9 years of shear bliss from the Japanese

by philg

If you’re looking for Kwanzaa gift ideas, here are the Shun kitchen shears, about $55:

We recently had to toss a pair of Wusthof shears that had gone ridiculously dull. I tried sharpening them with a simple honing steel and it didn’t help. The typical commercial sharpening service won’t handle scissors. I don’t have a sharpening stone. (Maybe some of you all know whether it is practical to sharpen shears like the above? If so, what’s the technique and equipment required?) Despite the fancy German brand name, I think that these were #FakeWusthof made-in-China and cheap ($25 on the Web right now).

I discovered via some Amazon order research that our still-sharp Shun shears celebrated their 9th anniversary of domestic abuse (put in dishwasher for sterilization after cutting meat, for example). They’ve never been sharpened and are still highly effective. The screwdriver blades on the back of the handles are a fun idea, but we have never used them.

I’m not sure if there is a reasonable option for America First enthusiasts. Is there any U.S. company that can compete with the Japanese, Swiss (Kuhn Rikon), or Germans (not the fake Germans in China who made our recently tossed “Wusthof” shears) in standard knives and scissors?

Related:

Update: I bought the more expensive Shun shears and they’re heavier. It’s unclear if they’re better but at least now we have a second pair to use if the first is being sterilized in the multi-hour dishwasher (thanks, regulation!).

8 thoughts on “9 years of shear bliss from the Japanese”

  1. Clauss, perhaps, but they are now mostly made in China as well. My pull-apart shears of theirs (made in China) are still going strong well over a decade after I bought them.

    Mundial kitchen shears are made in Brazil, which is in the Americas.

    Heritage Cutlery, now owned by Klein, makes a few kitchen scissors:
    https://www.kleincutlery.com/products?search_api_fulltext=kitchen
    but note the weasel words “made in the USA of US and imported parts”. Not sure what the quality is, but Klein makes good tools.

    There are specialty scissor sharpeners like the Fiskars Clip-Sharp, but they won’t work on micro-serrated blades like yours, which are effectively impossible to resharpen.

  2. Ordinary scissor blades can be sharpened simply by “cutting” a smooth glass object. Cheap and cheerful!

  5. Sharpening them depends on the state of the blades. If they are just a bit dull then using a stone or file along the cutting edge that is not the metal to metal facing side can be enough. Run a sharpie along the side and the get rid of the sharpie. Hopefully until you turn a small burr and the cut them together to knock off the burr. Do not touch the metal contacting faces with the stone or you will be sad. It takes about 5 minutes. If there are chips in the edge or serious wear I wouldn’t bother. The amount of steel that needs to be removed and shaped correctly gets a little silly unless you have a belt grinder. I have done this (sharpening, not belt grinder) once in ten years with mundial – now also made in china – kitchen scissors. Their main issue is that the nut holding the joint in place rusts in the dishwasher.
    One final thought for the later generations that read this… it is better to buy pairs of kitchen scissors that separate that are NOT the same type so they are never put together in the wrong pairs.

  6. My son has a thing for Japanese blades, and these are close enough to this year’s $50 Christmas gift limit, so thank you.

  7. I don’t know if they are sold in the US, but the Japanese office supply company Plus makes great scissors for about $3.00. I buy them by the half dozen and don’t worry about cutting Costco packaging, sticky tape, staples, or whatever, since I can chuck them out,

    Scissors tend to be micro serrated, so they can’t be sharpened except on very specialized equipment.

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