While gardening is widely seen as a gentle hobby, there are times when more power is the only answer. That&#;s certainly the case when pruning tough, woody stems and small branches. A quality pair of loppers will arm gardeners with everything they need to make light work of heavyweight pruning. This is whether you&#;re getting shrubs into shape, trimming trees, or cutting back overgrown areas of the garden.
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Loppers cut similarly to secateurs, yet their long handles provide extra leverage and extended reach. Exceeding the maximum cutting diameter of your secateurs is a recipe for trouble. If stems are too thick or too woody, trying to prune using secateurs can put considerable strain on your wrist, risking injury.
Secondly, exceeding the limits for which secateurs have been designed risks damaging the mechanism and blunting the blades, shortening their lifespan. While secateurs are for single-hand use, loppers are engineered to be gripped with both hands. This ramps up their cutting power while reducing the effort needed to slice cleanly through hard material.
Before heading to the garden centre, it&#;s important to think about the type of pruning you need to do. This is because the need to cut softer, live wood or harder mature or dead wood will determine the type of loppers that you should buy.
Live wood is best tackled using loppers with bypass blades. Bypass is when two blades pass over each other in a scissor-like action.
Mature or dead wood requires a tougher tool and that&#;s where anvil blades come into play. Ideally suited to heavyweight pruning, anvil loppers feature a sharp blade that closes onto a cutting block, boosting their pruning power.
For the toughest of cuts, look out for ratchet loppers. These allow gardeners to gradually cut through a branch or stem, delivering a clean cut with the minimum of effort.
Consider the benefits of long-handled loppers, too, which allow gardeners to delve deeper into shrubs and trees. This is handy if you&#;re cutting back thorny plant material. Longer-handled or telescopic pruners help to access towering and hard-to-reach stems without having to balance precariously on a ladder. Telescopic pruners are also handy for harvesting hard-to-reach fruit, too.
To choose loppers that are perfect for your needs, pick them up before buying and feel their weight.
Certain models of lopper will feature bumpers. These are special features that deliver extra power while absorbing impact, rebounding smoothly as they complete the cut. Finally, check the length of the guarantee on your chosen loppers, for added peace of mind.
Bypass loppers are the first port of call for cutting through live wood that&#;s too thick to be tackled with secateurs. Our SureCut All Purpose Bypass Loppers tick all the boxes. They have reinforced carbon steel blades, superb rust-resistance and a lightweight aluminium frame. They also feature a hanging loop for easy storage and rubber bumpers that absorb impact and rebound smoothly. With comfortable handles and grips, they feature a cutting diameter of 30mm.
SureCut All Purpose Extra Power Loppers up the game with telescopic handles for extra power and extended reach. They also feature a larger cutting capacity to tackle branches up to 35mm thick.
If you&#;re looking for ultra-powerful bypass loppers that effortlessly drives the blade through live wood that&#;s up to 40mm thick, SureCut All Purpose Extra Power Loppers are precision-engineered to get the job done. You&#;ll find all the top features you&#;d expect from SureCut. Sharp carbon steel blades coated with chrome for superior rust-resistance, extendable telescopic handles for extra power and reach, and rubber bumpers that absorb impact and deliver a smooth rebound.
Rubber micro hex handles ensure extra comfort and grip, while the hanging loop ensures that you can store these powerful pruners after use.
Not all gardeners can cope with large, heavy tools. So that&#;s where compact loppers come into play, delivering an immense amount of cutting power from a smaller, highly manoeuvrable tool.
Garden Life All Purpose Mini Loppers are a lighter and more compact alternative to SureCut All Purpose Bypass Loppers. They&#;ll slice through branches with a diameter of up to 24mm with ease, using their tough, carbon steel bypass blades.
Although these loppers are small in size, they deliver precision cutting with their short handles and pack a punch with a host of features found in larger models. This includes reflex rubber bumpers to absorb impact, chrome blade coating for rust resistance and micro hex handles that deliver extra comfort and grip.
SureCut Extra Power Hard Wood Loppers are designed to make cutting tough, dead wood effortless with a cutting diameter of up to 45mm. These loppers tackle tough, dead wood, with comfortable, extendable handles.
If you need to slice through thicker mature hard or dead wood, super-tough anvil ratchet loppers like our SureCut Extra Power Hard Wood Ratchet Loppers will make the job much easier. While the anvil blade cleanly slices through the hardest timber up to 45mm in diameter, the secret to the extra power lies in the ratchet mechanism. This allows gardeners to cut gradually through each branch or stem, requiring minimal effort.
