Twice as Sharp: anyone have tips/suggestions?

B

bdaabat

Joined
Jul 2, 2025
Messages
119
I recently obtained a Twice as Sharp (basic) system. Started using it this weekend.

The company sent along a DVD for instructions. Ummm...Wolf Industries...it's 2026. I haven't owned a DVD player in quite a while.

I've gotten it set up and have run through several shears. The included stone is not...ideal. It can get scissors really hot, really fast. I've ordered a replacement CBN wheel that should arrive later today.

The angle adjustment is pretty fiddly. It feels like they could have spent another ~$2 in materials costs and made something far superior.

And, it works. Like any new equipment, it's going to take me some time to get the process really down, but it definitely works.

Suggestions/tips always appreciated!
Bruce
 
I will be watching this thread! I've considered getting a TAS, too. My shop does scissors, the TAS might be a good addition. My reservation has been the cost and the fact that it does seem to need better wheels just to do basic work.
 
I am not a scissors sharpening expert, mainly just kitchen shears but I like my Tormek or even my belt sander. I know hair shears, especially the convex ones, need special machines and those tend to be VERY expensive. Dont know if the TAS is up to that task or not.

In my limited research of shear sharpening ive hear the same about the TAS. Needs better wheels, guides a little funky, but it can get the job done with practice. Hopefully it works for you!
 
Rob Babcock Rob Babcock : Yes, it's sad that the machine is nearly $600 and right off the bat, it feel like it's not exactly right. The basic wheel that it comes with is a 100 grit stone that gets hot super quick. I just received the CBN wheel yesterday evening and have only done a couple of scissors so far with that wheel. It too gets things hot, although not as quickly as the included TAS wheel.

I need to do more research, but I think this device CAN work really well. In fact, I'll say that it does work well. I get the logic that went into it's design. The specific process is different than what I do with sharpening knives, but the idea of creating a burr, then removing that burr and refining the edge it is the same.

I had a customer drop off 17 shears used in cutting vinyl fabric for making event tents just prior to the 4th. The shop was closing down for a couple days and asked if I could sharpen their shears while they were shutting down the business. That was the impetus for me getting the TAS. And, after using it for those shears, it works well to get a sharp cutting edge. Are the results better than what I could get sharpening those same shears freehand on my little belt grinder? I don't know. I have no objective way to test the relative sharpness of scissors/shears. What I can say with certainty is that the freehand process is much faster. :cool:

Jason B. Jason B. : The TAS can be set up to do convex edged scissors. Of course, it requires either adding onto the basic unit (the one that I have) or purchasing the "deluxe" version to start.

And, my understanding is that even with the upgraded version, the process is reasonably involved. I'm learning with the idea of potentially developing this as part of my business.

I've had several folks contact me about sharpening grooming shears. The stories I've heard from these folks are similar to the stories I've heard from my knife customers...they're all saying some variation of, "There used to be a guy (or a business) that did this, but I can't find him (or the business) anymore." I wonder if a bunch of these small businesses got wiped out during COVID lockdowns??? Donno.

I've been sending these customers away because I didn't have the know how or the tools to do them properly. I'm leaning more towards spending a bit more $ and more time to learn how to do those convex edged shears.

We'll see. More to learn.
Bruce
 
bdaabat said:
I've had several folks contact me about sharpening grooming shears. The stories I've heard from these folks are similar to the stories I've heard from my knife customers...they're all saying some variation of, "There used to be a guy (or a business) that did this, but I can't find him (or the business) anymore." I wonder if a bunch of these small businesses got wiped out during COVID lockdowns??? Donno.

I've been sending these customers away because I didn't have the know how or the tools to do them properly. I'm leaning more towards spending a bit more $ and more time to learn how to do those convex edged shears.

We'll see. More to learn.
Bruce
Click to expand...
Ive heard the same stories, even before Covid. I think its just a dying art. I have a good friend thats a hair stylist and she says the shear maker offers a sharpening program where she simply trades out sets for freshly sharpened shears. That might be another reason shear sharpening is not as popular.
 
I really don’t know what the mystery is behind shear or scissor sharpening. Ten years ago all I had was a worksharp and a 4 x 36. I advertised knife and tool sharpening on Kijiji and the local plastic surgeon reached out and asked if I could sharpen 80 pairs of medical scissors. I had sharpened my mom’s sewing scissors for her a few times by then and she was always amazed how sharp they got, so I said sure how hard can it be.

Received the scissors, sharpened them on the worksharp, got paid and didn’t hear anything back.

Fast forward six years later and the plastic surgeon reached out and said hey can you do it again? This time I used my 2 x 42. That was four years ago.

I’ve also done hairdresser scissors a few times. Sharpened knives, lawnmower blades, chisels, drills… Belt grinder can sharpen anything.
 
Jason B. said:
I have a good friend thats a hair stylist and she says the shear maker offers a sharpening program where she simply trades out sets for freshly sharpened shears. That might be another reason shear sharpening is not as popular
Click to expand...

It’s the same with restaurant and knives. They basically have a “rental” system where the client gets mediocre knives with a sharp apex but rotated out with increasingly over sharpened blades until the company retires those blades and swaps in new ones.
 
I had gotten my hair cut last week. I've been going to the same place for more than 20 years. I know the owner couple. I was one of their first customers when they opened the shop. The wife of this pair cuts my hair. When they asked how the sharpening business was going, I mentioned this new client with all of the shears and then deciding to get the TAS. They encouraged me to get into the grooming scissors sharpening business, with some caveats.

