Pruning shears, also called hand pruners (in American English), or secateurs are a type of scissors

Scissors

Scissors are hand-operated cutting instruments. They consist of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting various thin materials, such as paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin...

 for use with plants. They are strong enough to prune

Pruning

Pruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping , improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing nursery specimens for...

 hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to two centimetres thick. They are used in gardening

Gardening

Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...

, arboriculture

Arboriculture

Arboriculture is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science....

, farming, flower arranging, and nature conservation where fine-scale habitat management is required.

Loppers

Loppers

Loppers are a type of scissors used for pruning twigs and small branches. They are the largest type of manual garden cutting tool. They are usually operated with two hands, and with handles around 65 cm long to give good leverage...

 are a larger, two-handed, long-handled version for branches thicker than pruning shears can cut.

Designs

There are three blade designs of pruning shears: anvil, bypass and parrot-beak. Anvil pruners have only one blade which closes onto a flat surface. They tend to crush the stem, but remain reliable when slightly blunt. Anvil secateurs are useful for cutting thick branches. Bypass secateurs usually work exactly like a pair of scissors, with two blades passing each other to make the cut. At least one of the blades will be curved: a convex upper blade with either a concave or straight lower one. Some bypass designs have only one blade, the lower jaw being broad (like an anvil) but passing the upper jaw. Parrot-beak secateurs consist of two concave passing blades, which trap the stem between them to make the cut. These are suitable only for narrower stems.

Handle length

Secateurs have short handle

Handle (grip)

A handle is a part of, or attachment to, an object that can be moved or used by hand. The design of each type of handle involves substantial ergonomic issues, even where these are dealt with intuitively or by following tradition...

s and are operated with one hand. A spring

Spring (device)

A spring is an elastic object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of spring steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication...

 between the handles causes the jaws to open again after closing. When not in use, the jaws may be held closed by a safety catch or by a loop holding the handles together. Some may be designed for right-handed or left-handed use only and some may incorporate a rotating handle to reduce friction

Friction

Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and/or material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:...

 and minimize hand stress during repetitive use. There are also longer versions called telescopic pruners which are adjustable for long-reach and operate by means of a rod system inside of a telescoping pole between the handles and the blades. An early version of these was known as an averruncator

Averruncator

An averruncator is a form of long shears used in arboriculture for averruncating or pruning off the higher branches of trees, etc. The word averruncate glided into meaning to weed the ground, prune vines, etc., by a supposed derivation from the Lat...

.