OARA Garden Hedge Shears forTrimming Borders, Boxwood, and Bushes, Hedge Clippers & Shears with Comfort Grip Handles,21 Inch Carbon Steel Bush Cutter

as sharp as a chef’s knife. Before barbed wire, thick, tough hedges were grown to fence cattle. I have one like that, and it’s 1,000 square feet to trim. An electric trimmer will leave the hedge a little taller each time. Eventually it would need a major cutback with shears and pruners.On that hedge, shears were tiring, and the bumping was hard on my wrists. Both my shears, of two brands, weren’t made to be taken apart. Sharpening was a hassle. They were somewhat blunt when sharpened because the bevel at the edge was about 60 degrees. Shears are often made that way to resist damage.I ordered OARA’s because the blades are 65MN steel. Kershaw switched to that steel for its high-priced Camp 10 and Camp 14 knives. Owners familiar with expensive knives praise the sharpness and durability of the edges.Camellias should be pruned only once a year, so it entails cutting back a year’s growth. When the OARA’s arrived, my two camellia’s were ready.Unlike other shears, the OARA’s have no serrations and no notch near the hinge. The edges are sharp enough to bite wood before it can slide away. Near the hinge, they will cut wood 1/2” in diameter. They will cut 1/4” stuff out near the tips. That gives me a great reach. (Cutting ability would depend on the hardness of the wood.)I took the picture after cutting the second camellia back drastically. It was surprisingly quick and easy. Some of the cuts were more than 1/2” thick. The pile of cuttings was 10 bushels.Then I dragged the back of a fingernail across the blade edges at various spots. They were still keen enough to bite. I decided to sharpen them anyway because if I painted the bevel with a marking pen, a hone could show me the angle. Besides, sharpening can make a good factory edge better.A flat sharpener would have damaged the wavy edge. My Dremel sharpener has round hones, but touching the edge with a hone spinning at 30,000 rpm could have ruined the temper. MY DMT kit has a round diamond hone.The shears came apart with two 17mm wrenches. On the bottom (unpainted) blade, I matched the bevel by adjusting the DMT jig as high as it would go. A calculator with trig functions told me it was 35 degrees. That’s like a chef’s knife, which is typically sharpened at 17 degrees on each side.The edge on the other blade varied between 40 and 45 degrees. I wonder if it was sharpened freehand at the factory.I’d trimmed the “cattle hedge” a couple of weeks ago, and it needed trimming again. The OARA’s weren’t as quick as an electric trimmer, but they did a better job. They were much less laborious than my other shears. I don’t think my little DMT round hone is adequate for something so big. The shears impressed me enough that I bought a Smith’s diamond hone that looks like a large file with rounded surfaces. Maintenance amounts to unscrewing the hinge, cleaning the blades, painting the edges with a felt-tip pen so that shiny metal will show when my hone is on the bevel, and stroking a few times with the hone.This alloy will rust easily, but that shouldn’t be a problem. To reduce gumming from sap, I keep an oily cotton ball in a sandwich bag to wipe the blades of cutting tools. If I wipe a blade again before putting a tool away, it will probably stay free of rust.

As needed. As needed

Good trimmers. Work well.