Garden Loppers
Of all the challenges a gardener faces, pruning trees is often one of the trickiest. But whether it's dead and dry wood or live green wood, loppers make the job of pruning much easier.
You may have seen the term ‘shears’ before. These relate to handheld pruning tools, also known as pruners, whereas loppers are larger tools requiring the use of both hands.
Garden loppers mainly come in two different types, both of which have their own individual roles:
- Anvil loppers – These work by crushing the branch or material like a chopping board, with the use of a sharpened blade and a flat metal block. Anvil loppers are most popular where the removal itself is more important than how clean the cut is. They are often used for preparatory cuts, before a smoother, final cut is undertaken. Common uses include shortening a branch or cutting branches into the correct lengths for use in burners or fires
- Bypass loppers – Slicing together like a pair of scissors, these loppers have two sharpened blades and are used primarily for the cuts that will affect the health of the plant. This is due to bypass loppers making a clean and precise cut
Loppers are generally more accurate than saws and more powerful than pruners – making the cutting of larger branches much easier.
Some brands you might want to consider are:
- Silverline
- Spear & Jackson
- Fiskars
- WOLF-Garten
- Draper
Top tips for your loppers
- Working in pairs - Use an anvil lopper for the grunt of the work; save the bypass lopper for tidying or making the final, finishing cut
- Maintenance - Keep your bypass lopper razor sharp so that it can make clean cuts, time and time again
- Telescopic loppers – If you need to reach up high, avoid using ladders by buying some telescopic loppers that extend to your required height!