Stagesmith

No I'm just taking off the shelf WISS 22W shears and reshaping them into leather shears based on the WISS #8 Belt Shear geometry. I might make some from older better WISS 22W's but would charge a little more for those. Making them from scratch would be an insane task.

Home Depot does have them for $32. Definitely not US made. Wiss is part of Crescent Tools now. Using those as a base I could sell the Mega Leather Shears at $100 + shipping. I can't compete with China. That would cover my grind time and materials. Have to figure out a faster method of making serrations. I used a tungsten grinder with a diamond wheel for the prototype. I sacrificed a new, probably Chinese, pair for the prototypes. I'd feel a little bad using a nice older pair.

I can buy the new WISS 22W's for around $60 wholesale. Not sure where they are made anymore. Might be China. Older, better US made ones are on eBay for usually around $50 plus shipping. I'll make a few pairs and throw them on eBay to see if they get any interest. I like the set I made so much I just thought somebody else might like them as well. I thought about making fancier ones from the older HUGE tailor shears with the more elaborate handles, but there are not as many of those available, and they go for way more money if they are in decent condition at all. I refurbished a pair recently where the lower blade had split on the lamination line between the edge steel and blade body. They turned out pretty well, but I can't adjust the curvature of the lower blade without risking shearing the epoxy holding it together.

Greetings. I make tools, and have been making tools for over 40 years. I spent many months this year learning the skills of refurbishing, sharpening and tuning, tin-snips, shears and scissors. Along that path I discovered WISS #8 Belt Shears for cutting leather and fabric belting. They are very nice, but a bit small for my taste. The largest commonly available WISS Shears are #22W, at over 12 inches long They can be purchased new but the old ones are better. I ended up with several pairs of 22W's and decided to super-size the #8 Belt Shears. The WISS Belt Shears are interesting because the lower blade is serrated to hold the leather and the upper blade is knife-edged. My new shears cut 1/4" sole leather like paper. Kind of amazing. As a knife-maker these aren't too hard to make, but I'm curious if there is a market for them. I've been using these for the last few weeks on various knife sheath projects and really love them, but there are lots of ways to cut leather. I am curious what others think of these.