Surgical Scissors

[Anthropod]

Has anyone sharpened surgical scissors with the T-8? My wife is a veterinarian and has a number of dullish ones that need sharpening.

[Rob]

Not surgical specifically but unless their geometry/design is fundamentally different from regular scissors then I cant see a problem.  Oddly, I bought the scissor jig myself for the first time just last week and promptly sharpened 10 pairs we had round the house.  What motivated the purchase was the cutting of foam pads that form part of a complex dressing on my sons leg.  He has metal rods going right through the bone and coming out the other side while he is healing from complex surgery.  The pads which are soft a foam, help to deter infection from entering at the pin sites ie where the metal goes through the skin.

The scissors just kept folding round the foam pads so I bought the jig to get those sharp. And it worked a treat, in fact I was so impressed, as I say, I did everything we owned while I had the setup.

The scissors in question are not surgical scissors, they're longer, but if the bevel on the knives of surgical scissors is ground to around 60 degrees or close then I see no reason it shouldn't work.  We do have surgical scissors in some of the dressing packs and the only difference I can see is that they're small.

[Jan]

I have sharpened two surgical scissors without difficulties. The blades were not flat but the clamping into the jig was not a problem. I just replicated the existing bevel angles. The stainless steel is not very hard so be careful and do not remove too much of it. When too much steel is removed the scissor points do not meet and you have to remove some steel from the shanks or shorten the tips.

I have found useful the TORMEK tip, for grinding scissors "the best working position is sitting on a chair in front of the machine". 

Jan