pinking shears sharpening? (US)

I have tried to get my Wiss pinking shears sharpened locally. No good. No one does it anymore around here anymore (Sacramento CA). Boo Hoo

Does anyone have a contact for some place in the US where I can send my pinking shears for sharpening?

liz young (in cloudy california)

Reply to
Elizabeth Young
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i have no idea sore sure but i wonder if folding a few layers of kitchen foil and cutting thru that repeatedly might help til you find someone. or cutting thru really fine grade sandpaper perhsaps. just a couple of thoughts. someone else might have more info on either of these. i googled and asked jeeves and the sandpaper bit was the only mention i could find for diy sharpening. fwiw. :) cheers, jeanne

Reply to
nzlstar*

Hi Liz, You might try a Fancy Cutlery Store at the Mall. Maybe even Williams Sonoma could help you find someone that does it. They probably send it out too. Here in Texas there is a guy that comes to TSWLTH that will sharpen anything. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Linda inTx

Reply to
nana2b

Liz, You might call the Stretch & Sew store in Stockton. I gave him my scalloped scissors to sharpen & he did a great job with them. Their phone number is

209-957-1237 & Maxine's email address is snipped-for-privacy@aol.com. They pack up tons of fabric on the weekends & have "trunk shows" quite frequently. They may even come to Sacramento area.
Reply to
Pauline

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folks might be able to take care of your scissors.

Reply to
SNIGDIBBLY

I thought so too, but the saleslady at the sewing store (who has stopped advising pinking shears as a purchase because of the sharpening issue) said Gingher won't even sharpen their own shears anymore. However, it is always worth checking! Thanks, snigs

liz young in frosty, foggy, windy (go figure) california

Reply to
Elizabeth Young

Will do. I am planning on heading down to stockton for the ansel adams show at the haggin mus. in the next month.

liz young > Liz,

Reply to
Elizabeth Young

It's pretty much impossible to sharpen pinking shears. It's not easy to sharpen your own brand, where you can jig up to do one design over and over, but to sharpen any old pair that comes in off the street is very hard. Also, most pinking shears simply _can't_ be sharpened - they take their adjustment from the pivot and so you need to dismantle them and work on the pivots to get the set right again. If they're not maunfactured to allow this, then it's really not practical.

On the bright side, scissors rarely need full sharpening anyway. Generally a light honing is enough to make them cut again and as merely honing them doesn't disturb their set, then this is an easy job. It's entirely practical for DIY.

Get a small diamond hone on a plastic stick (DMT make good ones). Use this, wet, to polish the top edge of the blade - the edge that contacts, but doesn't slide over, the other blade of the scissors (i.e. not the face). Be careful to hold the hone at the right angle and to not wobble it (thus making a rounded surface). A few minutes work here will generally rejuvenate most straight bladed scissors and a small hone will even allow you to work on most pinking shears. Even with a serrated blade, honing the non-serrated blade is worthwhile. So long as the scissors aren't worn so badly that their set is affected, this is usually enough to get them cutting again.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Andy Dingley wrote in part:

Well, it looks like mine are made to be taken apart, and I do believe that the adjustment is off, because if I jam the blades together as I cut, most of the shear cuts.

Now, where did I put that oil....

liz young in cool california

Reply to
Elizabeth Young

I sharpen any shears, Specializing in industrial and pinking.

Sorry, I am not local, as I live and work in Marlboro MA. I have the buk of my work sent to me as a lot of people have trouble finding a cutler, anywhere.

The one thing we can't sharpen is cast steel. The way to determine is to file in a discreet area (behind pivot). If the file "skates" (doesn't cut into steel), they are probably cast.

Your Wiss pinkers are excellent candidates for sharpening, PROVIDED, that someone already has not tried to sharpen the individual teeth, used sandpaper or tinfoil (STOP THAT !). You don't actually sharpen the teeth. The manufacture of pinking shears make tight tolerances and if you sharpen the teeth, you effectively ruin the shears so that they never mesh properly.

Have been sharpening for 20 years professionally and I sharpen in excess of 6000 shears per year for one customer alone and over 8000 knives last year at my retail/walk-in location.

My website:

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Hope this is not against group policy, but I also have probably the largest collection of antique scissors/shears and related ephemera. Selling a lot of it due to recent (down)turn of events, but am staying with sharpening full-time. Here are some of my auctions (lots more coming):

**********

AD:

Hi Folks,

if you're interested:

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*comQQhtZ-1 Most starting at .99c with no reserve. Still looking at 500-1000 lots in the next month.

Rather than go into the why's, please read my "ME" profile on ebay:

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*com Thanks, Joe dba "Village Sharpener" ebay ID: CookbookPublisher*com

ps: If you could forward info to any interested parties, I would appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

Reply to
Village Sharpener

Not true. The only pinkers, scissors, shears or other tyoe of cutlery that cannot be sharpened (or at least hold a worhtwhile edge) are those manufactured in cast steel, which has a granular property. You'll know when you sharpen a cast pair as it breaks apart along the edge. Also, under the pivot you can see the granular structure, which looks like sand.

