25% off Which? Gardening
Pay £36.75 for the first year and get the garden you want for less
Get this offerBy clicking a retailer link you consent to third party cookies that track your onward journey. If you make a purchase, Which? will receive an affiliate commission which supports our mission to be the UK's consumer champion.
Best lawn edging shears
Keep your lawn tidy without a noisy grass trimmer. Discover the best lawn shears
and how to use and maintain them.
Lawn edging shears are much quieter to use than a grass trimmer, as well as easier for cutting a neat edge to your lawn.
To find the perfect pair, the handles need to be the right length for you to use without being hunched over, and the blades need to stay sharp and rust free.
Which? Gardening tested 10 pairs of shears to help you buy the right one.
Breathe new life into your outside spaces. Sign up for our Gardening newsletter, it's free monthly
Best lawn edging shears from our test
Only logged-in Which? members can view the full test results. Join Which? now to get instant access to our test scores and Best Buy recommendations below.
Full test results for lawn edging shears
| Model | Overall score | Neatness of cut | Handling weight | Comfort of hand grips | Ease of use | Cushioned blades | Back strain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87% | |||||||
| 83% | |||||||
| 81% | |||||||
| 68% | |||||||
| 64% | |||||||
| 53% | |||||||
| 44% |
| Telescopic Models | Overall score | Neatness of cut | Handling weight | Comfort of hand grips | Ease of use | Cushioned blades | Back strain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87% | |||||||
| 57% |
The more stars the better. OVERALL SCORE Ignores price and is based on: back strain 25%; neatness of cut 20%; handling weight 20%; ease of use 15%; cushioned blades 15%; comfort of hand grips 5%. Shears were scored on vertical cutting performance only.
How to sharpen your lawn edging shears
Lawn edging shears cut with a 'scissor' action. The cutting blade presses down against the anvil or non-cutting blade to cut the grass trapped between the two blades, leaving the stems uncrushed and healthy.
Sharpeners can be stone, steel or carbide. Aim to maintain the original cutting edge by keeping your cutting tool at quite an acute angle.
Move along the blade's cutting edge with small, circular motions and back again, using the whole abrasive area of your sharpening tool.
Stroke once along the back of your blade, keeping the sharpener flat, to remove metal burrs.
Only the cutting edge should be sharpened, not the inside or flat side.
Find out how to buy the best lawn mower
How to buy the best edging shears
The length of lawn edging shears' handles is very important in terms of comfort when using them, so we recommend trying them out before you buy, so they're suitable for your height.
Telescopic models might be the best choice, especially if the tool is shared by gardeners of different heights.
In theory, a swivel-headed model that can make a horizontal cut is a versatile option if you need to cut a small, hard-to-access area. However, when we tested shears that have this mechanism, the blades were too short for effective vertical or horizontal cutting.
Discover our Best Buy grass trimmers
How we tested lawn edging shears
Four gardeners tried out 10 pairs of lawn edging shears, including some with telescopic mechanisms, cutting five metres of vertical lawn edges around our trial beds.
We chose gardeners who varied in height from 156-188cm, as we were looking for shears that were comfortable to use whatever your height. Backache can set in very quickly if shears are either too short or too long, even when edging a small amount of lawn.