To scissor jig or not to scissor jig....that is the question?

[Rob]

In the words of the old bard himself.....

Can I sharpen scissors without the jig?

I have every jig except the axe and scissor jig.......trying to resist but I do need to sharpen three pairs of scissors!

[grepper]

I'm sure that I could do "something" to the scissors freehand.  The only issues that I see revolve around that funny "sharpen" word that you use.     How good are you at freehand work?

You might could possibly use the small knife jig.  Maybe even by clamping to the handle of the scissor.  Scissors generally have a pretty steep bevel, so you might get away with it.

I'd sure want to practice on junk first!

[Rob]

I'm alright at free handing knives. I could give it a go...got a naff pair in the garage I could practice on

[grepper]

I found this to be instructional:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGMk7qMPeSk

It is talking about fine, expensive, 800 mm radius stylist shears, but it pretty cool anyway.

I thought it might be cool to sharpen shears, but I found that it is really way more involved than I expected, requiring lots of practice.  They have some pretty nifty, (and expensive), equipment though.

One interesting point is how they deal with the burr.

I've sharpened scissors that my wife uses to cut my hair.  They seem to work great.  Very sharp and no grabbing.  But nonetheless, I'm sticking with kitchen/garden scissors!

[Justin]

I would say use a jig for sure. Even if you were really good at freehand knife sharpening i would still say use the jig. There's alot more going on with scissors than knives, and when you enter the big bad world of professional convex scissors, things start get very serious indeed. 

[grepper]

Yea, just to reiterate on what Justin said, "when you enter the big bad world of professional convex scissors, things start get very serious indeed."

When we speak of scissors and Tormek in the same sentence, we mean general purpose/garden/kitchen type scissors.  Touching professional convex shears to a Tormek would be akin to getting a haircut with a lawn mower.

[Rhino]

If I had every jig except for these 2.  I would just spend a little more money to be complete.  I assume you are not buying all these jigs to save money.  You would have to sharpen a lot of drills, for example, to justify a drill bit jig.

You got the planer knife jig, you got the drill sharpening jig.  just buy the last two and be done with it.  Then you have a complete set.

[Mike Fairleigh]

Just to add to the data... I recently bought the scissors jig, despite having read a number of less-than-glowing reviews of it.  I bought it because I had found an old pair of my Mom's utility scissors in one of my shop drawers.  I lost her to cancer several years ago and can remember using that same pair of scissors all the way back to kindergarten (and they weren't new then).  It's an old pair of Valley Forge brand, with no adjustability other than a peened rivet.  I should have practiced on something less sentimental first, but it's what I had so I went for it.  They were pretty loose and the mating sides of the blades had just the very beginnings of some surface staining; not enough to call it surface rust, though technically that's what was starting.  But the tips were unbroken and they still felt great in my hand.  I decided these scissors deserved better than to just rust away.

I started by taking a light pass down the mating side of each blade on a wire wheel to be sure all rust was gone.  Then I watched Jeff's video one more time (by the way he has a priceless tip in there about setting the angle), and chucked the first blade into the jig.  It took more passes than I was expecting, which got me concerned that maybe I was just ruining what was left of these scissors.  But I found that, as is usual with the Tormek, if I stopped every couple of passes and checked my progress, paid attention to where steel was being removed, etc., it worked perfectly.  I flipped them around, took about the same number of passes on the 2nd blade (I was so nervous I forgot to count my passes), and stopped.  I took them out of the jig, pulled the burr off on the end grain of a nearby 2x4, and then took them to the anvil and tightened up the rivet with a ball-peen hammer.  Care must be taken on that, since there's no good way to loosen them up if you go too far.  Finally I polished the outside of the blades with Autosol and put a drop of jojoba oil on the joint for lubrication.

These are now the sharpest, smoothest operating scissors in the house (and I've got some very good vintage scissors). These are right up there with my grandfather's brass & steel Salm scissors, which spent their life in his executive desk drawer.  When I use them, I have to remember to move slowly so as not to risk splitting an atom and destroying all of humanity.

[grepper]

Way to go Mike!  It's a great feeling to save an old edge tool, and a memory too!

Thanks for the info on how to deal with a loose peened bolt/rivet.  I hadn't thought of just bashing (carefully) it back down again. Duh.  I feel stupid. 

I have a similar pair.  No real sentiment towards them, but old and well made, just too loose. 

[Mike Fairleigh]

Yes just be careful about going too far; there should still be a bit of play in the joint when the scissors are all the way open.  You only want to tighten the rivet enough so that the blades mate smoothly all the way through their travel, and no more.

In their day, these were probably little more than dime store scissors; my folks couldn't have afforded any more than that at the time they were bought.  It's funny how 50+ years of hard use later and all they need is a good cleaning, sharpening, and adjustment.  Sure beats the crap they make now with their cheap blades and plastic handles covered with mold flash that rubs your fingers raw.

[Ken S]

A hint to Tormek dealers who would like to sell more Tormek jigs:

Whenever someone purchases a Tormek, include a coupon for a free pair of inexpensive scissors.  (Or the scissors themselves.)

Or, to the Tormek users, (myself included), give up chips for a couple days and buy a pair of inexpensive scissors.  Why debate whether or not to attempt to sharpen a valued pair, either value of sentimental value?

I'm in almost the same situation as Rob.  (Almost because I do have the scissors jig.  My local Tormek dealer had a couple 20% off sales, and I loaded up.)  My reservation with buying the ax jig is that I don't own an ax.  If I should decide to purchase the ax jig, should I also purchase an ax?.....

Ken

[grepper]

Mr. Mike said; "It's funny how 50+ years of hard use later.." 

I miss quality manufacturing.  Whatever happened?  Now it seems that almost _everything_, (even toothpicks! Really?), are specially "imported from the Orient", something which no longer seems to have the meaning it once had.

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to start a bashing thread here.  It's just that these old, beautiful tools, even dime store tools, were truly made to last a lifetime or longer.  Now it's all disposable.  Sad.

[grepper]

Absolutely Ken!  Everybody need an ax.  You should probably purchase several, and a hatchet too!

[Jeff Farris]

Mike, I love that story, and I'll share another scissor revival story after I have my say about the scissor jig.

When I started selling Tormek, I also looked at the set-up and thought that the knife jig could be used for scissors. The difference is that the angle of attack on a knife is very low and on a pair of scissors it is very high. That short bevel on a scissor makes it difficult to control. After a while I also realized that the scissor jig is one of the better values in the jig line-up, because the support plate can be used as a general purpose tool rest.

Now, to my scissor jig story. I did an episode of New Yankee Workshop with Norm Abram in 2000. In the rehearsal, Norm and his producer had cooked up a joke to play on me. I was showing them the system and sharpening several of Norm's tools when they handed me a pair of scissors he had used in fiberglassing a boat. They were completely encased in fiberglass fibers and cured resin. No one could even get them open. Unphased, and not knowing it was supposed to be a joke, I took out my pocketknife, sliced through the fiberglass, and got the blades separated, then proceeded to sharpen them in a matter of minutes. I cut a four-fold (eight layers) stack of felt, then shaved 1/16th off the same stack with the second cut. When they all picked their jaws off the floor, we started taping.

[grepper]

Jeff, Is that episode available?  I checked the New Yankee site but their archive did not go back that far.