Scissor Sharpening Mysteries Revealed

Enlarge Image Image Gallery The author rounded up 27 pairs of scissors, but they will serve no purpose if they're forgotten and left dull. Tom Larson

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Recently, the news about our economy has become rather grim. I suppose some economic experts would say we should all throw away anything worn or dull and buy new as a means of stimulating the economy. But I grew up listening to my elders’ gloomy accounts of the Great Depression. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” was their mantra, and I guess it took with me. I’m more prone to think that our current economic woes have more to do with spending excess and waste than with too little buying and borrowing. Scissors and scissor-like devices are a good example of what we can continue to use and sometimes make better-than-new with simple sharpening.

Robert Hinchliffe, an Englishman, is credited with the manufacture of the first modern scissor in 1761. Whether they are called a scissor, a pair of scissors, shears, tin snips, pruners, loppers or trimmers, they have been around in one form or another since ancient times in Egypt, Rome and China. Where they originated is in question, but there is no question that they are some of our most useful devices and are certainly worth the little time and effort it takes to keep them in good cutting condition. As with knives (see “How to Have the Sharpest Knife in Your Drawer,” January/February), most can be sharpened with a combination bench stone. A few require a finer stone such as a hard Arkansas or fine sandpaper or emery cloth. The rest can be done with grinders improvised from sandpaper or emery cloth wrapped around objects of the right shape and size, usually cylinders such as dowels or pipe.

Old scissors are good practice

I found 27 scissor-like cutting tools around our place when I went looking for examples to use in this article. Let’s start with the old, beat-up scissors I’ve been using for rough cutting in my shop. These are my wife’s first sewing scissors. The tip of one of the blades broke off some time ago, so I ground the ends of both blades to a proper shape. This is the sort of scissor that would be good practice for a beginner. If you ruin them trying to sharpen them, you haven’t lost much.

If the blades are very dull, as these were, start sharpening with the coarse side of the bench stone. If they are not so dull, use the fine side. If they just need touching up, start with a fine stone or sandpaper. Open the blades of the scissors and place the edge to be ground (the bottom, shiny edge of the blade) against the stone. Rotate the top of the blade away from you until there is a gap between the bottom edge of the blade and the stone. Then slowly tip the blade back toward you until there is no longer a gap. Next, draw the blade from one end of the stone to the other, pulling it toward you so the entire edge is ground. Maintain the angle as you pull.

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