Scissor sharpening

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Pie

you.. you got any more of them rocks?
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So I was convinced to sharpen a pair of scissors for a friend.. they seem to be fabric scissors, the smaller metal kind where the blades are quite curved, so only one small point of contact occurs at the cutting edge.

I did read a couple scissor threads from the last few years, but it seems they examine the finer points of scissor sharpening.

My question is pretty basic - how the hell do I do this? I think sharpie and following the bevel can be done I guess, but for the curved backside, do I use the edge of the stone for deburring, and just drag it off the side of the stone? Of course, coarse to clean up the bevel, then polish to satisfaction. They’re not expensive, but have significant sentimental value so I’d rather not bung this up. Does the above procedure sound right? Or does anyone have any suggestions/tips/tricks?

Thanks in advance!
 
I've been doing scissors with a set of small ruby ceramic honing rods. Ruby ceramic can be expensive, but this set of 5 different diameters was less than $14 from Ali Express. I think they can be found on Amazon for less than $30. It's nice to be able to choose a rod diameter that works well with the curve of the scissors.

Generally I am terrified of changing the geometry when I sharpen scissors, so I don't do coarse-fine (I think these rods are about 3000 grit), and I am very gentle with the bevel. I deburr on the other side mostly by just going along the length of the scissors, then seeing where I need to clean up remaining burr. Always gently. It seems to work well for me.
 
You need a stick to adjust the twist of the blades too. You need to be able to disassemble the pivot to sharpen the blades.

There are two twists, one that goes toward the ura side. This makes the edge contact when the blade closes. The twist should be there. . . A stronger twist makes the cut more precise and strong but more effort to close and open.

Then theres another twist, which may or may not be there, that lifts the spine away and forces more edge contact. So the result looks like a propellor with these two twists.

Normally japanese forged scissors with pivots have one blade with a square hole, and the other with a round hole, so the hardware can be tightened. Or they are hand hammered pivots joints .... That cannot be easily removed

Ura is just for deburring as usual.

Scissors have that larger bevel and then the edge bevel . . . Yeah just sharpen the edge bevel.

Cheaper stamped scissors will be different of course.
 
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For de burring the ride line I slightly round an 8k Naniwa Superstone and do an exaggerated X stroke.

Of course the above is for high end hair shears and the like. Cheap stuff I don't bother prepping an 8k.
 
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I had to resharpen some older Fiskars scissors recently - I just used an oval 1k diamond rod that I had on the bevels. Came out sharper in the end than when I started. IIRC, I may have done something briefly on the flats to remove a burr, but that was about it.
 
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You need a stick to adjust the twist of the blades too. You need to be able to disassemble the pivot to sharpen the blades.

There are two twists, one that goes toward the ura side. This makes the edge contact when the blade closes. The twist should be there. . . A stronger twist makes the cut more precise and strong but more effort to close and open.

Then theres another twist, which may or may not be there, that lifts the spine away and forces more edge contact. So the result looks like a propellor with these two twists.

Normally japanese forged scissors with pivots have one blade with a square hole, and the other with a round hole, so the hardware can be tightened.

Ura is just for deburring as usual.

Scissors have that larger bevel and then the edge bevel . . . Yeah just sharpen the edge bevel.

Cheaper stamped scissors will be different of course.
Ahhh I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I’ve given away all my honing rods, so I think I might round off a corner of a couple stones to reach the concave on the back side of each blade.

The info provided is much appreciated, I’m going to give it a shot tonight!
 
Ahhh I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I’ve given away all my honing rods, so I think I might round off a corner of a couple stones to reach the concave on the back side of each blade.

The info provided is much appreciated, I’m going to give it a shot tonight!
It would be rare to need to do anything to the hollows unless the ride lines have been over honed. I slightly round the stones to accommodate the tip to pivot curve. Some people flex the blade down onto a flat stone, but this puts extra pressure on the tip causing excessive wear there.
 
Simplest way is using a Spyderco Sharpmaker, good results in very short time
 
I knew I had seen a thread about this recently!

