One for the gardeners out there! My current gardening gloves have worn down and to be honest, weren't great in the first place. Nothing like grabbing a load of holly you've just cut down to find out the hard way . Also, somehow I broke the catch on my cheapo pruning shears. I'm all ears for recommendations on: A pair of gardening gloves I could pick up barbed wire with and laugh Some 'decent enough' pruning shears Thanks in advance!
The Wilkinson Sword and Spear & Jackson lines have been good to me, I've got a couple of bits from each. Really well made. However, for some reason none of them - not even the super duper ones - are particularly rustproof. I don't know if this is just an intrinsic limitation of having metal edges rubbing together? But mine go rusty immediately if left in any humidity. So WD40/ACF-50 them and keep them somewhere dry. I can't recommend a good set of gloves because I haven't found any. I tried regular gardening gloves but they're always cheap cotton stitch and rip apart. I tried leather chainsaw gloves which were super comfy but the leather wears through very quickly on the finger ends (seems to be a commonality with all budget leather garments, it's just cheap shite because thick high grade leather is very expensive). I now use welder's gloves like these because they're incredibly tough and I can grab and chuck timber, nails, screws, splinters etc. without a second thought, but they're crap for gardening because the huge bulky fingers make delicate work impossible. I do love them for rough work, though. Let me know if you find some good ones
I've had a pair of these for a couple of years, and it's rare that anything ever gets through them; great for brambles. They are of course a bit restrictive but that's an unavoidable payoff. I can't really recommend any pruning shears, other than Felco being the market leader (draw what conclusions you will from that), do you have a budget?
I always use this kind of thing. heavy duty/rigger gloves? they're some kind of leather i think, but will do pretty much anything.
https://www.burgonandball.com/collections/hand-shears-snips I've bought various bits from here over the years (largely 'cos my local OAP disneyland (garden centre) is a stockist). They've been good thus far - of particular note are their secateurs. Bonus points for saying 'secateurs' to the intro of this tune:
I have completely different experience here, but here goes. Mechanix brand gloves were the only ones that stood up to me pushing my wheelchair for more than a week. As for clippers, I like Fiskars, but be sure whatever you get is carbon steel-it generally holds a better edge and is easier to sharpen. Sure it can rust, but Cosmoline works.
I've been using a pair of Fiskars shears for several years now. Unfortunately the model I have is no longer available but, they are good quality, solid shears and, in my experience Fiskars products are well designed and made to last. As for gloves, I just end up with whatever I can get big enough for big w***ing spanners.
I have 2 pairs of these for the last 40 yrs.They are IMO the best https://www.felco.com/uk_en/felco-2.html you can get and worth every penny.You can get replacement blades,anvils,grips and springs.
Thanks for all the replies! I'll wait another hour or so before ordering - they'll turn up just in time for after the Easter weekend I'm not a delicate gardener, so these look perfect. A good price too, so if they wear out, it's relative cheap to replace them. I'm not enough of a horticulturalist to need the really fancy stuff Bonus points earned. Although they're pricy, these are looking like contenders. Fiskars (as @Mr_Mistoffelees and @KayinBlack have mentioned) also look good. I'm prone to using pruning shears to try to cut through trees though
Forgot to order these last night , so ordered them just now. Also ordered some garden waste bags as the green waste bins aren't being collected in my area, which I'm assuming is to help combat Coronavirus.
Yeah the tips are closed for the same reason, which has led to a huge rise in flytipping around my way...
They all turned up today! Annoyingly, I only got one of the three 272L bags I ordered, but hey ho. Weather's looking good tomorrow...
@boiled_elephant The gloves worked perfectly! I don't think you'll get better than that - comfortable and didn't have a problem with any thorns getting through. @wecrookie The Felco 2s were a good choice - very satisfying to squeeze shut and good at 'jabbing' at sticky-outy bits!
Those gloves look interesting, how big are they? My hands are about 10.5cm across the palms and I have long fingers.
I'm a Large in glove sizes and those welder's gloves are perfect for me. They are baggy tho. If you had small hands they'd be a pain to use. They are everything-proof tho. I have several pairs now (one for coal, one for chainsaws, one for gardening, etc.)