Reflex rubber bumpers provide maximum cutting power while extendable telescopic handles offer even more leverage and additional reach, too. Rubber micro hex handles provide extra comfort and grip while carrying out powerful pruning. There&#;s also a hanging loop to easily store the loppers once the job is complete.
Few gardeners relish the prospect of balancing at the top of ladders to prune tall shrubs or remove small branches from trees. While tackling thorny plant material isn&#;t high on most green fingered folk&#;s wish list either.
Thankfully, long telescopic pruners make these garden tasks a joy. They&#;re handy for picking fruits that are out of reach, too. With a 1.3m handle and capacity to cut stems up to 18mm in diameter, SureCut Long Reach All Purpose Pruner features tough, steel bypass blades. These are ideal for slicing through live, green wood in hard-to-reach areas, whether they&#;re high off the ground or deep towards the back of borders.
Gardeners needn&#;t worry about debris falling from height either, because these practical pruners feature a cut-and-hold mechanism which grips the stem. This helps prevent it from dropping until it&#;s ready to be released.
For even taller trees and branches, the Telescopic Tree Lopper extends up to 3 metres, making it the perfect tool for reaching and pruning branches that are otherwise inaccessible.
This telescopic tree pruner excels in handling larger stems and branches effortlessly. It employs a bypass cutting action, characterized by two sharp blades that glide past each other.
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You&#;re in need of a great pair of loppers for your tree pruning needs but you&#;re not sure which to buy. Loppers can range in price from $30-$200, are available in multiple sizes and are sold by numerous brands. That&#;s a lot of information to digest.
The problem is with such a huge selection available, how can you possibly narrow it down to the one best pair of loppers to invest in which are both efficient and powerful? Furthermore, do you need anvil or bypass loppers, and what is the difference?
Luckily, we are here to help.
We&#;ve used many different types of loppers over the past 20+ years and have narrowed your choices down to the 3 best loppers.
Our recommendations below will highlight the loppers you should be using in order to keep your trees and shrubs healthy and your garden looking great!
Read our best loppers review to learn the following:
In a hurry and want to read it later? Pin in here!
Loppers, in addition to pruning shears, are a go-to tool for your garden for many reasons.
First of all, pruning is a necessary garden maintenance task that can help improve the aesthetic look of your plants. Pruning is defined as the act of removing branches, stems, leaves, flowers, and other plant tissues, which is done in order to follow the &#;3 Pillars of Pruning©.&#;
The &#;3 Pillars of Pruning©&#; refer to why you should prune your plants and are as follows:
There are other reasons to prune, such as for safety reasons, but the &#;3 pillars&#; are critical to follow for overall garden health and maintenance.
For an introduction to basic pruning, you might be interested in our free, 7-day Smart Pruning Basics course.
When you prune, you make two kinds of cuts: thinning cuts and heading cuts.
Upon removing material from any plant, the plant will redirect its energy to the stems and buds that remain. That&#;s why you definitely need the best loppers you can find to get the job done and give your plants clean cuts so they heal faster and stay healthy.
Now that you have some basic pruning knowledge, let&#;s talk about the loppers that will fit your needs by starting with what they are and how they differ from pruning shears.
Whether you are a beginner gardener or even a more experienced gardener, the reality is your trees and shrubs are all screaming for your attention so they can be healthy and continue growing season after season. That means you need the best loppers to handle your pruning tasks.
But first, why do you even need them? How about dependability, durability, and cleanliness. The best loppers are dependable due to how they&#;re built as well as the materials used to construct them. In addition, loppers will give you a longer reach than pruning shears for those just-out-of-reach cuts you need to make, along with giving you also clean cuts on your plants so they look their best and heal fast. Finally, the loppers we highlight here are durable for use in different pruning situations and weather.
In a nutshell, size matters.
Pruning shears are a garden hand-held tool used to cut away smaller branches or stems with more precision and finesse. Pruning shears work best when used on small stems generally up to 1-inch thick.
Loppers can also be used for some fine-cuts. However, they are best used for larger stems or branches over 1-inch thick, that need more cutting leverage. Loppers are generally used for stems up to 2 or 2 1/2 inches in diameter. If larger than 2 1/2 inch stems, and unless you are using some larger compound-loppers, a handsaw or chainsaw would be best for larger cuts. Our lopper pick, the Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers, cuts stems and branches up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, where larger stems Sean prefers to use his hand or chainsaw.
For more information about the differences, click here to listen to DIY Garden Minute Ep5 Pruning Shears vs Loppers!
