this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024
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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/comicstrips
 
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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago (4 children)

fabric scissors need to be sharp to do their job effectively.

cutting other things, even paper, can (and will) dull the blades enough so they're no longer suitable for their original intended task.

then when gramma, or whoever, wants to use 'their scissors' to cut some fabric, and they aren't functioning properly... let's just say it may not go well for the guilty party.

tl;dr: they're no longer pure and must be replaced with new virgin scissors.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 22 points 1 week ago

That's when they become "stabbing scissors"!

[–] Pieisawesome 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Can’t you just sharpen them? Won’t fabric dull them? You can’t tell me that paper dulls scissors faster than fabrics.

I highly doubt using fabric scissors one time for cutting paper will do anything to them

[–] spamellama 35 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

You are hereby banned from the sewing room.

You think cutting through a tree won't dull scissors? Fabric is made from plant fluff or hair.

More seriously - Yes you can sharpen them but many fabric stores no longer offer the service regularly. Some knife sharpeners will do it but others won't. My scissors can be sent back to the maker to be sharpened but then I would be without my fabric scissors for weeks. If you do it yourself you will fail.

[–] ettyblatant 13 points 1 week ago

This is one of my favorite comments of all time. I have sent a screen shot to three different people that get pissed when I won't let them use my shears.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

had no idea about the level of complexity in sharpening scissors. TIL

[–] chiliedogg 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They are more difficult than knives because they have to be sharpened so that they work as a set. If you screw it up, they no longer cut clean along the correct plane.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's not that bad, they're single bevel so you'd have to try to sharpen the wrong side of the blade to fuck it up too badly

[–] Warl0k3 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Any disruption of the interference fit between the contact or cutting faces can ruin scissors - it's a lot like grinding a straight razor, but where you have incredibly strict angle requirements across a compound surface. You're absolutely right though that the #1 mistake people make is to mess up the hollows by flat sharpening them like knives.

[–] Zron 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s a single bevel.

Sharpen the angled side at the proper angle, and remove the burr by flattening the smooth side of the blade on a decent diamond stone.

I have my great grandfathers barber’s shears, and that’s how they’ve been sharpened for going on 100 years now. You need a stone wide enough for the whole blade, so that its uniformly flat, but other than that it’s pretty logical how they need to be sharpened.

[–] fluxion 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's a shame more fabric enthusiastics don't do this, we'd have an army of skilled blade sharpeners and weapon/fabric enthusiastics could join forces and reign supreme

[–] Zron 4 points 1 week ago

I think everyone should learn how to sharpen a kitchen knife at least.

Dull knives are dangerous, and it really only takes an afternoon to get decent at sharpening a knife.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of lore about knife sharpening, like how you need really fine grit stones, or a whetstone being the best, when in reality you can get a shaving sharp edge from a 20 dollar diamond stone from a hardware store. Sure, a 4000 grit stone will get you a mirror finish and a more refined edge that will last slightly longer, but even an 80 grit stone when used properly, will get you a good edge that will last for months without any other sharpening.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Seriously, what's with these people thinking fabric scissors are magic? If anything, they're significantly easier to sharpen than a knife.

[–] Warl0k3 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I think it's down to most people not having used modern high end shears, which usually have convex bevels (and some pain in the ass exotic steels). If you can sharpen that without destroying the tension/edge finish using a hardware store stone (like someone in this thread was claiming), I'll be properly impressed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah maybe with a belt sharpener, but I just use my stone. I guess my scissors have a flat bevel. It never occurred to me anyone would put a convex edge on a pair of scissors. Unless you're talking about how the blades bend inwards slightly, in which case, I haven't had any issues getting my scissors back to fabric-sharp.

[–] Warl0k3 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That single (or doubled) convex blade profile is the big defining difference between shears and scissors. There's some other things like grip sizes and thickness of the blades relative to each other that separate things like tailoring shears and dressmaking shears, but those aren't nearly as codified. And that's ignoring all the complexities you get with beauty shears, or the absolute hell that is trying to sharpen pinking or thinning shears, especially if the inner blade has a nick in it that requires reprofiling. Its fascinating how complex such simple tools have become as we've adapted them for ever more specialized tasks!

[–] Warl0k3 18 points 1 week ago

You're highly wrong, then. Go get a straight razor and drag it through some paper, then see how nice it is to shave with. Fabric shears have surfaces honed to the same degree.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Does cutting fabric not dull the blades? It seems like a lot of fabrics should be tougher to cut through than paper?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago

Paper is made out of wood, the fibers are much harder than most sewing fabrics like cotton. It's only easier to cut because it's so stiff compared to fabric so even dull scissors can split it.

[–] peopleproblems -1 points 1 week ago

Yes, and you can sharpen them, it just takes time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

tl;dr: they’re no longer pure and must be replaced with new virgin scissors.

Damn that's a horrible punishment. (I'm at least assuming if fabric scissors are only to be used on cutting fabric).