Softgrip Pruning Shears by Fiskars

I give these shears 7 out of 10 acorns. I was given these as a Christmas present. Perhaps I am spoiled by my Felco pruning shears, but these just aren't that great. My wrists get sore after using them for a while. The tip of the shears is really sharp and pointy, so I can't slip it in my pocket without poking a hole, and I worry about my kids getting a hold of them and poking themselves. And, the lock that holds the shears shut is really easy to switch off--in other words, they open very easily when I don't want them to. This makes me even warier of using them, as I fear my kids getting a hold of them, easily unlocking them, and then pruning their their fingers off. These do cut small branches well, but don't as large of branches as my Felcos, and are a bit harder to cut.

That being said, they aren't bad pruning shears. They might be a lot better than most affordable shears. But, Felcos are by far superior, at least for me.

I give these shears 4 out of 10 acorns.... They deteriorate very quickly.  The plastic is low quality, and as Nicole said the locking mechanism basically does not work.  Worse than that, these shears became unusable almost immediately after I bought them because blade started either overlapping the other metal piece, which chipped the blade, or separating from it almost a centimeter- impossible to get a clean cut, if any!  These cost me around $25, and I just ordered a pair from felco for under $50.  I might not even keep these as a back up pair.. I really don't like them.

I give these shears 3 out of 10 acorns.  To be fair, I was able to use a pair that wasn't brand new.  They were about a month old, but had already lost the majority of their cutting ability.  The owner gave them to me, because he no longer wanted them.  I used them a bit, attempting to do some very light trimming.  I quickly changed to a pair of one dollar kitchen scissors that worked better for what I needed.  I didn't use them long enough to really need the locking mechanism, so I can't say that mine slipped out of lock easily.  I didn't like the way that they felt in my hand.  I didn't care for how they cut.  There were two problems with the blades on my unit.  First, they didn't seem very sharp at all.  Second, the blades were offset almost a centimeter as Conner wrote.  This made the cut much more of a pinch and a tear than a slice.  It did not work well at all.  I did not try to fix these pruners, because I got them for free and figured that they weren't worth my time.  They were sold a few months later in a garage sale for two dollars.