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:
- a slightly different model of Shun kitchen shears that is more expensive and I can’t figure out why (same length, same steel, same made-in-Japan status)
- kitchen shear review (Shun is rated #1)
- the Wirecutter (NYT) absurdly purports to rate kitchen shears, doesn’t include the Shun, and says a $15 Chinese-made OXO is the best (based on a 2017 review, which when I tried to find it Google showed me the NYT/Wirecutter article “The Best Pubic Hair Trimmer”)
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.
Also Wolff and Cutco
Ordinary scissor blades can be sharpened simply by “cutting” a smooth glass object. Cheap and cheerful!
Being zillionaires makes people worry about the most trivial things.
The racist in me would call these Jap Nips!