Scissor Sharpening Question.

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travis385

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Feb 21, 2018
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I'm a K02 and I want to sharpen scissors and I want to practice before I try and sharpen any hairdressers scissor but when I do device to take that leap I'm just wanting to know what kind of an edge would be better for hair.

I do not want to do a polished edge of up to 20k with a suehiro stone only to find out at first it cuts great but the edge falls off to fast and I do not want to give to toothy of an edge only to find out that it has some negative effect as well.

I'm going to guess that it should be a more refined edge but not so refined that it is mirror polished,I can see where a bit of tooth maybe a good thing on scissors I'm planning on using chosera stones to sharpen the hairdresser scissors to refine and finish the edge but I may use something else at first to set the angle.
 
Not a pro but my wife has cut my hair for 40yrs. I assume you'll be sharpening quality scissors. After a few missteps I figured it out. A sharpie to mark the bevel is a good idea. If they haven't been abused I use 1 stone; a 2k waterstone. Seems like less is more when using the stone. Make sure the stone is nicely lapped flat. I go edge trailing. Not stone to the back side. Finally I give them a bit of a bow with my hands; don't overdo it. Make sure the pivot is tight. That's about it for an amateur. Hopefully a pro can give you better detail. This works well for our home use.
 
I like polished edges so that is what all of my scissors have. Seems to work fine for dog hair, haven't tried it on any other hair. Works fine for everything else including my shop scissors. There are a few tricks to sharpening scissors, make sure you know what you are doing before touching good ones.
 
I am also no expert. The true convex ones used by a stylist for sliding cuts and such need to be highly polished. Ones for a barber or conventionally ground edges seem to do best at 2k. Dog shears can be even less refined at 800- 1k or so.

Sometimes the edge wear is enough you have to do some work on the inside of the shear, but...Avoid the inside edge as much as possible and if you have to work it, use a polishing stone and get the ride area as well. Emphasize pressure on the ride on the side furthest from the edge, or when you tighten them back down they will tend to make lighter contact than they should.

Tighten the pivot if necessary and see if they will cut copy paper their entire length before you sharpen them or take them apart. Many are bent or warped from being used dull or from being dropped, and can't be set to right just by sharpening. Is one thing to start sharpening and bending them with an understanding and more $, is another story if the owner thinks you ruined their scissors and you can't even say for sure since you never tested them first.

Regular utility shears can be sharpened to an even lower grit - all depends on what they are being used for. Again, I am no expert but from the ones I have done it is best to remember scissors are a tool with moving parts and they need to work together.
 
I don't over think this. I take them apart and sharpen them on a 1970's Norton fine India stone. Giving them maybe 2-3 passes, (edge leading). Then lay them flat and grind, knocking off the burr. Put them back together (not too tight) and test on cutting copy paper. DM
 
I sharpen regular scissors no prob but from talking to my hair cutter, who has been cutting my hair for about thirty years (heck she drives to my house to cut my hair) . . . she is all about nice scissors and she would say don't even think about sharpening nice hair cutter's scissors if you haven't been trained for it.
Just my two nickels.
 
Stylist's shears are like straight razors. Everything has to be just so, and highly polished. They need to be sharp enough that they'll cut by sliding the shears through hair without a single hair catching and pulling. Get some cheap ones to practice on before trying 'em on anything fancy, and stay away from the interior faces unless you really understand how shears cut and have appropriately fine/hard stones, such as sintered ceramics.
 
View attachment 864231 When I sharpen scissors, I don’t go much above 800 grit for cloth applications. If the edges are too smooth, they push the fabric out of the jaws. I use a Spyderco Xfine triangular prism to wipe the burr back into the grinding plane. The Sharpmaker has a slot for an 11 degree scissor slope. This works quite well on SAK scissors
 
tiguy7 said:
View attachment 864231 When I sharpen scissors, I don’t go much above 800 grit for cloth applications. If the edges are too smooth, they push the fabric out of the jaws. I use a Spyderco Xfine triangular prism to wipe the burr back into the grinding plane. The Sharpmaker has a slot for an 11 degree scissor slope. This works quite well on SAK scissors
Click to expand...

Respectfully, sharpening stylist's shears is not the same as sharpening fabric shears.
 
tiguy, that's the type I do, the Sak and Gerber. I'll look into the Styling shears and see what brands I find near me. DM
 
This thread flashes me back to when a stylist/friend told me how his young son took his hairdresser scissors and used them to cut some wire.
Ouch.

And, it leads me to a question (just for edification, I have no intention of ever sharpening any. The only scissor I sharpen are the house Fiscars, and I use their cheater sharpener to do it 'cuz I'm not anal about having the perfect edge).

Can hair cutting scissors be done with a guided setup (EdgePro, etc.), or are the blades of such a shape that they can only be done by hand?
 
Some of the edges on factory sharpened styling shears are micro serrated to keep hair from sliding out of the V. This is hard to duplicate without special equipment.
 
Yes hair cutting scissors can be done on the EdgePro with the scissor attachment, this is what I use. For a quality edge I can't think of a better way. I have done everything from 1-1/2" to my 10" scissors for fiberglass etc. I have the old two clamp style, the new single clamp version is supposed to be better for hair stylist scissors.
 
Yes hair cutting scissors can be done on the EdgePro with the scissor attachment, this is what I use. For a quality edge I can't think of a better way. I have done everything from 1-1/2" to my 10" scissors for fiberglass etc. I have the old two clamp style, the new single clamp version is supposed to be better for hair stylist scissors.
 
I use the twice as sharp ookami package for any hair scissors. Convex beauty scissors need to have as high a polish as you can muster on a perfectly flat stone to finish the ride line. I finish on a 30k shapton pro.
 
When you say you give the a bow what do you mean are flexing them just a bit and then opening them.

hogwild said:
Not a pro but my wife has cut my hair for 40yrs. I assume you'll be sharpening quality scissors. After a few missteps I figured it out. A sharpie to mark the bevel is a good idea. If they haven't been abused I use 1 stone; a 2k waterstone. Seems like less is more when using the stone. Make sure the stone is nicely lapped flat. I go edge trailing. Not stone to the back side. Finally I give them a bit of a bow with my hands; don't overdo it. Make sure the pivot is tight. That's about it for an amateur. Hopefully a pro can give you better detail. This works well for our home use.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for all the info everyone I read a lot of these post's and I could not get back to them as soon as I wanted to.
 
When you look at good scissors; you can see the blades have a very gentle bow towards each other. The idea is to gently flex each blade a bit more. As you've been advised. scissor sharpening is specialized and if I was going to provide it as a paid service; I'd find someone who could give me proper training. I learned on cheap hair scissors and ruined a couple before getting the hang of it. I would be afraid to take it on as a service.
 
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