A good pair of secateurs is a must for any gardener. We use them everyday and curse the times we don’t have them because there is always something you need a pair of secateurs for. However it is important to get the right pair of secateurs because the wrong ones can just fall apart in your hands (and did! into two halves.) In this blog we’ll try and help you get the best secateurs for your money.

Here are some things to look for when choosing a pair of secateurs.

Comfort

It’s important that your secateurs are comfortable because you’ll probably be using them a lot and applying pressure to the handles. If the handle is the wrong shape or there is something wrong with the grip you can quickly end up with painful blisters.

Robust and Strong

I mentioned before about how a pair of secateurs fell to bit in my hand mid cut. A lot of pressure ends on the centre nut and bolt where the secateurs are hinged. If you’ve bought a cheap pair (like I did, thinking I’d get away with it) that centre bolt can buckle or snap (which it did) leaving you with two bits of sharpened metal.

Clean Cut

A sharp well made blade goes without saying! The poorer quality blades tend to dull faster and get chinks in then more readily. Some of this is down to how sharp you keep your secateurs and what you might have been cutting with them but on the whole quality shines through. 

Best Secateurs

Here is Gardenwilds top 5 best secateurs.

No. 5 |

These are a robust and strong pair of classic secateurs. They are well made and relatively comfortable. One of the things you have to look out for with the red rubber grips is that they don’t move or slide over time. And so far these haven't, which is really good. Also one thing that is good about Spear and Jackson is that the parts tend to be easily replicable. They are also very good value!

The down side to these secateurs is the safety catch gets caught easily while you're using them (this is a fairly common problem for a lot of brands). I’m not a massive fan of the spring mechanism either. In my experience it has a tendency to fly off and get lost.

For these reasons this is No. 5 on Gardenwilds best secateurs.

No. 4 |

This is another set of robust, well made secateurs. As long as they’re sharpened, they will cut through larger branches easily. They’re is also a handy wire cutting notch on the blade, which sometimes is really useful! The grips are secure and comfortable and the safety catch hasn’t engaged or disengaged without consent.

The only drawback is the handles are quite wide and if you have small hands (like Bevan, Gardenwild gardener, size 6 hands?!) they might be too wide.

For these reasons this is No. 4 on Gardenwilds best secateurs.

No. 3 |

Liz (the director of Gardenwild) is left-handed and has said before about how hard it is to find a good left handed pair of secateurs. However these, she says, are really good. And not only Liz but the RHS have also endorsed them so if you’re a lefty these are the ones for you.

The only drawback to these secateurs are that their handles are quite wide. So only for big left hands then… They are however really strong, sharp and comfortable to use. Also parts are easy to replace which is always useful and less wasteful.

For these reasons this is No. 3 on Gardenwilds best secateurs.

No. 2 |

These secateurs are made by the world renowned swiss brand Falco. They do make really good secateurs however that does come with a price tag! But I think it’s worth the price for the quality that you get!

They are obviously sturdy and well made. They cut really well and are good for a variety of jobs. The ergonomic handle, even though at a glance looks like hundreds of others, protects the wrist and the hand, which prevents repetitive injury. And they come with a lifetime guarantee.

For these reasons this is No. 2 on Gardenwilds best secateurs.

No. 1 |

These are my favourite secateurs by far. The Niwaki secateurs design is really simple and therefore doesn’t suffer from issues like the ‘lost spring’ or ‘randomly engaging safety catch’.

They have an excellent cutting performance, comfortable and well balanced. You don’t realise how much of a difference there is between a well balanced pair of secateurs and one that aren’t until you’ve tried some.

Some people struggle with the safety catch but I’ve never had an issue with it. They do also sometimes stick if you don’t maintain them properly, which can be annoying.

They come in two different sizes (no worries Bevan) and with an extra spring. However they aren’t cheap. They are in fact the most expensive secateurs in this blog. If you’re not intending to get good use out of them I would possibly choose one of the cheaper ones above.

However if you are going to use them all the time then it might be worth investing.

For these reasons this is No. 1 on Gardenwilds best secateurs.