The 9 best lawn edging shears for effortlessly achieving perfect garden borders

These have tubular steel handles, so they feel quite light, and the smooth grips are really comfortable. What makes them stand out among the rest is their particularly excellent cutting action that feels effortless with no friction or drag. It’s as though you’re bouncing along, so easy is the motion. I also like the chunky plastic adjustment wheel that can be turned by hand if you need to tighten or realign the blades – no tools necessary. The handles are 96cm (38in), and the price tag is very reasonable for such a good pair of shears.

This German brand, founded in 1904 (CK stands for Carl Kammerling), is a little pricier than the others, but it’s a quality product that will last for years. The blades are very sharp, and the cutting action is loose and easy. The handle length can be adjusted from 64cm to 105cm by pressing down buttons and guiding the handles into one of seven slot positions, so these would suit people of any height. The grips are smooth and comfortable, and the aluminium tubular handles are nicely chunky.

An elegantly proportioned pair of shears, these have relatively long 90cm handles, so would be ideal for those over 6 feet tall, though at 5ft 5in, I also found them comfortable. The ultra-lightweight aluminium handles have comfortable grips. The hardened and tempered high-carbon steel blades are also coated for rust resistance, and they cut very well. These feel sturdy and well-made and come with a 10-year guarantee and an RHS endorsement.

At 1.3kg, these are the lightest shears on trial and come with a very reasonable price tag. The 93cm long tubular steel handles have soft grip foam handles for comfort and 17cm long carbon steel blades. The cutting action is not the smoothest of those tested, but they do the job perfectly well. A very good budget option.

Bahco is a brand founded in Sweden 170 years ago, and their tools are popular with professionals who appreciate their robustness. The orange tubular steel handles are hard to lose, and they have a rubber buffer for jar-free closing, comfortable grips, and stamped, fully hardened, sharpened 20cm long steel blades coated with black xylan to reduce friction and premature rusting. The handles are 90cm long, so best for those under 6 feet tall. Robust and hard-wearing with no extra gimmicks, these would handle being thrown in the back of a van at the end of a long day and not suffer any ill effects.

These are a well-priced, adjustable pair of shears of very good quality. The tubular steel handles are fully adjustable up to 110cm – simply twist the grips to release and then twist back to lock in position. The blades are polished and hard chrome plated for rust resistance. The only slight niggle is that the grooves in the grips that make the twisting action easy are slightly jarring on the palms of the hand when you’re cutting for long periods. But the cutting action is good, sharp and smooth They come with a 10-year guarantee.

The blades on the pair I tested were slightly out of alignment, so they needed adjusting to get the best cut (easy using Allen keys). Once adjusted, I found these perfectly sharp and particularly good at handling tougher grass and thatch. The blades are blunt-nosed to avoid snagging and sturdy, made from SK5 steel. The handles are adjustable, too, with simple push-down buttons that are very easy to use. These shears have quite a bulky look, with prominent plastic features in Surecut’s colourway of grey and brown. The moulded plastic hand grips with hanging loop reminded me of the handle of a toy gun. Come with a 5-year guarantee.

These are designed differently from the others, with the blades mounted on the end of a pole and the cutting action effected with a trigger-style handle, so you use it single-handed. There is also an extra handle you can pull up to make it easier to manoeuvre with two hands. While a nice idea in theory, I found this less easy to use than the two-handled models, with the repeated trigger action soon tiring my hand, so these would suit small lawns only. The lock switch to keep the sharp blades closed after use is also rather stiff, so those who lack strength in their hands may struggle. The blades are relatively thin but sharp, and a nice feature is that the whole head can be swivelled 90 degrees, so you can cut flat grass as well as edges. 

These are good value, perfectly decent lawn edging shears that cut through overhanging grass efficiently and feel nicely light to use. The niggle is the moulded grips, which take a bit of getting used to since the position of the mouldings means you have to twist your hands round to hold them, and this makes long sessions of edging potentially tough on the wrists. The tubular steel handles are 89cm long, and the cut is decent. They come with a Draper lifetime warranty.