Kirk Eppler wrote:

"Tom Conroy has written up something a few times.
http://www.swingleydev.com/ot/get/217759/thread/
http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/252798/thread/#252798
http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/252803/thread/#252803

He also recommends a book called Scissors Sam Says Be Sharp, which is
stupid pricey online right now....
Paul Sellers has put together a YouTube thing, as someone else recommendedhere.
http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/252813/thread/#252813"


Thanks for posting these, Kirk, since it means I don't have to write it all
over. I had forgotten my eulogy of Scissors Sam, and was pleased to find I'd
done a pretty good piece of writing there.
I have one point of disagreement with Paul Sellars---well, I'll put it stronger,
Paul is dead wrong in one point: he flattens the inside of the scissors on a
flat stone. JeffGorman, in one of the old emails, said to do this too. Maybe
English shears are different, have a different blade geometry, and are actually
flat on the insides. But good American shears are curved in both directions,
hollow-ground across the blades and bowed along the blades. You can see the
bowing by closing the blades and looking between them: the are in contact at
only one point, the tip when they are closed. When fully open they are in
contact only right next to the handle. As you close the scissors that single
point of contact will move alongl so all the pressure of cutting is focused just
where the cut is happening. If you flatten the blades out you ruin the blade
geometry and the cut cannot happen properly. Maybe you can get away with lightly
stoning the flats of the blades once or twice, but pretty soon you will ruin a
good pair if you do this. When I have to clean heavy rust off the insides of the
blades, I do it with emery cloth over a findertip to give a bilatterally convex
sanding pad, and I'm careful to stay well away from the edge. Rust near the edge
will come off on the paper you use for doing test cuts. Don't worry about the
burr: take it off by closing the scissors on air a few times, and then cutting a
few pieces of paper.
Tom ConroyBerkeley