Almost toy-like was the impression I had upon opening the box. Pretty thin metal and plastic red handles, looked like they'd fall apart on the first hedge. But, so far they have worked great and given no indication they can't do some serious shearing. As others have said, seriously sharp. If I had it to do over again, I'll probably go for a larger size, there are pruning shear size compared to my old wooden handled beasts. I do appreciate how light they are, no forearm fatigue after many hours of chop, chop, chop.