Talk:Secateurs

Secateurs, hand pruners, and loppers

Are these really the same thing. I have done vine removal and used some diffrent tools. The Loppers I've seen are too big for your hand. and the little things i call Pruning Shears are probaly the same as hand pruners. Make we can give each a sub section in the artilce becose a whole artile for each may be overkill--E-Bod 21:56, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

I had to look up secateurs in the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster, secateurs is chiefly British. Here in the U.S., I always called them loppers. I guess the most notable difference between secateurs/hand pruners and loppers is the length of the handle (?). I think subsections, or an intro explaining the difference between the terms is a good idea. GilliamJF 05:00, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Proposed page merge

I suggest we merge the material on this page into the recent Pruning shears article, rearranging to make clear the different terms used in different countries. Comments, all? JackyR | Talk 17:24, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Comment

Deciding what to do about the meanings of words in different forms of English is a problem. In the UK secateurs (from the French secateur, cutter) is always used to describe the short-handled prunners used for cutting flowers, rose-heads etc. I therefore think it would be better to keep the entry on secateurs with a cross-link than to merge it with sheares. Willow4.

Well, apparently the Yanks call all secateurs loppers (per discussion above – I'm Brit, I wouldn't know), for additional confusion. So the suggestion was actually to avoid getting into a knot on that term. My thought was to go for as neutral and widely comprehensible a title as poss, with redirects from local meanings (I'm waiting on an Aussie landscape gardener for their name. Will also chk SAfrica.)

Pruning shears does seem to be a common term for what in Britain for what I've always known as secateurs: take a look on eBay, for eg. But perhaps, to avoid even more confusion, Hand pruners would be a better choice, with as you say a lk from Pruning shears.

So a first attempt at the article might go something like:

===[Article name something like:] HAND PRUNERS===

Hand pruners, also called pruning shears, secateurs (UK) or loppers (US) are a type of scissors for use with plants... [etc]

===Long-handled pruners===

In the UK these are called loppers. These are operated with two hands...

What do think about all this? JackyR | Talk 14:50, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

OK, scrub my first sentence. A quick look at US garden tool sites suggest the person above is just confused, and loppers do indeed mean long-handled - or at least two-handed - tools. So pending the results from SA and Oz, ignore all I just said... JackyR | Talk 15:03, 11 August 2006 (UTC)