Scissor Sharpening Mysteries Revealed

Keep cutting tools in prime condition with these easy steps.

By Tom Larson
Updated on February 2, 2021
article image
by Flickr/Frankmh

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.

27 pairs of scissors

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.

person sharpening scissors on a sharpening stone

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.

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