Therefore, bypass loppers are the best type of lopper compared to anvil loppers for the reasons listed above.
You need to consider:
Pro-tip: Never cut more than 1/3 of an entire plant as this can stress the plant out and create root die-back.
In our opinion, you should always opt for bypass loppers over anvil loppers.
Whether cutting whole stems or needing to cut as close to stem or branches points-of-attachment, the bypass loppers are best. Sean&#;s absolute favorite loppers, Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers, get the job done and are easy on your body for less injury.
The Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers are the best loppers you can buy because they are durable, light-weight, take lots of abuse, and make each pruning cut feel like you are cutting through butter. Other loppers on the market might feature compound cutting mechanisms or can make larger cuts, but they can&#;t match the toughness or quality of the Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers. Furthermore, some of the competition&#;s loppers have literally fallen apart while making cuts or their handles have failed so badly that the cuts couldn&#;t even be completed due to metal fatigue and shearing completely away. You definitely get what you pay for, and the Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers are the best for your money!
The Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers have been a go-to tool for Sean while maintaining clients gardens for health and shaping while running his landscape business for over 10 years. Year after year, through all the seasons, these loppers never failed to stay sharp or hold together. Because of this, the Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers are still Sean&#;s go-to pruning tool for larger hand pruning cuts.
Cutting Size: 1-1 1/2-inch | Weight: 2.4 lbs | Warranty: Lifetime Limited Warranty
We really like the simplicity of construction, the durability, and how the 28-inch bypass loppers feel in our hands when using this Fiskars product.
With the 1 1/2-inch maximum cutting size and close-clean cuts, the 28-inch bypass loppers make pruning easy and seamless. The 28-inch bypass loppers consist of two forged-steel pieces.
This means very few pieces to maintain or potential to fail or replace.
Any Compound or Power-Lever loppers will have more pieces to handle and maintain, with a higher probability of failing.
Built into this prime pruning tool is a fully-hardened steel technology and a precision ground blade that stays sharp with a low-friction coating to resist rust and help make cuts smoother.
This lopper even has a shock-absorbing bumper stop to take away any jarring when completing a cut, where other loppers have other stops or rubber bumpers that still jar and pop off with heavy use. The hardened, durable steel handles have non-slip comfort grips help make cuts easier.
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Cutting Size: 1 1/2-inch | Weight: 2.6 lbs | Warranty: Manufacturer Warranty: make a request
Our 2nd favorite lopper is the Corona AL High-Performance Orchard Lopper. It has a very different feel than the Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers but is still a versatile and useful lopper.
The light-weight aluminum handles make it a tempting tool to use during a day of pruning.
It has replaceable, dual arc bypass blade of fully heat-treated forged steel and it boasts a forged, slant-ground hook with a self-cleaning, deep sap groove.
This pruning shear also features a locking nut that eliminates a nut-retaining clip that older models had.
This pruning shear is in 2nd place due to its great durability, but also because it has been known to break or fail when in use, in our experience.
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Cutting Size: 1 3/4-inch | Weight: 1.32 lbs | Warranty: Contact Manufacturer
Our third pick for bypass loppers is the Felco 30 inch Bypass Lopper.
Like most Felco products, these loppers are made with lightweight materials, is resistant to corrosion, and built with handles to specifically absorb any shock when cutting. It has a different feel to it than the Fiskars or Corona, as it is much lighter in weight and a bit more expensive.
This lopper has an adjustable and replaceable, easy-to-switch-out blade for continuous use. It is manufactured with a fully-hardened, precision ground steel blade that stays sharp longer even with heavy use.
This lopper, like most other Felco products, has more pieces than the Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers so it will need more tuning before each use. It also has more pieces resulting in more opportunity for failure.
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Need to sharpen your new loppers or pruning shears?
Here is a great sharpening kit to GET IT DONE!
When you are ready to prune your trees or shrubs to keep them healthy and shaped just right, make sure you have your bypass loppers ready.
The three bypass loppers we have presented are well made, durable and strong. Mostly made from tempered, treated alloys and steel, so each one of your cuts will be clean and precise.
Bypass loppers are highly recommended over anvil-types due to their precision and ability to reach difficult cuts.
Our pick: Fiskars 28-inch Bypass Loppers because:
Even though we wish the handles were a little longer, its a small price to pay for loppers that cut with such ease.
Now we want to hear from you! What type of trees or shrubs do you need to prune? Did you find a pair of loppers above that might work for your needs?
Let us know by leaving a quick comment below!
See you in the garden!
~ Sean and Allison
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