A nice lady rang me up on Monday morning from an industrial sewing machine supply company.
I was asked if I still wanted some William Whiteley 1920NP-12 side-bent shears that were out of stock in mid August; of course I said yes and carded it over the phone.
All I can say is "WoW" - the quality is the best scissors I`ve ever seen and I`ve owned really good American Wiss and Japanese Kai and artisan German models costing hundreds of dollars.
They are much better than any domestic scissors I`ve ever owned.They weigh 754 grams which is about a pound and a half but are perfectly balanced.
The handles are not dipped in paint or rubber coated - they are stove enameled.
They are carbon steel with a HRC-65 hardness of the blade; the handles are softer even though the scissors are hot forged two-piece designs.
You can not see much daylight at all between the blades when closed which is a sign of perfect grinding.
They came in triple-wrapped bubble wrap and on each individual package was written "Sharp Scissors" in red marker !
Now I know why they had 3 warning labels on them - they can cut off 1/25th of an inch of a cigarette paper accurately and effortlessly with the very tips of the blade - unbelievable precision for such massive scissors.They can also cut 50 plus layers of paper towels effortlessly; I am not kidding.
There is only a handful of staff in the whole 100 plus year old tiny factory.
They are hand made by an English craftsman with over six decades of experience; I`ve seen him on their website.He is well over retirement age.
The firm in Sheffield, South Yorkshire has been making hand made scissors continuously since 1760.
They were an unbelievable bargain - less than £60 with tax and FEDEX next day delivery.
They are easily worth £300 plus - they are heirloom scissors and one of the best bargains I`ve had in my 58 years.
Naturally I`ve ordered some more Whiteley scissors - a pair of ten inch ones for glass fibre, carbon fibre and kevlar / aramid and some five inch electricians scissors which were both less than £100 all inc.
They also do bespoke scissors with a waiting list and made scissors for the English Royal Family and the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace - London.
I`ve seen pictures of their scissors and they are truly works of art - fully jeweled and pierced and mirror polished like a Swiss watch.
Their normal range goes from £6 - £7 up to £6700.00 and bespoke is sky is the limit.
Naturally they ship Worldwide and have distributers in North America.
For the handmade quality the prices are unbelievably low; they must be doing it for love and pride.
The quality is as good or better than artisan Japanese scissors in my 40+ year experience of buying, using and hand forging Asian-style knives here in NW England and in the Far East.
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