Scissors sharpening

[Gunnarsson]

Thankyou! The next time I get my hands on old scissors I'll have a better idea what I'm doing - and a better chance of deciding if they're worth saving or too far gone before I've bought them.

[Gunnarsson]

On ‎2016‎-‎09‎-‎10 at 7:15 PM, Art said:

...The more the blade is sharpened, the more the ride lines will approach the middle aka a flat ground blade.  At this point there is little metal left to re-establish another hollow...

Hello again!

If the hollow is to be reground and there is enough meat left in the blade to do it, how would that be done?

Since last time I have made myself a jig for sharpening the "outside" edge on scissors to a precise angle on common hones so that part of a regrind is under control, but these old fabric scissors often also have surface pitting from rust all over the inside of the blades. I have been able to get the area near the edge good enough using a schythe hone (picture shows basic idea) but it isn't perfect, it isn't fast, and the closer you get to the tip where the blade is narrower, it's almost impossible.

[Colt W Knight]

I get by simply honing my nice scissors I use for cloth and garment weight leather. I take them apart, and run my find sharpening stone on the angled portion. Then strop it on a piece of leather with polishing compound.  I try not to touch the back side. If there is a nick or something, I lay the back flat and work the scissor back and forth to keep the back nice and flat while grinding off the imperfection. You can really get a lot of sharpening done with a nice whetstone if you know how to use it.

Edited August 22, 2017 by Colt W Knight

[DrmCa]

I get by by holding a needle parallel to the edge, i.e. almost perpendicular to the blade mating surface, and gently "cutting" that needle several times as if I was cutting fabric.

Needles are chrome-plated and chromium is the hardest of all metals, so it works well honing the scissor blades. I usually set aside one large needle just for re-sharpening scissors.

But as of lately I found that there are very inexpensive sets of TCN coated scissors available at Costco, which are razor-sharp and keep the edge much longer than bare steel. They cut through everything like through butter.

Edited August 22, 2017 by DrmCa