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I have scissors with moderately dull blades and a middle grain (looks like 120) sharpening stone.

Is it realistic to sharpen scissors on a stone or do I just get over the idea? How is sharpening scissors different from sharpening a knife or a chisel?

sharptooth
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  • It is not advised because scissor blades are tempered and once you start to sharpen them.. you will have to do it over and over and they will blunt faster. It only important to have the 2 straight edges sharp(so only using the stone on the angles sides and not the flat side!) Professionally scissors would never need sharpening if you use them correctly.(EG Hair dressers.. they just buy new ones after x years) – Piotr Kula Oct 21 '11 at 08:52
  • @ppumkin, looks like an answer to me. – BMitch Oct 21 '11 at 12:27
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    It would be hard to heat up a scissors blade hot enough with a hand held stone to remove it's temper. A high speed grinding wheel would kill the temper in an instant though. The same with a knife or a chisel. – Scott Bruns Oct 22 '11 at 00:35
  • Tempering is intended to keep the original shape when it was produced. hence scissors where laser cut and nice and sharp- when you use a stone and rough the edges you will never achieved the same precision as factory-hence damaging the tempering effect. In some cases rendering the object useless because you would have to re temper everything. – Piotr Kula Oct 25 '11 at 16:31

2 Answers2

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Like all projects a certain amount of skill and the proper tools are needed to sharpen scissors correctly.

A 120 stone is not fine enough to put a fine edge on a pair of scissors. Something a lot finer would be needed.

Many knifes are sharpened on both sides of the blade. Normal scissors are sharpened on the angled side of the blade. Some scissors can be disassembled to make sharpening easier, others cannot.

If your scissors are valuable, take them to a sharpening service. They should come back good as new.

If your scissors are not worth paying to have them sharpened, and are too dull to use, try sharpening them yourself. You will learn how well a 120 stone works for this task. You may find you have an interest in sharpening things. Or you may find you need to buy a new pair of scissors.

If you do try sharpening them yourself, be careful. Even dull scissors can cut your fingers.

Scott Bruns
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  • "Normal [garbage] scissors are sharpened on the angled side of the blade." - *shears* are sharpened on the flat side : [How To Sharpen Scissors Like A Pro](https://youtu.be/i1Wy9O7lwYI?t=219) – YouTube – Mazura Feb 23 '21 at 16:34
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It is not advised because scissor blades are tempered and once you start to sharpen them.. you will have to do it over and over and they will blunt faster.

It is only important to have the 2 straight edges sharp(so only using the stone on the angles sides and not the flat side!)

Professionally scissors would never need sharpening if you use them correctly. (EG Hair dressers.. they just buy new ones after and never use them for anything else) (EG Kitchen scissors for cutting fish,meat and poultry, I have used them to cut copper wire many times, and some rainbow trout- but never to cut paper or wallpaper. They not easy to sharpen either- so can just buy new ones for 5bucks)

Piotr Kula
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