Sometimes your basic garden shears are not enough.

Yes, they do an adequate job, but often your requirements demand more out of your gardening equipment.

These Gnome hedge shears provide added features to make gardening safer, easier and more enjoyable. Let me give you the lowdown on these clippers and show you why they may tick all your boxes.

Gnome Garden Hedge Shears Review and Guide

Features

Long Blades

With an impressive length of 25 inches, these shears are designed to make lopping and pruning simple and safe.

They may not reach the tallest of hedges and bushes, but they alleviate the need for a ladder in many circumstances. In addition, the long blades mean that more area is covered in one pass—saving both valuable time and effort.

Blade Quality

The blades are made from carbon steel, making them strong and durable. Even when run through hardcore clipping sessions, these blades did not fail. But, there is more to these blades than just strength.

These shears have a useful curved design. This enables the blades to reduce the chance of branch “slippage,” which is especially common when cutting at full stretch.

You have probably experienced the annoying feeling of squeezing the blades shut, only to see the branch being pushed out at the end of the shears. The curved design enables them to grasp the branch, leading to a satisfying cut.

To keep the shears in top form, always clean immediately after use. This will prolong their life and ensure they are always ready for action. Here’s a helpful video explaining how to clean your garden tools.

Handles

These shears have ergonomically-designed handles that fit nicely to the shape of the hand. Hence, if you are working for extended periods outside, your hands should not suffer from fatigue.

However, for me, they are a little on the small size. I prefer more girth in my hand as I feel it leads to an easier grip, with less stress on the muscles.

Looks

If you are just interested in these shears as a workhorse, you may not be concerned with the aesthetics. Personally, I want my tools to look good hanging in my garage—for me, these shears fit the bill.

They come mainly in a traditional green tone enhanced with black trim. This feature is carried through into the handles. What’s more, the blades are coated with black carbon—providing an attractive modern feel.

Quality of Cutting

They may look the business, but how do they perform? On grasses and green stems, the work was almost effortless—no harder than cutting paper with scissors.

On my shrubbery, they handled well. At one point I was cutting up to eight branches of around 0.4-inch thickness simultaneously. Admittedly, this did involve a little strength on my part, but nothing that you would consider hard work.

Trying to take these shears to the limit, I was able to cut through a 1-inch branch with a fair amount of force applied. Yet, the blades did cut, not compress, the branch. Looking at the cuts, they are clean. There were few remnants or straggling fibrous material.

Are they worth buying?

If you just have a few small ground shrubs or potted bushes, these shears could be overkill. However, anything more than that and they are ideal.

With their impressive length, these could suit the smaller person or those who are not keen on scaling stepladders. Personally, I fall into the latter group. I am not happy climbing a ladder at all, especially letting go to operate hand tools.

Hence, they may be a useful pair of shears if you are a little unstable on your feet or lack good balance.

As the blades are both carbon steel and heat treated, they will stand up to quite a lot of abuse. They are a good choice for people who are going to be using them on a frequent basis or have a lot of hedging that needs attention.

One aspect that may be a downer is their weight. At 2.9 pounds, they are quite heavy. If you are challenged in the strength department, it could be an issue. I found that after about 35 minutes of use my forearms started suffering from fatigue. However, I was doing a lot of overhead cutting.

Summary

These shears are ideal for taller bushes or people with shorter arms. The long, strong blades enable large areas to be trimmed in one easy cut.

With an ability to cut 1-inch branches fairly simply, they are a good choice for those with thicker shrubberies. However, they are a weighty pair of shears that may be too much for some.

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