8.25″ Dressmaker shears (Left-handed)

The arrangement of right-handed and left-handed scissors’ blades takes into account the mechanics of the hand’s grip to optimize cutting and allow the user to see what they’re cutting clearly. When you use a pair of scissors, as well as a vertical motion your hand creates a lateral squeeze, with the thumb pushing slightly away from the palm. Right-handed scissors are engineered to harness this motion to push the blades together, but when used in the left hand, the blades are pushed apart. To create the same effect, left-handed scissors are a mirror image of right-handed ones.

WE’LL PUT IN SOME EXTRA WORK

Once scissors have been forged and hardened, the surface of the handles is very rough, with burrs and scales. To make scissors pleasant to hold when in constant use, and as thumb and forefinger produce pressure for cutting, scissor handles require special processing.

Very often, the burrs are simply covered with a thick layer of paint. This process inadequately tries to avoid an old but very elaborate technique, namely that of flexible grinding which is the basic requirement for really smooth handles. In flexible grinding, scissor handles are precision-ground with the help of a large number of grinding discs and belts, differing in shape, hardness and grinding agent. Different tools are required for the various curves in the scissors’ handles. The insides of the handles are processed by stringing them on a grinding belt. Then the belt is placed on a moving roller and the handles are processed by being turned and guided.

This is a technique requiring great skill and experience and used to be an accepted part of processing scissors of professional quality. Right up until the Seventies, flexible grinding was a skilled occupation in Britain. Our craftsmen still use this technique to deliver the best possible scissors and shears.