Sharpening scissors

L

Leighton

Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
3
Is there a certain way to sharpen scissors? Can it be done? Every time I've tried, the blasted things are just as dull as when I started.
 
What are you using? One of those small diamond stones on a stick should do, but if you have different kinds of things to sharpen (Knives) you may want to invest in a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
 
Scissors are also called shears because of the shearing action The angle then is about 90 degrees.You need a flat stone.Sharpen the edge keeping everything flat and not changing the angle.Then quickly run the stone along the side or face just enough to remove any burr.
 
The sharpening angle for scissors is always a bit less than 90 degrees. Usually you can lay the bevel on your hone and carefully tip the scissors back and forth until you feel where the hone is flat on the bevel. Then you hold your angle carefully as you stroke with the flat shearing surface on the front side of your stroke. This is a case where coloring the bevel with a felt pen is very useful to check that you are doing it right.

Do not use too smooth a hone. In order for the scissors to shear material correctly you need the material to not slide out towards the tips of the blades as you close the blades together. If the honed surface is too smooth that will happen. Even the medium Sharpmaker rods are a bit smooth for scissors. I like to use about a medium grit diamond hone or some 220-400 grit Wet or Dry paper. Even a mill bastard file works. If your scissors won't open to 90-degrees you will need a thin or tapered hone. Using Wet or Dry paper on a ruler works in this case. As long as you hone shearing-edge-forwards you shouldn't have much burr projecting into the shearing plane. When you are done you might want to gently rub some very fine hone or abrasive paper flat along the shearing flats (where the blades lay against each other) to reduce burrs and make the action smoother. The Sharpmaker white rods would be ok for this. It is better to have a little burr left than to risk rounding the shearing apex/edge or risk smoothing the bevel that you intentionally sharpened with a rough hone.
 
Another vote for the Sharpmaker. It has a slot to hold the rod at the correct angle. It takes a few minutes to get scisssors sharp on the 204.
 
Scissors don't have a universally correct honing angle. The Sharpmakers will not automatically give you the right angle for all scissors.
 
Jeff Clark said:
Scissors don't have a universally correct honing angle. The Sharpmakers will not automatically give you the right angle for all scissors.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but the 204 has worked easily on the 6 pairs that I have done so far. Some were at slightly different angles, but it is not difficult to find the correct angle which may not be exactly straight up and down. It is much easier to find the angle on scisors than on a knife, in my experience.

Just find the angle where the edge is flat against the stone then hold the same angle as you slide the blade down the stone.

Chris
 
there is a big difference between getting scissors sharp, and making them cut....scissors are extemely complicated to make work right, if you're not very familiar w/ them......i recomend you send them to someone who's been school trained, preferably by a factory..

skintback
 
Leighton is right that there is more to making scissors cut than just sharpening, but often all they need is sharpening and it doesn't hurt to try. Generally the finer grade of scissors have blades that are gently curved to sort of cross each other. This is what provides tension to keep the shearing surfaces together out near the tip of the blades. Cheap scissors like Fiskars are very thick and don't need much of a set. Fine hair cutting shears need to have their set tuned. It takes special equipment to do it right. Even the screws that hold the blades together often need a special clamping screwdriver arrangement to adjust the fit and friction. So try sharpening and if that doesn't work find a factory approved scissor expert.

One of the tricks of the trade that can help is to leave a rough surface on the leading edge of the shearing surface. It really can help if you avoid material slipping out of the blades.
 
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