Phil Schempf wrote:

>Oh yes, I will give them a shot.  I just plan to use them around the shop.  I'm
a little concerned about the amount of rust on the inside faces of the blades,
but looking at the edges, I think they are meeting well along most of their
length.<

I've cleaned more damned rust off the insides of scissors blades... I seem to
have an eye for fine scissors under a layer of red rust. I used to do the whole
process with emery cloth and a little bit of oil, being careful no to change the
blade geometry in the cleaning process. That's the problem with sharpening on
the flat, you change the blade geometry. The oil keeps the rust from going up
into the air and getting the whole room dirty; it makes your hands dirtier, but
I find the trade-off reasonable. For oil I like using Liquid Wrench because it
evaporates in a day or two, and when it evaporates any remaining red rust goes
back to red colored, so that it is easy to see if the job isn't yet done. The
area near the screw, sort of half under the other blade, is the most tedious,
but it needn't be perfect and it gets done well enough with patience.
At this point I do the heavy lifting with citric acid, get rid of most of the
rust that way. But citric won't clear out a pit or remove a proud lump of
corrosion (sort of the same thing, those two) and if you persist with citric you
pit the whole blade lightly. So in the end there is often a bit of cleaning to
do with emery cloth anyway.

Virtually all the good scissors I come across have the rivet peaned over in the
factory. In cases where the blades can be unscrewed, it is often clear that they
were already un-peaned by a previous owner. I prefer not to monkey with it
unless there is really something wrong with the fit. Scissors Sam has guidance
for when the screw is too loose, and for other situations like tips of the
blades not meeting and blades bent incorrectly and so on. (On good pairs the
blades are supposed to be curved inwards a bit, which is a problem if you try to
flatten the "flats" of the blades with stones).

But all of that is cleaning and repair, not sharpening.


I have a drawer full of scissors, overfull, but I can't seem to resist buying
them and bringing them home if they are in bad condition. Then its lie waking up
with a hangover: "Whyever did I do that yesterday?" and a lot more oil and rust
on my hands. My latest pair, early Wiss from before WWI, is too hard for a file
and has a section of an inch or two in the center that won't cut cleanly, and I
can' figure out why. They sit there sneering at me. Bah, humbug (got a few of
those left over from last month).

Tom Conroy
venting