Garden Shears Felco: A Cost Controller’s Take on Felco 6 Pruning Shears, Gloves, and Total Cost

Cheap pruning shears are the most expensive ones you’ll ever buy. I know that sounds like a slogan, but I’m a procurement person, not a marketer. Over six years of managing a landscaping company’s tool budget, I tracked every pair of shears, every glove, every replacement spring. The numbers kept pointing the same way: Felco pruning shears cost more upfront and less per year. If your budget is tight, buy fewer Felco tools—not cheaper ones.

Here’s a quick example from my spreadsheet. A $20 pair of bypass pruners lasted our crew about seven months before the blade dulled or the spring broke. Over three years, that’s four pairs and $80. A Felco 2, used by the same person and actually cleaned twice a year, went three years with one $5 replacement spring. That’s $55 total. And it cut better for the entire period.

If you’ve ever had a shear die halfway through a day, you know the real cost isn’t the tool. It’s the stop-and-wait.

Why I trust these numbers

I’m the person who audits spend, not the brand ambassador. Since 2019, I’ve managed a tool and equipment budget of roughly $30,000 a year for a 60-person field crew. I’ve negotiated with more than 25 vendors, documented every order in our procurement system, and built a cost-tracking sheet specifically for hand tools because I got tired of the “just buy the cheap one” argument.

When I first started this role, I assumed the lowest quote was always the best choice. Three budget overruns later, I learned about total cost of ownership. The phrase sounds like consultant talk, but it’s really just: what does it cost you per day of actual use?

That’s what I mean by total cost. Not just the invoice, but the replacements, the wasted trip to the supply store, the bad cut on a customer’s tree, the time spent oiling a blade that doesn’t hold an edge anyway. The “cheap” tool isn’t cheap. It’s just funded in smaller installments.

What the arithmetic looks like

In January 2025, I compared publicly listed prices at major online tool retailers. Rough ranges:

• Felco 2 bypass pruners: $42–$60
• Felco 6 pruning shears: $35–$48
• Felco garden gloves: $35–$50
• Budget bypass pruners: $12–$25

Those ranges change, and shipping matters. But the gap is real. The mistake is stopping at the price gap instead of looking at the cost gap.

The “buy cheap and replace it” thinking comes from an era when labor was cheaper and a bad cut didn’t hurt the plant. That’s changed. On modern pruning jobs, a dull or poorly aligned shear damages tissue, and plant health is the whole point. The real cost of a cheap tool shows up on the plants, not just the job sheet.

Repairability is another part of the math. Felco publishes spare parts diagrams for each model. I can order a spring, bolt, or blade for the Felco 6 and keep the shears in service instead of tossing them in a drawer. At the $15 price point, that kind of maintenance plan basically doesn’t exist.

Felco 6 pruning shears and fit

If you search for “6 pruning shears”, the number can confuse people. It’s the model number, not a quantity. The Felco 6 pruning shears have a smaller handle profile than the classic Felco 2. I don’t like the phrase “women’s shears” because I’ve seen plenty of men with smaller hands pick the 6 and cut better than with the 2. It’s about matching the tool to the person.

For our vineyard clients, the Felco 6 is basically the default recommendation. It cuts cleanly, weighs a little less, and the grip fits a longer day. It’s not a cheaper version. It’s a different fit.

Felco garden gloves: my initial misjudgment

I’ll be straight: I used to roll my eyes at Felco garden gloves. A $45 glove seemed like a luxury item. Then I actually read the material spec and tested a pair. The leather palm held up, the back stayed breathable, and the reinforced thumb didn’t blow out after one season. The cheap gloves we used at $12 a pair lasted weeks. I now have one pair of Felco garden gloves that has been through two full seasons and is still working. They’re not indestructible—nothing is—but they’re a legitimate part of a professional pruning system.

That was one of those times my gut told me “no,” but the test data said “try it.” The test data won.

The same logic applies beyond shrubs

This may sound unrelated, but it’s the same reasoning. I once bought a wood door lock installation kit because it was the cheapest option on the shelf. The first lock install went fine. The second stripped the wood because the guide was flimsy. I had to redo the door and buy a better kit. The “cheap” kit ended up costing more in materials, labor, and embarrassment.

Someone searching “how to choose right torque setting cordless drill” is really asking a cost question: how much force is enough, and how much is too much? The rule: use enough torque to seat the screw, not enough to strip it. That matching of force to material is exactly what good pruning shears do. A clean cut happens when the blade is sharp, the tool fits the hand, and the person doesn’t have to force it.

Look, I’m not saying every tool must be premium. I’m saying the decision should be based on the whole job, not the sticker price.

When Felco doesn’t make sense

Honest part: Felco is not always the right answer.

• If your crew loses tools on clearing jobs, cheap shears are probably fine. You’ll replace them either way.
• If you prune once a year and don’t clean tools, no brand will save you.
• If you need demolition cutting, don’t buy pruning shears at all. Use loppers or a saw.
• If your team won’t oil blades, spend on training before you spend on steel.

And one more thing I care about: small orders. When a two-person vineyard asked me for two Felco 6 pruning shears and a pair of Felco garden gloves, I quoted the same prices and the same attention as I would for a 60-person company. Small doesn’t mean unimportant—it means potential. The vendors who treated my $200 orders seriously are the ones I still use today for orders a hundred times larger.

So before you buy the cheapest pair under “garden shears Felco”, ask what the tool will cost per year, not per transaction. Trust me on this one: a $20 tool you use twice is often more expensive than a $50 tool you use for three seasons.