Again, this is only part of sharpening. What happens when you create the burr and cut it off in the wrong direction upon first use ?

I receive SO MANY pairs that have been sharpened in this fashion. The user does what you described above or uses tinfoil or sandpaper (OLD WIVES TALE folks...). They use them a few times and they are often worse for wear, at which point I get them and have to do more work to sharpen them.

btw, DMT (diamond machine technology) are made down the street from me. While they make excellent products that surpass the imported type, I wuld not recommend a casual user in the method you described above. I've probably sharpened over 100,000 shears and I ALWYS use a precide angle jig that I designed. No guesswork, no returns...

The set, as you say, is only ruined when the individual teeth have been sharpener by a well-meaning "sharpener".

Trust me, I've done this for 20 years.

Reply to
Village Sharpener

Oil attracts fine dust. I use alcohol base which dries to a fine white powder that does not attract dust.

Case in point: Every pocketknife I sharpen has pocket lint in them. The worse ones always have oil all along the inside. Now I have to clean them before sharpening...

Reply to
Village Sharpener

Catch-22, huh ?

Gingher also states that having their shears sharpened by anyone else except them will void the warranty... !

Reply to
Village Sharpener

btw, I would just like to follow up in saying that the nice people at COOPER (who puchased Wiss), have recommended my services for folks calling their plant looking for sharpeners.

I worked in 2 different cutlery shops and was trained as a professional cutler, working on Scissors, Shears and Knives exclusively.

Have other references, including government subcontractors.

That's not to say I only do large orders, but I recommend that sewing clubs get together and send a few to save on shipping costs.

Thanks, Joe Village Sharpener

Reply to
Village Sharpener

Ads are discouraged on the sewing groups generally, and the quilters will eat you alive! But I'll put in a plea for mercy at this point, because you offer a really useful service. I am really REALLY glad I have professional sharpening man's back-up for telling folk that wrecking yer best sheers on tinfoil and sandpaper is no way to 'sharpen' them! I cheat: buy cheap pinking sheers and replace them when I wreak them. As I only use them for occasional trimming, even a cheap pair has lasted over 10 years, and I sew professionally!

Please post the ads to the marketplace group, and I'm sure folk will look in there. But remember NOT to advertise a sale here! :) You might also like to pop an ad into the Treadle On flea market, as sewing related stuff goes well there, and folk who like antique sewing machines may also like antique scissors to cut their re-enaction garments out with! :)

Stay with us, keep your ad to a sigline URL, and keep offering sage scissor advice! :)

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Thanks for the kind reminder. Sorry for the ad post.

I can tell you that you can SOMETIMES sharpen cast scissors. When Wiss made their shears, they actually welded the hardened face onto the frame. This way, after someone sharpened them, they could adjust the hadles to size the tips. That means that sometimes after sharpening, the tips would not align proper and most sharpeners and DIY's would grind the tips to realign them. BAD ! Especially, when you consider that a beautician can spend upwards of $800 for a pair of profesional shears. That siad, sometimes the handles are cast and the blades are properly harrdened/tempered, but then you have the catch-22 where you can't align the tips for fear of cracking the cast frame !

Like your advice of nuying cheap ones, but I tend to go toward the moderate range. Instead of buying one pair of $70 shears, buy 2 decent $40 ones and that way when you send them out to be sharpened, you have another pair !

I get TONS of scissors per year from airport seizures in Ssacramento and Boston's Logan airport. A lot of times I will sort thru them and take the antiques for my collection and giving the rest to senior sewing centers or schools. That's all going to change now that our illustrious MA AG has allowed scissors back on board...

Another thing to remember is that most shears come with only a 10-25 degree angle, where Gingher is famous for having 2 (10 & 45 on knife-edge). It's important that the scissor/shears match the material you are cutting. I often sharpen at 35d for fleece and polar-tec. Boy does that stuff eat up an edge !

Joe Village Sharpener Marlboro MA

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Reply to
Village Sharpener

Started doing re-enactments about 4 years ago. We participate in the

1750-1840 mountain man era. I started making my own clothes and have a new found appreciation for you folks.

In keeping period, I had to measure (not twice, but 5 times !), cut and hand sew with sinew to keep with the spirit of the times.

Man, this suit netter last a lifetime ! :)

Reply to
Village Sharpener

The website says they sharpen only Ginghers, but evidently still do sharpen their own brand. I tend to assume that information from the company's website is more accurate than what any salesperson say.

Julia > SNIGDIBBLY wrote:

Reply to
Julia in MN

I agree with Kate. We did have some questions about sharpening and where to have it done, so I don't see a problem with briefly mentioning your services along with a pointer to your website. In my opinion, that's not in the same category as the ads that are not posted in response to some question asked here. Lots of good info on your website, by the way.

Julia in MN

Reply to
Julia in MN

Thanks for you support. Promise I won't spam the group(s) anymore.

If I can be of any help I will try. Besides, now that I am making my own clothes for primitive rendezvous, I am bound to be asking questions from you folks !

Imagine, I have only cut myself less than 5 times in all my years of sharpening, yet my fingers are like pincushions once I started stitching my own garb :)

Reply to
Village Sharpener - Sales

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