Question about the video of Spyderco about the Sharpmaker and scissor's angle.

S

Sir Joe

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May 30, 2015
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Hello guys,

I have watched the 4 part Spyderco Video about how to use the Sharpmaker.
On the part 3 at 7:30 he shows how to sharpen scissors.
He mention that the angle for scissors is very very thin, 12.5, but then he put the stone almost horizontal.
Why? I was expecting he to put it almost vertical.
 
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The 12.5° angle mentioned is in reference to horizontal (the table, essentially). In other words, the hone's angle is 12.5° off the horizontal surface. It's not meant to imply the thinness of the scissors' cutting edge, but rather the deviation from what would otherwise be a 90° angle. In his mentioning that the scissor should be held 'straight up & down' while sharpening it, the 12.5° offset will presumably put the bevel being sharpened flush to the hone with the other blade held vertically (90°), which would make the actual angle of the scissors' cutting edge = 77.5° inclusive (90° minus the 12.5° offset). Put another way: in Sal's example, the scissors shown would have an inclusive angle of 77.5° between the bevel and the scissor blade's flat (inside) face. The 'per side' angle would be half that value, @ 38.75°.

Hope this makes sense... :)


David
 
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Scissors are ground at all sorts of angles. The smaller the number in reference to the angle the flatter the scissor was ground. Backwards from how a knife grind is interpreted.
 
Does anybody have any success sharpening scissors with the Sharpmaker like this? Any other ideas for scissors?
 
I've had great great success with the sharp maker in the scissor sharpening position. I install and repair carpets and have many sets of shears. Use it all the time (weekly). Actually its the only thing I use my sharp maker for now (I've gotten good with freehand on my knives).

I'd almost say its the best and easiest scissor sharpener
 
As stated above its a good tool if used on a consistent basis once you have good edges.
 
Ive had good luck on a hard strop w/compound getting my beard scissors sharp just stropping flat on the inside face. Will depend on how f'ed up yours are tho.
 
I've sharpened a small number of scissors, pruners, and other scissor type tools. I've used the sharpmaker rods on several of them, but NOT with the base. I just hold the SM rod in one hand and the scissor in the other and file the angled face of the scissor until I form a small burr on the flat back side. I've used sharpie on the edge to make sure I'm getting to the edge and not introducing too much of a secondary bevel.

Of course, I run the SM rod TOTALLY flat over the back side also to remove the burr. Just 2 or maybe 3 strokes on the back side.

I've never sharpened any expensive scissors, and I'm not really sure how to check for sharpness other than cutting paper. They all seem to do that just fine.

Scissors are something I'd like to study more. It seems like most of the resources I can find are designed for people that want to start a business and require you to pay quite a bit for instruction (several hundred dollars and usually several days of classes using specialized jigs).

Brian.
 
Scissors are my favorite to sharpen especially for pocket change.

Like bgentry I bring the stone to the blade.

I match the bevel by hand and eye and feel.

Sharpen to a burr, take out the nicks.

Remove the burr by laying the stone flat on the chisel side.

Clean the apex with soft wood.

Walla! Easy money.
I test them by push cutting paper for hang ups and fraying the fibers of a que tip to cut.

I have a friend at work that does textiles, he enjoys the performance.
 
Uh, nice posts!

So, what the man of Spyderco shows, the way he sharpens scissors there, would not really be the most effective?

Btw, how do you sharpen pruners with it?
I had bought a diafold double sided, and never use it because it is too thick to get between the blades of the pruner.
My pruner (ARS VS9R) is difficult to adjust in the tightness of the blades, so I do not dare to demount it after I finally found a right tightness.
I do not see how can you use the big triangles of the Sharpener with a pruner.
If you can, I am happy, I do not need to buy also the pruner sharpener of DMT.

Anyway you convinced me buying the Spyderco Sharpener.
Damn.
Next month.
 
Sir Joe said:
Btw, how do you sharpen pruners with it?
I had bought a diafold double sided, and never use it because it is too thick to get between the blades of the pruner.
My pruner (ARS VS9R) is difficult to adjust in the tightness of the blades, so I do not dare to demount it after I finally found a right tightness.
I do not see how can you use the big triangles of the Sharpener with a pruner.
Click to expand...

Pruners only have one sharpened bevel on one of the blades. You just match the bevel angle and sharpen until you get a burr on the flat side. Then remove the burr with a few strokes TOTALLY flat on the flat side. I looked at pictures of your pruners and I think you could get just about all of the cutting edge sharpened with a sharpmaker rod. Even if you don't get every single millimeter sharpened, doing 95% of it will get you good results.

The few pruners I've worked on were REALLY beaten up. I actually used a 8x2x.75 " stone on one set and was able to get all but maybe 1/4" of the cutting edge done. The results were pretty good. Much more effective than before sharpening.

Brian.
 
Ok, thanks, I will try!

The normal flat strokes on the other side are to be made from inside out, right?
Anyway this pruner is tricky, there is a very micro bevel also on the other side.
Should I ignore it?
 
I don't think the direction of burr removal matters much , but a lot of people would tell you to move the stone from edge to spine. An edge leading stroke.

If the back side has a microbevel, that's something I'm unfamiliar with. But I do know that to remove the burr, you have to touch it. If the burr is turned up over the micro and you are only touching the flat part "above" the micro, you'll never take the burr off. To be super duper safe you might try drawing the pruner blade through some soft wood to strip the burr off.

Personally, I'd be inclined to try to remove the burr by grinding right on the back side micro bevel. ...and by "grind" I mean less than 5 light strokes until the burr is *just* gone and only with a fine-ish stone.

Brian.
 
bgentry said:
I don't think the direction of burr removal matters much , but a lot of people would tell you to move the stone from edge to spine. An edge leading stroke.
Click to expand...

I thought that fur shears and pruners the bevel side should be edge leading, and the flat side in the other direction.
Wrong?
 
From what I have read and done, that when you have produced a burr, you just open and close the shears and this shears off the burr. Its worked well for me. I have also found that cutting fine steel wool a few times will touch up your scissors.
 
Yikes it can cut off the burr but its more consistent and leaves better results if done as bgentry mentioned with the stone flat and soft wood.


Steel wool? Whoa.

Pics?
 
DeadboxHero said:
Yikes it can cut off the burr but its more consistent and leaves better results if done as bgentry mentioned with the stone flat and soft wood.


Steel wool? Whoa.

Pics?
Click to expand...
OOOO steel wool. Try it! You will like it. Tested on cloth, paper etc. Pics? I use the spyderco and also a Kalamazoo 1 x 42 belt grinder as well as the KO Work Sharp. I have done pinking shears by hand that was a real PITA with stones. These have worked for me.
Ron
 
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