As Good As A Samurai Sword

The gardener's "tatoo": dirt under the fingernails and those ubiquitous red handles sticking out of your back pocket.  Felco pruners have been on the market for years and have been the gold-standard when it comes to pruners.  I would like to recommend a different brand of pruners, that I have been using for two years.

Ordered from the Japan Woodworker online, these pruners have "spring loaded blades that are angled in relation to the handles to create an easier cutting action".  Unlike Felco's you can not change the blades, you need to sharpen the blades periodically with a stone.  Using a stone,  the blades will be as sharp as day they were purchased.  "The cutting blade is forge welded from inlaid high carbon "white" steel.  A master blacksmith carefully tempers each blade for increased edge life and hones to a razon edge." - quoted from the catalog.

The maxiumum cut is 1 3/4.
Blade length is 2" and overall length is 7" (the pruners also come in 8" length for larger hands)

Like most things, Japanese, the packaging matters (see photo).  When you open the mailing box, your pruners are packaged for what they are: a gift for the gardener.

You can also purchase from the Japan Woodworker, the polishing stone and camilla oil ("used to protect the finest Samurai swords").  And of course, a tool I am never without a Hori Hori.

Reading books, planning new gardens, and buying new tools makes the snow melt a little faster.

7" professional pruning shear (product ID 16.100.25)
8" professional grade prunign shear (product ID 16.100.26)
www.japanwoodworker.com


Catalog cover from the current show at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.