So... I'm gonna need to take some rust off these, and then start quite low I think:

IMG-8279.JPG


IMG-8281.JPG



My question is... For the early parts, can I freehand the 'main bevel' side on a flat stone with a kinda rocking motion? Or do I really want a convexed stone?

My endgame, and deburring on the back / 'ura' side, I think I'm probably quite good for with my TO'S honing rod I made. This kinda thing should be ideal right? Maybe I should just wrap some WnD around it for the early stages?

127815-IMG-2361.jpg


151702-IMG-4612.jpg
 
I knew I had seen a thread about this recently!

So... I'm gonna need to take some rust off these, and then start quite low I think:

View attachment 181690

View attachment 181691


My question is... For the early parts, can I freehand the 'main bevel' side on a flat stone with a kinda rocking motion? Or do I really want a convexed stone?

My endgame, and deburring on the back / 'ura' side, I think I'm probably quite good for with my TO'S honing rod I made. This kinda thing should be ideal right? Maybe I should just wrap some WnD around it for the early stages?

View attachment 181693

View attachment 181692
I think that rod or a curved stone is likely ideal in terms of following the sneaky curves in scissor blades. The one I attempted had many a strange twist I couldn’t follow on a flat bench stone. Theoretically something in hand would be more appropriate.

Sadly my own end of this project has hit a dead end - since the two blades can’t be separated by conventional means, and the scissors in question are of high sentimental value to the customer, I chose not to “learn how to sharpen scissors” with someone else’s prized possessions.

If there’s one person who will grab the torch and run, it’s you @cotedupy! I’m interested to hear about the process and result.
 
My question is... For the early parts, can I freehand the 'main bevel' side on a flat stone with a kinda rocking motion? Or do I really want a convexed stone?

My endgame, and deburring on the back / 'ura' side, I think I'm probably quite good for with my TO'S honing rod I made. This kinda thing should be ideal right? Maybe I should just wrap some WnD around it for the early stages?
I often freehand the bevels on flat stones and the results are good. Many kind of sharpening equipment seems to do the job. I find scissors easy to sharpen as long as the geometry of the blades is still sound.
 
I often freehand the bevels on flat stones and the results are good. Many kind of sharpening equipment seems to do the job. I find scissors easy to sharpen as long as the geometry of the blades is still sound.
You’ve got the hang of it way better than I do. These are some funky thread scissors twisted on 2 axis(es??). I tapped out after a week of trying.
 
If there’s one person who will grab the torch and run, it’s you @cotedupy! I’m interested to hear about the process and result.

Oh dear, I've really thrown myself under the bus on this one haven't I! I shall report back...


I often freehand the bevels on flat stones and the results are good. Many kind of sharpening equipment seems to do the job. I find scissors easy to sharpen as long as the geometry of the blades is still sound.

Cheers! I'll try this first then, before I go faffing around too much with convex stones.
 
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I didn't read the whole thread, so forgive me if this has already been mentioned.

I always just do the method where instead of properly deburring, I just open and close the scissors. It knocks the burr off, and I'm done.

Honestly any time you mess with the backs of scissors your asking for trouble. The important thing with them is that the apexs on both blades meet, and the back edge can get as close together as possible.


So taking any unnecessary material off the back edge seems like it will slowly lead to a non functional pair of scissors.

So I simply do my best to bring back the apex by following the bevel that's there, it doesn't seem to matter if it gets super polished. Then when I've finished with that. Like I said, I just open and close the scissors a few times to break the burr off, and I'm done.
 
Well it all seems to have gone rather well. Used a Cerax 1.5k freehand, a few swipes on the TO'S rod, and job's a good 'un!

They probably wouldn't count as sharp for those possessed of true aficion in the art of the tijerador*, but they're probably sharper than if you went and bought a pair of scissors from a shop. And I'm going to chalk that up as a resounding (and somewhat surprising) victory.

IMG-8355 (2).jpg


IMG-8362 (1).jpg




* I just made this word up. Don't google it, cos you get weird-looking Spanish porn, and if porn involves scissors then you probably don't want to be going there, I shouldn't have thought.
 
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