A long-handled lawn shear is a great option if you’re wanting to snip and remove some grass that may be hard to get with your lawn mower, but you don’t want to squat down to use smaller grass shears.

There are a lot of differences between shears, so we’ve tried to make it easy to know which are the best long-handled lawn shears for you. Since your situation is unique, the best option for you may be different than the best option for someone else.

Let’s get started with a look at our best overall.

In a Hurry? Here’s Our Top Picks…

Best Overall Pick

Fiskars Long Handle

Last update on 2024-04-04 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Fiskars’s long-handled grass shears are a great overall pick or a great option if you don’t have any needs that are too specific ( if you do, we discuss options that might fit you better further down the page).

The blades on the Fiskars are ship sharpened and have a swivel range of 180 degrees. The swivel range is important since you can adjust the angle to the one you like while trimming the grass and then lock it so the blade doesn’t move. Not to mention, this feature makes for far easier storage. Once you’ve found the blade angle that you like, the blade locks so it won’t move out of position.

A possible downside of the blade is that it is a little short compared to others on this list. An inch or so won’t make a huge difference, but it’s worth noting that you may have to snip a few more times to cut an equal area with this one.

The Fiskars’s handle comes with a scissor-like function. It is different from many products on this list in that you don’t have to bring your hands together to snip. Instead, you make a scissor-like squeeze movement with your hand. This can make cutting easier since you don’t have to bring your hands together, separate them, and bring them back together over and over again. Although, a downside to this is someone with a weak grip may have trouble.

Fiskars made their long-handled lawn shears a bit small: the handles are about an inch shorter than most of the other options on this list. Some may appreciate this size though since the Fiskars weighs in at just a minuscule 2 pounds. Shoulder or back discomfort often felt while holding objects in front of you (such as long-handled shears) won’t be much of a factor.

As with most Fiskars products, their long-handled shear comes with a lifetime warranty.

What We Like:

• Lightweight
• Wide swivel range useful for cutting and storage
• Blades ship sharpened
• Locking blade
• Lifetime warranty included

What We Don’t Like:

• The blades could be a bit longer
• The Fiskars is a bit short, so you may need to stoop down a fuzz more than with other products

The Fiskars long-handled option is a great overall pick and one that gives you a good product for the money.

Check Price and Reviews on Amazon

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Best for Edging Work

Spear & Jackson 4900 Edger

Last update on 2024-04-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

The Spear & Jackson’s unique shape makes it a great tool for getting those hard-to-reach grass blades on the edges of sidewalks, natural areas, or any area that your other tools just can’t quite handle.

These lawn shears have a blade that is at a 90-degree angle relative to the handle. While this makes shaving an inch or two off the grass an impossibility, the 90-degree design on these shears is very helpful if you’re trying to do edging work. The blades themselves are very handy: high-grade carbon steel shipped sharp and made to last. The blades are rust-resistant and at 9″, are plenty long enough to get a lot done in one snip.

The shafts on the Spear & Jackson are made of tubular steel. This means you’ll get handles made of steel that is hollow on the inside to save a few pounds. The steel helps to reinforce durability so no need to worry about getting shears that break down on you next week. One downside about all that steel is that it does add up. These shears are heavy. We discuss whether or not weight is important in the Things To Know Before You Buy section.

To open and close the blades on these shears, you’ll need to open and close the handles. This is neither a feature nor a bug, but something to be aware of. Each cut will be easier, but you will need to expend a bit more energy with each cut compared to something like the Fiskars. You can cut through thicker grass, but it does come at the cost of a little energy.

The handles on the Spear & Jackson are rubber, non-slip, and made to feel soft in your hands so you can have a little comfort while working out in the yard.

Spear & Jackson makes their products tough and we were able to find on the manufacturer’s website that these shears include a 10-year warranty.

What We Like:

• Long blade
• High-quality steel blades ship sharp
• Steel shafts make these shears tough
• Comfort, non-slip handles
• 10-year warranty

What We Don’t Like:

• Heavy and could be hard to maneuver
• Can’t be used for trimming the top of the grass

These Spear & Jackson long-handled shears are a great option if you want to trim the edges of your growth on perhaps a sidewalk path, a natural area, or other spots that may be hard to get with other tools.

Check Price and Reviews on Amazon

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Best for Trimming the Top of Grass

Spear & Jackson 4901 Trimmer

Last update on 2024-04-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Spear & Jackson make the list again with a product that is similar to their other shears but geared for a different function.

