Tobisho Pro Snips

Name: Tobisho Pro Snips
Brand: Niwaki
SKU: P00386-1
Price: 160.0 CAD
Availability: InStock

$160.00 CAD

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Unlike secateurs, snips are only meant for very light snipping work. The long skinny blades allow you to get into tight spaces and make precise cuts without leaving stubs.

Especially great for deadheading, cut flowers, harvesting veggies, and cutting lengths of twine for staking. In Japan, they are used for needling pines. Not suitable for pruning woody material, cutting wire or opening paint cans!

These are definitely a step up from inexpensive flower snips - I prefer the lock on these which is so much easier to use than flimsy leather or plastic clasps. The higher quality steel sharpens and holds an edge better, and the sturdier construction means that I'll have them for a lifetime.

The locking mechanism on Japanese secateurs and snips is the feature that sets them apart for me - and this is especially important in a pair of snips. I find less expensive models fiddly to close and lock; these are much more efficient and, like the Tobisho secateurs and clippers, can be locked with one hand.

The red and yellow handles are easy to find if you put them down in the garden. But don't! You'll want to keep these safe and sound in your holster.

Tobisho pruning tools are the crème de la crème in the Japanese gardening world. They are made in a small family-run factory in Yamagata, an area famous for the quality of its steel. All their tools are drop forged, with great attention to detail - they have incredible weight and balance and are such a pleasure to use!

Product Details

KA-70 carbon steel
blade length: 2.5" (60mm)
total length: 8" (200mm)
max cut: Ø5mm
weight: 0.5lbs (235g)
made in Japan
comes with spare spring

Cleaning & Sharpening your Japanese Pruning Tools

Click here to download The Gardener's Kit Guide to Cleaning & Sharpening your Japanese Pruning Tools

We recommend that you clean, sharpen, oil - in that order and be sure to sharpen before the blades get blunt.

How Often?
It's a common question - how often should I sharpen my cutting tools? Short answer is, it depends on how frequently you use your tools.
Here are recommendations based on frequent use; you can judge from there if you don't use your tools often.

Secateurs: every couple of weeks if you use them daily. Click here to watch the experts at Okatsune sharpen secateurs.
Shears: daily, or even throughout the day, when you’re using them intensively. Especially if clipping boxwood. Click here to watch Jake demonstrate how to sharpen the Niwaki shears
Saws: clean and dry saws after every use. Impulse hardened blades do not need to be sharpened. Click here for our Guide to Saw Care

How To?

Wipe off soil and mud (you should get in the habit of doing this and then drying your tools at the end of each workday).
Clean built-up gunk and rust off the blades with the Abrasive Cleaning Block or Crean Mate rust eraser.
Do a detailed sharpening with a whetstone or two - see below for 'Which Grit' to use. Soak your sharpening stone in water for a couple of minutes before using. Unless you are very handy, don’t take your secateurs and shears apart – it’s very difficult to get the double-locking bolt back together and the blades properly aligned.
You can sharpen on-the-go with the Swiss Istor carbon steel sharpener, but a light touch is required - you don't want to grind off too much steel.
Use the Twin Diamond File or the Niwaki grey #220 grit sharpening stone to restore damaged blades.
Apply Camellia Oil to lubricate and protect blades after cleaning. You're done!

If you don’t like sharpening yourself, or don’t have time for it, use our in-house sharpening service.

Which Grit?
The appropriate whetstone grit depends on the type of steel, how long it's been between sharpening sessions, and whether there’s been any significant damage to the blades.
We recommend using the manufacturer's recommendation for the tools that we sell.

Okatsune #400 grit - for regular sharpening of all Okatsune products; also good for Felco
Niwaki #220 grit (grey) - this is a coarse stone, use for rough/damaged blades
Niwaki #1000 grit (brown) - for regular sharpening of all Niwaki, Tobisho, Kurumi blades.
Niwaki #3000 grit (sand) - this is a fine polishing stone, use for detailed work on high quality steel

Click here for the full collection of Japanese Tool Care products