Scissor Sharpening

SC_Dave

SC_Dave

Joined
Jul 29, 2010
Messages
187
I need some advice please. At work the finishers use scissors all day. They have to be sharpened fairly often. Too many and too often to do it manually on a stone. I need some suggestions on a machine to sharpen them quickly. I bought a Work Sharp and while some folks love it, I don't like it at all. After multiple searches it seems the options go from real cheap to very expensive. I feel like their has to be something in the middle. Do you guys know of anything?
Thanks, David
 
Depends on the budget.

I have a Triton wet wheel grinder and it works very well for a reasonable $. Pretty sure I paid $300 ish.
 
Grizzly has some well-regarded Tormek clones for not much money.
 
A Tormek works very well for scissor sharpening, and i've been using one since about 2004 for both scissors & knives.
Currently i have the T7 model fitted with an SB-250 Blackstone (black silicon carbide)
Besides having a scissor jig that works very well for both smaller & larger scissors, the machine uses watercooling which protects your edges from overheating during sharpening, which in effect means that you have to resharpen them much less.

One of my customers is a small company that specializes in custom made clothing for ballroom dancing as well as custom made swimwear, and they use quite a few different fabrics (many of which can be very finicky to cut well with scissors)
The female owner knows exactly how she wants her scissors to cut, and she tests each pair herself on a few different fabrics every time after i sharpened them (and i've been sharpening their scissors for over 10 years)

If you only use scissors made from low alloy carbon steel just get the machine with the standard SG-250 stone, but if most of your scissors are made from various types of modern stainless steel buy the aftermarket SB-250 Blackstone.

If you decide to go the Tormek route and stumble upon any questions just ask them in this thread.
 
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For the record, both the Triton and Grizzly Tormek clones will accept actual Tormek jigs.
 
SC_Dave said:
I need some advice please. At work the finishers use scissors all day. They have to be sharpened fairly often. Too many and too often to do it manually on a stone. I need some suggestions on a machine to sharpen them quickly. I bought a Work Sharp and while some folks love it, I don't like it at all. After multiple searches it seems the options go from real cheap to very expensive. I feel like their has to be something in the middle. Do you guys know of anything?
Thanks, David
Click to expand...

You might want to give a bit more info... type of scissors, sharpening volume, etc. Tormek is good, but may not be the best choice depending on the situation.

For an alternative... the Viel belt sander comes with a good scissor adapter accessory... similar to the "Twice as Sharp" machine. There's also a guy making an adapter so the TaS clamp will work on the Viel. Haven't used it myself (the scissor adapter), but have seen some good reviews on it.

I can do a pair of scissors pdq with the EdgePro scissor setup... although it's manual, it's pretty quick... especially if all the scissors are the same. (It's what I use the most for scissors).
 
cbwx34 said:
You might want to give a bit more info... type of scissors, sharpening volume, etc. Tormek is good, but may not be the best choice depending on the situation.

For an alternative... the Viel belt sander comes with a good scissor adapter accessory... similar to the "Twice as Sharp" machine. There's also a guy making an adapter so the TaS clamp will work on the Viel. Haven't used it myself (the scissor adapter), but have seen some good reviews on it.

I can do a pair of scissors pdq with the EdgePro scissor setup... although it's manual, it's pretty quick... especially if all the scissors are the same. (It's what I use the most for scissors).
Click to expand...

Most of the scissors are Wiss, 12 (10 in cut) and 13 inch (11 in cut). A few are KAI high carbon stainless 10". I also have some small seamstress "nippers" (1.5 inch cut)

We cut polyester fabric and thin vinyl banner material.

I have 5-6 pair of the different ones to sharpen every two weeks.
Thanks! SCD
 
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