The main difference between these shears and the ones reviewed above is subtle yet important: the blade degree is different. While this would seem to have almost no impact on the tool, a slight 30-degree difference changes the functions of these shears in a dramatic way.

The Spear & Jackson 4901 have a blade that is angled away from the shaft at a 120-degree angle. While the other Spear & Jackson shears were at a 90-degree angle and only good for edging, these are only good for trimming the top of your grass.

For that reason, these shears are best used for reaching hard-to-reach spots where no lawnmower has tread before. Natural areas, corners, the grass around valuable plants, or other difficult places are the intended targets for the high-grade stainless steel of these shears. The blade measures in at 9 inches so you should be able to cut a pretty good portion of grass without snipping ’til the cows come home.

Like its predecessor reviewed before, the Spear & Jackson trimmer comes with steel shafts that increase durability but make the shear a bit heavier. You can expect that this shear will weigh in at about 3 and a half pounds. Spear & Jackson does try to make their shears comfortable with padded, non-slip handles, though.

These long-handled shears come with a 10-year warranty.

What We Like:

• Long blade
• High-quality steel blades ship sharp
• Steel shafts make these shears tough
• Comfort, non-slip handles
• 10-year warranty

What We Don’t Like:

• Heavy and could be hard to maneuver
• Can’t be used for edging along sidewalks, natural areas, etc.

These shears are a good option if you need something to trim the top of your grass.

Check Price and Reviews on Amazon

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Best for Hard-to-Reach Places

Bahco Trimmers

Last update on 2024-04-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Bahco’s trimmers are the best on this list if you have several places in your yard that need to be trimmed but maybe you just can’t quite reach. It may be that these areas are a fuzz too far away or are blocked by existing shrubbery that may need a trim. Whatever the case, Bahco’s trimmers are the longest on our list and are helpful when trying to reach those far-away places.

The blade on these shears are carbon steel and then coated with a solution to make them even more durable with a lower chance of sticking to one another or getting stuck while cutting grass. The blades are almost 8 inches long, so you will be able to cut a lot with just a few snips.

The handles are steel tubes coated with plastic grips. Plastic has a natural non-slip factor to it, but there is a little lacking here as far as comfort goes. Other than the plastic, the handles aren’t padded and while the steel tubes increase durability, they also increase weight. These shears weigh in at a little over 3.5 pounds.

These shears should be durable, but we were unable to find any warranty information on either Amazon or the manufacturer’s website.

What We Like:

• Very long handle
• Double beveled, coated blades
• The long blade makes cutting less labor-intensive
• Hollow steel shafts make this durable

What We Don’t Like:

• Heavy
• No warranty information that we could find

These long, long-handled shears are a great pick if you have several spots in your gardens or natural areas that you have a lot of trouble reaching. The long shafts make it easy to get behind or around bushes, shrubs, or other natural barriers to what you need to trim up.

Check Price and Reviews on Amazon

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Things to Know Before You Buy…

How to Handle Pain During Use

During our search to find the best long-handled lawn shears, we noticed a lot of users had questions, concerns, and complaints about body pain – so we thought this would be a good topic for us to briefly cover.

With all of the options we’ve reviewed above (and all of the other long-handled shears in the world), you will be standing while holding the shears in front of you as you’re snipping the grass. This position will never be detrimental to your health, but it can be a little uncomfortable for your back or knees. Here are a few tips for alleviating some of those pains.

Back Pain: Back pain is tough to conquer, but can be done with a bit of hard work and a little extra caution.

• Be sure to stretch and strengthen your back when you get a chance. There are loads of back exercises on the internet and Youtube is a great resource. If you notice your back starting to ache while working in the yard, take a minute to set down your tools, walk around a minute, and do some stretches.
• Make sure your posture is upright, straight, and strong. Here is some more info, if you’re curious.
• Avoid stooping over. This goes back to bad posture, but make sure that your back is straight and when you lift something, you are lifting from the legs and not from your back.

Here’s some more info on back pain and how to alleviate it.

Knee Pain: If your knee pain is caused while standing or from arthritis that prevents full movement in the yard, the solutions can be a little complex. The best way to treat arthritis is to get moving, it may help a bit for you to walk around a little, even if that’s not what you want to do.

If your knee pain flares up while you’re standing but you don’t have arthritis, it could be due to a lot of stress being placed on your knees. Try to strengthen your calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings so the muscles can bear a bit more of your burden.

