Okatsune 103 Bypass Secateurs

Beautifully smooth action and very sharp, makes cutting a breeze. Just be careful with the latch as it aggressively snaps into place and can catch you hand if not careful.

Absolutely the best. Made in Japan and these are brilliant. Cuts through tough Red Robin, Laurel and prunes roses to delicate perennials. Simply the best. Apparently I’m supposed to clean them but after 7 months of hard cutting and pruning, they are still a dream. I would not buy anything else after these beauties

Excellent quality secateurs far better than you can get in the garden centre. More expensive yes but worth the money

Having read a review of these in a gardening magazine I decided to make a break from a lifetime of Felcos and give them a try. They are not cheap but they are seriously good, very well made, secateurs and I am very happy with them, so much so that they have now replaced the Felcos as the secateurs of choice in my holster ( and come on, if you haven't got yourself a leather holster for your secateurs by now then you don't know what you have been missing. Ignore the cowboy references and just get one!). Firstly, they are very sharp and easily pass the bamboo cane test. The blade is sharp enough to use as a razor for opening bags of compost, cutting string etc. I know that's not the point of them but it illustrates the razor like quality. They are comfortable but also quite small so, if like me you have large hands, then go for the 103s which are the largest and would probably still suit someone with medium hands. They have a very clean cutting action, with a satisfying 'clack' sound, and are equally good at snipping off flower heads or taking small branches from fruit trees. What does take a bit of getting used to however is the action. If you are used to the 'thumb flick' opening and closing action of Felco and ersatz Felco secateurs then you might find the opening and closing action of the Okatsune secateurs takes a bit of getting used to. The clip at the base needs to be flicked open and then flicked closed after use. Here is a word to the wise: don't get the skin of your hand caught in the closing mechanism! The spring snaps it back into place and there is potential for a real 'ouch!'- or worse - moment. Having been stupid enough to catch my hand three times I now flick them open and closed by pushing the base of the secateurs against my hip. It works for me; you find your own way.

I’m no stranger to garden tools, but this is the first pair of secateurs that I’ve spent anything more than a pittance on. Were they worth the money? Without question, but they do come with some caveats. Straight from the box, you can tell that the Okatsune 103s are machine-made, rather than hand-made, secateurs. That doesn’t make them bad – far from it – it’s just that they have that Western, ground and polished finish to the blades that, personally, I like, but which hand-made Japanese tools typically lack. The steel is clearly high-quality and very hard, and although it does get tarnished over time (no matter how much you clean them), it doesn’t feel like it will give out or rust without seriously harsh or neglectful treatment. The rubber-covered handles (the red to find them on the ground during the day and white at night), whilst funky, get slippery when wet so keeping a firm grip on them is essential, as they can easily ‘spring open’ if your grip wavers. The handles, whilst comfortable, open a little too wide for my hands; I have what I would say is an average grip and at their widest extent it’s hard for me to hold on to these. In use, the Okatsunes feel like they’re German-made, and that’s a huge compliment. They have an incredibly smooth and precise action that just ‘fits’, with no hint of wobble or looseness anywhere. They scythe through live wood like it wasn’t there, although some harder woods do require more force than others, and woods with a high sap content gunk them up quite quickly. All in all, your typical garden shrubbery won’t give the Okatsunes much trouble at all. All of that said, I was quite surprised when I tried to cut through some dead wood with them. I started off quite ambitiously, attempting to cut some fairly thick wood, and the Okatsunes failed completely, barely making a scratch. Thinking that it was the wood, I moved on to some much thinner, but equally dead, wood from another tree; the Okatsunes got through it, but only with some force. I know that anvil secateurs are the choice for dead wood, but I was very surprised at how poorly these performed, given how well they had done with live stuff. The Okatsune 103 secateurs are a great choice for cutting through average – or even larger – gardens, and feel like they’ll last a lifetime. Their size might not suit everyone, and using them with gloves is a good idea given their slippery handles, but there’s not much live wood they won’t cut through with relative ease. But dead wood is another matter, and these – at least in my experience – aren’t the “do all” garden secateurs you might be looking for if you need them to go through both dead and live branches.

Very good . Sharp and cut really well

Worth every penny. Nicely heavy, superbly efficient, clean cutting, no crush damage, also tackles pruning woody stems like a knife through butter: these are fantastic. I even clean and oil them after only a couple of uses, I so value them. My husband is not allowed near them - they are kept hidden, they are so good. Not going to hunt for these where he put them down somewhere in the garden - they're MINE!

These secateurs are the best I’ve ever used, very comfortable and light weight for my arthritic hand, extremely sharp and the closing clip .which I thought would be a nuisance is very easy to use.