Where to Get Scissors Sharpened in DFW

Somewhere in your kitchen there is a drawer, and in that drawer there are scissors.

Not good scissors. The other ones. The ones with tape residue on the blades that fold a sheet of paper instead of cutting it, that everyone in the house has silently agreed to be disappointed by for six years.

Here's the good news: almost all of them can be fixed. Scissors are not disposable, they're just neglected.

Scissors don't go dull the way knives do

A knife has one edge, and it gets dull when that edge wears out. Simple.

A pair of scissors has two edges that have to meet each other at exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, all the way from the pivot to the tip. It's less like a blade and more like a very small, very grumpy marriage.

A lot of "dull" scissors aren't dull. The pivot screw is loose.

When the screw backs off, the blades drift apart and the paper slides into the gap instead of getting cut. You can have two perfectly sharp blades and a pair of scissors that does nothing but crease things.

The 10-second test

Take a sheet of printer paper. Open the scissors wide, start the cut right at the pivot, and close them in one smooth motion all the way to the tip.

• Clean all the way through: nothing wrong with them. Go cut something.
• Clean at the pivot, folds near the tip: the edges are worn. That's a real sharpening.
• Folds the whole way, or they feel floppy: start with the screw.
• They cut, but they crunch and grind: the blades are rubbing too hard. Also fixable.

What we sharpen

Kitchen shears, poultry shears, herb shears and household scissors, including the craft and sewing kind. The ones that cut herbs, open packaging, spatchcock a chicken, trim parchment and generally live a hard life.

Take-apart kitchen shears, the kind that unhinge into two halves, are the easiest thing we do all day. If yours come apart, bring them apart.

What we don't sharpen, and why that's a compliment

We don't touch barber shears, salon shears or pet-grooming shears.

Those aren't scissors that happen to be expensive. They're a different tool: ground convex, polished, tensioned, and set up for one person's hand and one cutting style. Put a pair of $400 salon shears on the wrong wheel and you don't dull them, you end them.

There are people who do nothing but shears, and they're worth finding. We'd rather send you to one than guess with your livelihood.

How to keep kitchen scissors alive

• Stop cutting tape, cardboard and wire with them. Yes, you. We saw.
• Dry them after washing. Water sits in the pivot and rust locks it up.
• No dishwasher. Same reason as knives: heat, rattling, and other metal.
• Check the screw twice a year. It takes four seconds and solves half of all scissor complaints.
• Don't cut hair with the kitchen pair. It's bad for the scissors. It's worse for the hair.

Where to bring them in DFW

Three ways, all of them easy:

1. Drop off at our Flower Mound shop, 2809 Justin Rd, Unit A/B, Flower Mound, TX 75028, Monday to Friday, 7 to 4. In before noon is usually same day. More on turnaround.
2. Add them to an at-home visit ($35 trip plus $8 a knife) and they ride along with your knives.
3. Restaurants: hand them over on your weekly route stop. Every kitchen we visit has at least one pair of shears that gave up months ago.

Scissors are quoted rather than listed, because a take-apart kitchen shear and a seized-up pair of garden-adjacent mystery scissors are not the same job. Call or text (214) 701-5564 and we'll tell you straight.

Full details on the scissor sharpening page.

Restaurants: get startedHome cooks: book sharpening