While a few simple solutions can often go a long way, we aren’t medical professionals here. If your pain seems to be chronic and unending, it’s best that you consult your doctor.

The Big Deal about a Little Weight

One of the features we touched on a lot with our long-handled shears is weight. It may seem like a little weight is no big deal. What difference does an extra pound make while trimming the hedges, anyways?

Well, a good bit of difference.

If you would like to do a little experiment to see how heavy a pound can get, take your cell phone and hold it out in front of you with your arms extended and locked – you want a straight line from your shoulder to your hand. Once you have your phone extended, see how long you can hold it like that for.

If you’re able to keep your arm extended for over a minute without feeling a little discomfort, congratulations! You are basically superhuman. If you’re like the rest of us and don’t love keeping your arms extended for that long, just know that it’s normal. The bad news of that exercise is that your phone probably weighs less than half a pound. Imagine keeping 2, or 4, or 6 cell phones at full extension for not just minutes, but hours.

That’s the difference a lightweight shear can make. You won’t always have your arms at full extension while trimming the lawn, but your shoulders will almost always be engaged and moving. A few pounds doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it can make a big difference in how tired you feel by the end of the day.

If you’re confident in your muscle mass or want a pair of shears that will endure through the ages, by all means, go for the heavier pairs. Heavier shears often have more durable construction, make it easier to cut, or have longer blades to decrease the necessary work.

If you have a lot of hedges to trim or aren’t confident that you can hold something that will get heavy very fast, then we recommend going for a lighter set of shears for your hedges. Lightweight doesn’t mean low quality, just that the shears are made of a different material than the heavier ones.

If you aren’t sure whether heavy or light shears are best for you, we recommend going with a lightweight pair. That pair will be easier to use, more usable for a variety of people, and if you want to go heavier, you can always buy another option.

A little pound goes a long way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my shears cut through this?

Questions abound on whether or not lawn shears will cut through this type of grass, that section of your yard, or any pesky twigs.

All of the lawn shears on our list were designed to cut through thick, mean, tough grasses as well as the more delicate varieties. St. Augustines, Bermudas, or Fescues will not be able to stand against the force of you and your long-handled shears.

Lawn shears do not possess all the powers of Grayskull, however. Smaller twigs should be fine, but anything that might be called a “stick” may cause some jamming.

The strength of your shears will also depend on the types of handles they have. Handles like the Fiskars where you can only use one hand will be weaker in comparison to the handles where you have to separate and bring your arms together. Shears can cut through almost any grass, but you won’t be turning into Johnny Appleseed any time soon.

Best Brands

Fiskars

Fiskars was founded all the way back in 1649 (and no, that’s not a typo). Fiskars started as an ironworks shop in a Finnish village of the same name. Since then, they have expanded their product line to make it easier for people to do the things they love. Fiskars is well known for its tough products that don’t wear out.

Spear & Jackson

Spear & Jackson is another brand that had it’s beginning in simpler times: when the crucible steel process emerged in Sheffield, England in the 1740s, Spear & Jackson took advantage of the new technology to begin manufacturing steel. This company has come a long way since he 1740s and now makes a variety of tools so that you can own your yard.

Bahco

Bahco had something of a late start compared to our other two companies on the list. Having only started in 1862, Bahco seems to have come a bit late in the race, but they have made up a lot of ground since the 19th century. Their purpose is the highest quality and their rallying cry is the hope to provide you with the strongest, best designed, most useful tools in the world. This company wants to hep you build your dream yard.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading our guide on the best long handled lawn shears! When it comes down to it, the best option for you is going to be the one that suits your unique needs best.

Before buying, you’ll want to take a look at your lawn. Are you wanting to cut a little bit off the top of your hard-to-reach grass or are you trying to do some edging work to the sides of your natural areas, driveway, or sidewalks? It’s worth taking a look at the size of the area you’ll be cutting. If there’s a lot to trim, you may be served well by paying a bit more for shears with a longer blade.

If the spots that need shaping up are a little hard to reach, then you may want to take a look at shears with a longer handle (for example, the Bahco shears come with a 44-inch length compared to the more common 36-38 inches).

You should also take an honest look at your physical condition. Can you handle holding heavier shears out at arm’s length for extended periods of time? If not, you might want to consider a lighter set of shears since even a pound can make a difference.

Our overall top pick is the Fiskars, but when all is said and done, the best long handled lawn shears for your needs will be the ones that can fit your unique situation. There are some good options here for everyone, so don’t be afraid to be a little picky and take your time looking around at which one is best for you.