02/02/2020
. The sharpest tool in the drawer!
After having some bad sharpening on my Centrix silver Korean shears in 1999, I decided to look up shear manufacturers in the USA and found a 7th generation scissor and shear company in Ohio. This company was in the business of hand made shears in Germany and moved to the states in 1902 or maybe 1904.some time in the first decade of the 1900’s. The creator/owners name was Arius Eikert. This company sold out eventually to Oster just over 100 years later in about 2007. This company offered an education on sharpening and a flat Japanese hone wheel along with Japanese hone stones and all of the tools to get started. At this factory I learned in depth some of the greatest info as far as scissors and shears are concerned.Basically the two differences between scissors and shears. Scissors are up to 6 incheslong and a shear is 6 + inches long. Regardless of length there are about three different styles of cut or designs of scissors and shears. German,Japanese (aka full convex) and a hybrid of both (early model joewell). Most short or long German scissors/shears are cut or shaped on the outside of the blades with a defined angle and have they are concave on the inside of the blade (a hollow ground) that allows the hair somewhere to go after it is cut. This hollow ground os produced by an approximately 22” stone cutting wheelon Most German Barber style shears. German or barber blades sometimes have a corrugated blade on the bottom blade and some have micro-corrugation on both blades. This micro corrugated surface is created by using a coarse cutting abrasive on the sharpening wheel(250 to 500 grit) with out taking it to a polished surface beyond that point. This causes slight grooves in the blade or blades that won’t allow the hair or hairs to slip out of the blade while the moving blade is lopping the hair. The Japanese blade is ground on the outside of the blade in a full convex and has a rounded and smooth outside of the blade. Also, different from the German style the hollow ground on this blade is created with about a 9 inch cutting wheel so it makes this concave hollow ground more of an acute radius.Japanese blades are also sharpened to a different angle typically 45-60 degrees. And are polished up to 1200-1500 grit and then more so with a jewelers rouge. A barber style scissor will cut a blunt cut the best and a Japanese shear will slide cut best. Thinning and texturizing shears can be either of both styles. I love the hair industry and I wanted to now all I can about our trade. After being a cosmetologist for 23 years, I went back to school for barbering in 2017. I now enjoy doing women’s color using exclusively Goldwell topchic and colorance hair color I still enjoy coloring and cutting women’s hair along with men’s cuts and shaves. On the side I still sharpen but usually I try to get the local cosmetologist and Barbers to bring their scissors to my shop. Thank for reading. Scott. 😎
