I messed up some scissors
If you have read my scissor choice article you will of seen the convex and semi-convex scissors are very similar.
Now lets look at a nice set of fully convex scissors glinting in the sunlight
See the sun glinting off that razor sharp fully convex edge which is just waiting to give an awesome haircut in the hands of a decent hairdresser
Lovely isn’t it.
Lets have a look at the other blade
yep it looks identical
I’m really proud of my work
Let move it around in the sunlight to see my handy work.
Mmmm whats that dark spot in the middle of the blade?
Probably nothing
See the sun is glinting off the blade again. It must be perfect
If you have been paying attention to the scissor choice article you will also note that convex and semi convex scissors have a very different way of sharpening them. A fully convex scissor needs to be sharpened on a flat hone such as the Adems full drive or the hira-to. Where as the semi convex can be sharpened on the TAS which is a much simpler and cheaper machine. The process of sharpening on the TAS is also easier and quicker.
Consider the fact that it is difficult to spot the difference between a fully convex and a semi convex scissor then we have a nice little corner for unscruplous to hide in.
As it is quite easy to take a fully convex scissor and quickly turn it into a semi convex.
You will see it in the top secret sharpeners secret network pictures where this has been done.
I could show them to you but not only would this mean a strange man from Portugal would hunt me down but also unless you know what you are looking for then you would have no idea what you are looking at.
Hopefully you will of spotted in the last two pictures above that something odd is going on.
What I have done is to take an old pair of convex scissors and I have put a small bevel slap bang in the middle of one of the blades.
Lets break out my macro and have a closer look.
The left of this picture is semi convex, the right hand side of this picture is fully convex.
How does this effect you as a hairdresser/groomer?
Firstly learn what your scissors are and pay attention to the edge so if someone pulls a fast one you know what they have done.
Secondly ask a sharpener what they use for sharpening scissors. If they have pride in what they do then they will have no problem in telling you. However alot of sharpeners are ex-engineers so they might tell you in too much detail. Most of us know when to stop. “MOST of us”
If this has been done to your scissors then it probably isn’t the end of the world. If it is a small and descret micro-bevel then a wee bit more time on the flat hone can get them back to fully convex. Or like a customer I had last week I showed them a very similar scissor I had in the kanpeki blackbird range which was made as a semi-convex with a serration. They liked it and as they were a groomer it was more suited to grooming so instead of reverting to fully convex I went the other way and put in some serrations using the Corru-gator.
While I can repair these scissors I might not so I can use them for showing people.
And finally
This is a macro shot of the fully convex blade where you will see there is no flat spots.