I've sharpened thousands of blades over the years and am fairly good at it. My lady is a dog groomer and I regularly sharpen her clipper blades with pretty good results. I have a large selection of oil stones from course to black surgical. However, I cannot seem to get the process of sharpening her curved scissors down to a usable edge. That curve just busts my sensitive parts to no end. Any suggestions from the group? I sharpen by hand and prefer to not have to purchase a machine, but I will do whatever is necessary to avoid her having to pay the $35/per fee of a commercial service if I can. Thanks in advance.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Curved Shears/scissors
- Thread starter TexnnSc
- Start date
I sharpen hair cutting scissors and my machine cost $1,200 so $35 aint a bad price considering that good scissors start at around a hundred bucks. But you didn't ask any of that so back to what you did ask for which was advice... I have not seen anyone sharpen grooming shears by hand so my advice is to give that up and buy a machine. If you're not going to go into scissor sharpening then you could get away with a twice as sharp but I would get an ookami gold.
But let's think that through. A Twice As Sharp is $450 and an Ookami Gold is $835 (as of this writing which is Feb 2116). Now properly sharpened grooming scissors should cut a dozen dogs a day for at least 3 months or even 4 and most groomers stretch it to 6 months and some even longer. Let's use the 6 month mark just to be safe. At $35 a sharpening twice a year that's $70.
If my math is correct you're going to take 7 years to pay for the cheapest machine that will do the job. Now that is just one pair twice a year so if she has two or more pair and most do and she gets them sharpened twice as often, which she will if it's free, you will pay for that machine in about 3 years.
But let's think that through. A Twice As Sharp is $450 and an Ookami Gold is $835 (as of this writing which is Feb 2116). Now properly sharpened grooming scissors should cut a dozen dogs a day for at least 3 months or even 4 and most groomers stretch it to 6 months and some even longer. Let's use the 6 month mark just to be safe. At $35 a sharpening twice a year that's $70.
If my math is correct you're going to take 7 years to pay for the cheapest machine that will do the job. Now that is just one pair twice a year so if she has two or more pair and most do and she gets them sharpened twice as often, which she will if it's free, you will pay for that machine in about 3 years.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 6,642
I have never sharpened one, but I would think if you can do a nice convex edge by hand, you should be able to do these shears as well - probably not anywhere near fast enough to make money, but the outcome aught be the same in terms of cut quality. Some softer watersones likely a much better choice than most oil stones. This video shows it being done on a "flat" disk hone with very nice angle control jig, but the principle can be translated to off-hand work.
And worse case, your relationship with your lady can only improve if you have to buy her brand new shears after wrecking her current ones!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxRkLfBd6nk