How Much Extra Reach the Handles Buy You

The headline feature is the twist-and-lock telescopic handle. A quick twist of each grip lets the aluminium shafts slide out, and the whole tool grows from 670mm at normal length to 860mm fully extended, with the handle span opening to 330mm for a two-handed grip. That 19cm of extra reach is enough to clear the top of a hedge sitting a little above head height without fetching the stepladder. It is not a long-reach pole trimmer, so a boundary hedge of privet, laurel or conifer at full height will still need a ladder or a powered tool, but for the average overgrown garden hedge it closes the gap. At normal length they behave as standard 670mm hedge shears, so the extension is there when you want it rather than a mode you are forced into.

Reviewers who use the extension rate it highly. imbeel, a five-star buyer, wrote that a "simple twist ends outward" and the handles "extend 2 times longer", so you can "reach over top of hedge and higher up". Melanie bought hers to replace an old pair and found the extending handles "great for reaching higher", cutting her hedge in half the time.

The extension is also where the two clearest mechanical complaints sit. Aggie, who dropped to three stars, kept hers at standard length after finding that once extended "they do not lock tightly into position (as my previous pair did) and easily collapse back to original shears length". Another buyer could not get one handle to slide out through the rubber cap at all. Two of the 100 is not an epidemic, but if the reach is your main reason to buy, it is worth knowing the lock is the part a few people fall out with.

The Jobs These Are Built For

These are hedge and shrub shears first, and the reviews map out what they handle. The everyday job is squaring off the top and sides of a hedge, though buyers rarely name the species beyond the odd laurel. The extra reach comes into its own on overhanging growth: Mike used his for "cutting hedge overhang and tougher bamboo that has been difficult to get at", and janetta bought hers to cut back a neighbour's tall trees that were leaning over her fence and scraping the car on her drive. Others describe trimming overhanging shoots and shaping shrubs, the light structural work a powered hedge trimmer tends to be clumsy at.

They also cope with a fair amount of rough clearance. One buyer cleared a large bramble patch in a couple of days, and another reshaped a front-garden shrub in "no time". What they are not is a heavy pruning tool: for anything much thicker than a finger, or for old woody stems near the base of a hedge, loppers or a pruning saw are the right call. Treat the 8120RS as the tool for the green, leafy majority of hedge work and keep something heavier back for the thick stuff. Used that way they suit most gardens, and buyers repeatedly frame Spear & Jackson as a brand they trust to last. Al summed the category up by calling them the next best thing to a hedge strimmer, which is about right: more reach and control than hand shears alone, without the noise, cost or cabling of a powered trimmer.

How the Blades Handle Real Cutting

Sharpness is the runaway theme in the reviews: more than 40 of the 100 most recent buyers describe the blades as sharp, several reaching for "razor sharp". The blades are chrome-plated C50 carbon steel with a wavy edge that traps stems rather than letting them slide along the cut, and the upper blade carries a PTFE coating to keep the action smooth. Each blade runs 236mm long, a useful biting length for hedge tops, and it makes light work of laurel and the other soft, leafy growth you meet most in UK gardens. Buyers who use them weekly report the edge holding its sharpness well into regular use.

In practice they cut cleanly on the material they are built for: soft to medium hedge growth and light woody stems. Maria, a five-star buyer, said they cut "even thick branches of a shrub", and Paul rated them "much better than the cheaper alternatives" on small branches. Where they meet their limit is thick, hard wood: one buyer reckons anything much over 10mm wants a beefier tool, which is fair for hand shears rather than loppers.

Not everyone was won over. Justine H., the lone two-star in the recent 100, found hers blunt from the box and "had to put an immense amount of force into them" to tackle a thin rose stem. Hers is the clear outlier against a large majority who praise the edge, but it is a reminder that the odd unit slips through, and a loose tension setting can make even a sharp blade feel dull.

The Red Tension Knob Is the Weak Spot

Look at the blade pivot and you will spot a red star-shaped knob. It covers the blade tension nut, and turning it sets how tightly the two blades meet, which is what keeps the cut clean as the tool wears. When it works, buyers appreciate it: J. Chant noted the "thumbscrew makes it easy to adjust tension on blades". The trouble is that the cover is plastic, and across the recent reviews it is the single most repeated fault.

Three of the 100 most recent buyers report it failing. AlexK gave the careful version: the "blade tensioning nut has a red plastic 'wheel' covering it which is fragile and has broken off on mine after six months", after which the nut worked loose more quickly. Dunc was blunter, writing that "the very first time I used these shears the red plastic central tightener snapped off" and the pin beneath it was lost in the hedge cuttings. A third buyer said the knob "basically disintegrated" within a month of light use, leaving a spanner as the only way to set the tension.

Behind the plastic wheel sits a small metal clip and cotter pin; once the cover cracks, that pin can work out and the tension setting drifts, which is how a cosmetic annoyance turns into a working one. It is one cheap part on an otherwise well-made tool, and the 10-year guarantee should in theory cover it, though nobody enjoys chasing a warranty over a component that could have been metal. If you buy these, treat the red knob gently and resist the urge to overtighten it.

Weight, Grip and Comfort Over a Long Session

At 1.33kg, just under 3lb, the 8120RS is not the lightest pair on the shelf, and how that weight feels divides opinion. Most reviewers sit on the positive side and call them light and well balanced for the size; a few find the mass tells once the handles are out and the tool is held at arm's length. Three of the 100 flagged the weight directly.

Bunty, whose review is the most upvoted in the whole set, put it plainly: the telescopic handles suit her because she is short, and "although not the lightest item I can manage them fairly easily". Kirsty agreed the reach is useful but warned they are "little heavy so you have to be steady when extended to get the cut right", which matches the physics of swinging a longer lever overhead. Against that, one buyer of 80 years said they managed the shears "with ease".

Spear & Jackson takes some of the sting out with soft-feel grips and shock absorbers at the pivot that cushion the jolt each time the blades close, which is welcome on a long trimming session. The handle span opens to 330mm, a comfortable spread for two hands without over-stretching smaller ones. If wrist or hand strain is a concern, the weight is the thing to weigh up, and it is felt most at full extension.

The Verdict After 100 UK Reviews

Set the plastic knob aside and the 8120RS does the core job of a telescopic hedge shear well: sharp C50 carbon steel blades, a useful 19cm of extra reach, and a brand that has made cutting tools since 1760 standing behind a 10-year guarantee. The 8120RS was also named a Grow Your Own 2022 Great British Growing Award winner. The recent 100-review average of 4.66 sits right on top of the 4.6 lifetime score, so the quality on sale today matches the long-run reputation. timothy, who put his through heavy work, summed up the mood: "I suggest you buy a set of them."

Our score is 4.4 out of 5. It would be higher if the tension adjuster were metal. That single component is the gap between a very good tool and a nearly faultless one, and three failures in 100 recent reviews is enough to dock it without pretending the shears are anything less than a strong buy. None of the strong points surprise from a name that has made garden tools for more than 260 years, and the reviews rarely fault the steel or the reach; the plastic knob is the one place the accountants clearly won.

For a suburban gardener with hedges a little above head height, a shorter gardener who wants the reach, or anyone replacing a tired old pair, these make a lot of sense. If your hedges are especially tall or your stems thick and woody, a long-reach powered trimmer or a set of loppers is the better spend. For most buyers, the sharp wavy edge, the extra reach and the value all point the same way. You can check the current listing for today's price and availability.