How to Select Garden Shears
- 1). Use hedge shears to shape and lightly trim hedges. Select hedge shears that are lightweight and have serrated blades, which cut through heavy material better than straight blades. When selecting a hedge shear, make sure it has the rubber "shock absorber" between the blades.
- 2). Use bypass pruners to do most of your garden pruning. These work like scissors do: The blade passes by a flat base and the cut is made as the blade passes through.
- 3). Use anvil pruners to do nonexacting work such as thinning shrubs. Anvil pruners pinch the wood between the blade and a base, making the cut like a knife does.
- 4). Use flower shears for cutting flowers. They have an anvil blade that is pointed at both ends, making it easy to get between tight stems.
- 5). Use lopping shears (or "loppers") for cutting heavier wood. Look for lopping shears that are light in weight and that have long handles; plastic-handled lopping shears are now available. Loppers should have a bypass cutting head so that you can make pruning cuts close to the trunk or stem, and longer handles are nice if you are working on hedges or tall shrubs.
- 6). Use grass shears for trimming around sprinklers, fence posts or tree trunks. These make quick work of grasses but are inappropriate for cutting anything larger.
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