Felco No. 2 Secateurs Compared Against Niwaki GR Pro Shears

Price, steel, and first cut

Felco No. 2 retails around GBP 50 to 60 in most UK garden suppliers. The Niwaki GR Pro sits closer to GBP 75 to 90, depending on the size grade. That GBP 20 to 30 premium pays for a different blade philosophy as much as a different finish.

The Niwaki blade is a higher-carbon Japanese steel hardened toward the 60 HRC range. It holds a finer edge for longer, though twisting it through a half-finished cut risks damage. Felco uses hardened steel nearer the mid-50s HRC, giving up some edge retention in exchange for a blade that can be re-ground on a kitchen whetstone with less fear of chipping.

Both tools are bypass secateurs. The upper blade slides past a lower hook in the manner of scissors, leaving a clean angled wound on living wood. An anvil pruner crushes down onto a flat surface, so the cut quality is different.

The Niwaki earns part of its premium through hand-finish. Each pair is assembled and tested in Japan, the spring tension is set tighter, and the first closing action feels more positive. Felco offers a less decorative advantage over a decade of use: every screw, spring, blade, and cushioned grip is a stocked replacement item.

Stripping the Felco down on the bench

Undo the central nut on a Felco No. 2 and the tool separates into seven serviceable components: blade, anvil blade, spring, central bolt, adjustment key, and two cushioned handle grips. Felco sells each of those parts under its own catalogue number. The replacement blade, part 2-3, costs around GBP 12 to 15.

A pair bought in 1995 can accept 2024 parts without compatibility trouble, because the No. 2 frame has barely changed in three decades. When a blade loses its edge or a spring snaps, the repair is a cheap part and about ten minutes with the supplied key.

The Niwaki GR Pro can also be serviced. Its blade unbolts, and Niwaki stocks replacements. Outside Japan, though, the parts ecosystem is thinner, and a specific blade can take weeks to arrive. For a market garden or a 30-bed allotment, a tool failure in July affects the work schedule, so the Felco supply chain carries real weight.

Felco grinds a relatively obtuse bevel that tolerates abuse and sharpens quickly on a 1000-grit diamond stone. The Niwaki wants a slower hand, ideally a 1000 then 3000 grit progression. Put in that care and the reward is a glassier cut.

Brassica rows and sticky stems

A companion planting brassica row has its own cutting pattern. Kale and cabbage may be interplanted with aromatic alliums or French marigold to disrupt cabbage white moths, and the harvest involves frequent cuts through soft, sappy stems. The white sticky sap quickly gums a blade.

In that work, the Niwaki GR Pro pulls ahead. Its thinner, harder blade slices a 15mm kale stem in one clean pass with very little lateral pressure. The cleaner wound matters, because ragged brassica stumps invite clubroot and bacterial soft rot at the cut face.

The Felco completes the same cuts, yet the difference becomes obvious deep into an afternoon. Its slightly thicker blade and softer steel ask for marginally more force per stem. Across brassicas, lettuce, and other soft growth, that small extra squeeze builds into wrist fatigue. For volume cutting, the Niwaki edge geometry earns its premium through reduced effort.

Sap management favours neither tool by design. Both need wiping with a rag dampened in white spirit or a citrus solvent between rows, because dried brassica sap can make a sound edge feel dull before the steel has actually worn. Leave the residue overnight and the next session starts with a blade that seems worse than it is.

Espalier apple work

Espalier apple training separates the two secateurs more sharply than vegetable harvesting. Across a five-year project on dwarfing M9 or M26 rootstock, the grower makes hundreds of cuts. Summer pruning takes new laterals back to three leaves above the basal cluster in August; winter work shortens the leaders.

Each cut should sit just above a bud at a slight angle, so water sheds away from the bud. Ragged cuts create entry wounds for canker in a damp UK orchard.

On apple stems up to about 18mm, the Niwaki GR Pro makes the cleanest cut of the two. In a young espalier, nearly every cut sits inside that range. The fine blade leaves a wound that calluses fast.

Older, harder framework wood near 25mm changes the preference. The thin Niwaki blade starts to protest when pushed into that material. The Felco No. 2 is rated comfortably to 25mm, and its more robust blade powers through with less temptation to twist the wrist, the movement that chips a Japanese edge.

For years one to three, thin pliable laterals suit the Niwaki. As horizontal arms thicken into permanent framework, the Felco becomes the safer cutter. A serious espalier grower can justify owning both and choosing by stem diameter, an expensive answer that the cutting physics supports.

The Felco No. 2 is a full-size tool with a longer handle throw. In a congested espalier, the smaller Niwaki sizing makes it easier to angle into tight bud unions without barking adjacent wood. For precision work in a constrained two-dimensional tree, the compact Japanese shear is easier to place.

Hand size

Felco makes the No. 6 and No. 7 variants for smaller and rotating-handle hands. Niwaki grades the GR Pro by physical size. A secateur that fits poorly fatigues the hand regardless of blade quality.

Maintenance and repair over years

Neglect ruins both tools. The highest-return habit is a wipe-and-oil at the end of each session: a rag with a few drops of camellia oil, the traditional Japanese choice that Niwaki itself supplies, or a light machine oil for the Felco. Run the oil along the blade and into the pivot to slow the surface rust that pits steel and turns clean cuts into tearing cuts within a season of damp storage.

Sharpening cadence differs. The Felco accepts a quick freehand touch-up on a diamond paddle every few weeks of active use, holding the supplied 23-degree bevel by eye. The Niwaki needs less frequent attention, although the work has to be more careful. Over-grinding a hard thin blade past its intended angle removes the geometry that justified the higher price. A leather strop loaded with polishing compound keeps a Niwaki edge between proper sharpenings better than it does a softer Felco edge.

Spring failure is the most common Felco repair, and replacing the stocked part 2-91 wire spring takes about five minutes. The Niwaki uses a coil spring that lasts well, then sends the owner back into a thinner parts pipeline when it fails. Across a working life measured in decades, the tool that can be rebuilt blind on a wet bench may prove more valuable than the one that cuts two percent cleaner on the day of purchase.

For a small plot with one young espalier and a few brassica rows, the sharper edge may take years to become dull enough for the rebuild advantage to show itself.