back perennials. They’re one of the most-used gardening tools so it’s important to get a pair that works best for you.
Pruning tools come in a variety of styles and price points and it can be confusing trying to choose the right one. In this article, we review the features to consider when buying pruning shears so that you’ll know what to look for in choosing a quality tool.
5. Felco F-2 Classic Manual Hand Pruner
They’re sharp, durable, smooth, easy to repair, and easy to find. As thousands of gardeners already know, a Felco 2 may be the last pruner you ever buy.
Felco models are consistently priced, well known, and widely beloved among gardeners, many of whom have kept their Felco 2s for a decade or more. They’re not quite perfect. The pruners crushed a ¼-inch dowel a tiny bit, and the handles spread a little wide for some users (if that’s you, we have a pick for smaller hands). But, those flaws aside, they’re close to perfect.
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4. Felco F-6 Classic Pruner For Smaller Hands
This smaller version of our previous pick has the same sharp blades, but with slightly shorter handles (7-1/4 inches, not 8-1/2), a lighter weight (7.5 ounces, not 8.5), and a smaller blade capacity (0.8 inch, not 1 inch).
If you yearn for the perfect pruner, you will finally be satisfied with the Felco F-6. This tool was the only model that consistently made perfectly clean, flat cuts in soft stems, woody growth, hardwood dowels, and even ¾-inch buckthorn branches without crushing or tearing anything—and with less effort. The ARS has stunningly sharp high-carbon steel blades that have been tempered for hardness and resilience, and the tight, precise tolerance between the two blades creates a silky smooth cutting action. Every other pair of pruners jerked or stuck on something in our test, but not this pair. Comfortable plastic-coated aluminum handles (which are available in other sizes) make cutting easy.
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3. ARS HP-VS8Z Signature Heavy Duty Pruner
These pruners had the sharpest blades and required the least force to make the smoothest cuts of any of the pruners in our test. Not always easy to find, but if you encounter this model for the same price as the Felco, it’s worth getting.
The HP-VS8Z is so good that it was almost our first pick for this guide, but its pricing is inconsistent—and sometimes very expensive (we’ve seen it fluctuate between $50 and $80). 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. If you can find this tool for lower than the Felco 2’s price, you can be confident that you’re buying the best available pruner.
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2. Corona - Forged Bypass Pruner, 1-Inch Cut
These durable pruners aren’t as smooth or sharp as our main picks, but they are perfectly capable, and best suited for larger hands.
If you want to pay a fraction of the price for performance that’s almost as good as that of the best pruners out there, the Corona BP 3180 Classic Cut Forged Bypass Pruner ($20) is a great budget pick. The blades are sharp enough to slice through spindly stems and thick branches swiftly and efficiently. We even cut a ¾-inch branch one-handed with this pair, a feat that only the best pruners in the test could manage. That cut, however, required more effort than with our top two picks. These pruners don’t make quite as clean a slice as the ARS and Felco models do, and they don’t move as smoothly. Like the top picks, the Corona BP 3180 accepts replacement blades, springs, and screws. You may need those parts sooner, though, as some owners claim that this pruner is prone to rust. 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.
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1. EZ Kut Heavy Duty Ratchet Pruner
These ratcheting pruners take several easy squeezes to close on thick branches, but they don’t perform as well on soft stems.
Not everyone has the hand strength of Conan the Licensed Professional Arborist. If your arthritis, hand weakness, or other conditions make closing a pair of pruners a chore, we recommend the ratcheting EZ Kut Heavy Duty Ratchet Pruner. Ratcheting pruners take longer to cut through branches, but they require less force: You squeeze the pruners’ handles repeatedly to close them, instead of forcing them closed in one motion. The EZ Kut Heavy Duty Ratchet Pruner did a fine job cutting raspberry canes, and it ratcheted through dowels, Norway maple branches, and buckthorn branches up to ¾ inch thick with minimal effort over several squeezes. However, the tool couldn’t cut scallion tops, failing to separate the stems on eight out of 10 tries. Overall, none of the ratcheting pruners we tested could cut a wide range of materials as deftly as our main pick could. But the things the EZ Kut could cut were, well, pretty easy to cut.
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