Sharpening Scissors and Knives In Virginia

Well Wednesday despite the cold and despite the snow and dispite having to be back from my Key West vacation was a great day sharpeningwise. I sharpened a number of scissors and knives at Curran Designer Fabrics as I do the first Wednesday of the Month from 10:30 to 11:30 but most interesting was a pair of solid silver scissors. They are used for cutting a bunch of grapes on elegant tables, I'm sure you know what I mean.
They were about 8". The handles were more then half. They were riveted so nothing could be done to improve the ride area. Examining them they were blunt at the edge. It would cut Time magazine covers but somewhat jagged, towels not at all. I put a slightly convexed edge on it just because it was already somewhat that way. They then cut the Time somewhat better but the towel. (I didn't;t bother with a wet tissue or Hair fall pieces)

Silver like copper gets hard when hammered . It gets brittle and can again be made malable by heating it. House wiring is hard and therefore difficult to bend around screws or twist into wire nuts. My next scissor that day was a bent convex. It was fortunate that I had my Mighty Mini belt sander which is perfect for doing bent convexed. In fact I couldn't;t imagine doing it with a flat hone or a Aquahone(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjyyx_JhPVQ&feature=channel). It was a blue something which I had sold the gal the month before from the scissor Mall collection. I was anxious to see how she liked or disliked the thing.It turned out she had dropped the thing and she was especially glad to see me.

I took it apart and noticed the odd large washers on both sides of the scissor screw with a clik plate. I hope I can get more of those from "Scissor Mall" because I have a feeling I am going to need them. Maybe I'll cc them for this post.

Anyway with a 1000 belt I started going over the convex on the finger blade. It just needed more bite as the angle didn't seem right so I switched to a 600 belt. That one was just right and I raised the bur on the finger then the thumb blade. Then I polished both blades with the 1000 and worked the ride line slightly on My Kudo stone mainly just knocking the bur down and maybe the nick from the drop.. Then I st roped blades with my leather belt which I keep on another unit and Japan Woodworker Green and put them back together. I could of sworn they cut much better then before.

I handed them to the groomer and she sniped a few snips on a white poodle and smiled and I knew knew it was yet another successful mission for the mighty mini sander. The whole operation couldn't of taken more then more then five minutes!

It was after doing a few more scissors that her co worker who is someone that initially encouraged me to get into scissor sharpening when I'd bring my beagle in to her to get her nails clipped because I just couldn't stand to her her yelp when I tried. She'd tell me that her former sharpener ground the hell out of her scissors. Anyway she'd told me that she planed to buy a clipper machine from my competitor locally (written up by the Washington Post) who it seemed was going out of the clipper business. I called Skip and learning about the machine which confirmed what everyone else said you could pretty much figure out why. They are just planning to do clipper blades which I haven't wanted to get into so it might be a good deal for both of us. But I called her and told her what Skip said so she might get a better machine.

Then off to another groomer in McLean where I sharpened a few scissors and off to McLean Barbers and Tommy Chew. Tommy is planning to go off to New York City by bus which is the best way from Rockville and celebrate and eat Cantonese food. He had a Wahl 8081 that just broke in his hands. I sent it back to Wahl and resharpened a thinner and got a haircut. Discussing tea with Tommy he gave me a bag of "toasted green tea." It was strong stuff but maybe just the thing for my cold.-Rod