They shared that they used to have "a guy" that did their shears, but that he disappeared over the past several years. They have no idea what happened to him. They said that they are reluctant to try another random "guy". The scissors they are looking to get sharpened cost ~ $1200-$1500. They don't want to hand over their expensive tools to just anyone. They've had that experience where the sharpening didn't know what they were doing and created some very pricey craft scissors.

Since they don't have a guy they can trust, they're spending ~ $150-$200 on "basic" scissors to allow them to get their work done.

I asked if they would be able to find some of those old convex scissors that are now used as craft scissors and save them for me to practice on. I may be willing to get the tools to do convex shears. I'm not willing to spend $1500 on a singular pair of scissors to practice! They agreed and were going to connect with the other folks in their shop to find some old shears for me. We'll see how this goes.

Bruce
 
Maybe first try to sharpen one or more of these old convex ground hair shears completely by hand.
It's a learning experience, but it might come in handy when you go motorized.

This is the only one i've done so far, yet it turned out to be a success:

K

Thread 'Olivia Garden convex hair dresser shears'

My nephews girlfriend is a hairdresser, and she asked me if i would try to sharpen her oldest pair of shears.
Years ago she had gotten it as a gift from her teacher, all this time had never been sharpened, and as a result it was so blunt that she didn't use it anymore.
Through Google i found that for 120 US dollars these shears seem to have a good price to quality ratio, so i thought that an attempt at sharpening might be worth it.

The edges were really quite bad, and as i had never done convex shears before i first had to think up a sharpening/polishing protocol that might work.
In the...
  • Like
 
I had to look up what a TAS system is and I'm a little shocked to see what looks like a bench grinder with attachments. Is the motor set to turn slower like a Tormek? Otherwise I don't get how you aren't going to overheat the steel really easily or wear it away too much. Add to that the Tormek has the water well you soak the stone in while it slowly turns so it's pretty much impossible to heat the steel. I'm not getting this setup at all but clearly it must work or they would be out of business.
 
The T-8 does an amazing job on scissors. Is the TAS better for scissors?
My wife is a stylist, I have not attempted to sharpen her scissors as there is a bend in each blade. Is that something the TAS does well.
If that is a customized high speed grinder? I think I would only use CBN on it.
 
Talking out of my butt here with no relevant experience, but with pricey non-convex shears wouldn't it be safe and effective to
- unscrew shears
- use a fine stone, to not take off too much steel; hair shouldn't have damaged or dinged the edge much
- place cutting bevel flat against a stone that covers the whole edge, so the whole edge gets sharpened completely level to itself with careful edge-trailing passes
- when bevel looks clean and slight burr raised, lay interior edge flat on stone and remove burr with light edge-trailing strokes
- repeat for 2nd half of shears
- reassemble
The main concern seems to be to create NO secondary bevel
??
 
Last edited:
M Maximumbob54 and G Gottagofishn : the TAS is a fairly high speed bench grinder. Very basic. Their "innovation" is building in an arm to control the angle of the scissors. It's something that I'm betting could be recreated pretty readily with a 3D printed do-dad, then paired with a better quality, low speed grinder to produce equal or better results for less money.

It DOES work. To me, it's not worth nearly $600 for the basic version. The stones that come with it can work, but they are prone to getting edges very hot. The basic grinder part is very light and compact...a plus if you are in a crowded shop or working outside of the shop. And, from my perspective, the speed of the grinder is too fast. I'd love to be able to slow it down to help keep edges cooler. I did get a CBN wheel for it, and even the CBN gets hot rapidly. It seems to me that the wheel speed is set too high. The clamp that holds the shears is fiddly. The angle adjustment is fiddly. It CAN work, it just is not designed to allow one to work well and easily. It feels like a tool that was originally designed decades ago, and they just haven't done things to improve the experience...at least not with the base model that I have. Maybe the upper tier models have those refinements baked in. Donno.

Curry Custom Cutlery had their July 4 sale, which prompted me to grab a diamond wheel for the TAS. I just got it yesterday and have not had a chance to install and use it. I hope that one runs a tad cooler than the others.

fishface5 fishface5 : I hear what you're saying. You are correct...this is a method of getting shears sharpened that I've seen folks do online. I don't believe I have the skills at this point in my sharpening journey to be able to pull off being able to manually sharpen shears on stones. I'd need to practice for quite a while before being able to do that as a service. With the TAS, I can offer that service now and get the job done fairly rapidly.

Bruce
 
fishface5 said:
Talking out of my butt here with no relevant experience, but with pricey non-convex shears wouldn't it be safe and effective to
- unscrew shears
- use a fine stone, to not take off too much steel; hair shouldn't have damaged or dinged the edge much
- place cutting bevel flat against a stone that covers the whole edge, so the whole edge gets sharpened completely level to itself with careful edge-trailing passes
- when bevel looks clean and slight burr raised, lay interior edge flat on stone and remove burr with light edge-trailing strokes
- repeat for 2nd half of shears
- reassemble
The main concern seems to be to create NO secondary bevel
??
Click to expand...
When doing scissors, about half of them don't come apart... either rusted or made not to come apart. Many use a process similar to a rivet. Sometimes I've been able to peen the rivet enough to snug up the action. But they don't come apart
Many scissors do have a curve in the blades that keep the cutting edges performing as they age. For those, using the Tormek scissors jig will align the blades for sharpening. Not sure how you would straighten those curved blades for hand sharpening.
If you've ever checked out some stylist type scissors, most if not all have those curved blades. There are sharpeners designed specifically for them, but VERY pricey. The blades are too slim for a Tormek jig in most cases I think. They may be intented to sharpen with the curve? I haven't really looked closely at the stylist scissors sharpeners.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top