Tim Lau Visit

We had a visit from the famous Tim Lau. Tim is a sharpener in Wisconsin and a former emplyee of Bonika Shears. He always comes by for a visit when he comes to Georgia to see his family. We put Tim to work while he was here. He sharpened a left handed shear for us, cut the hair of the grandaughters, went with us to have their birthday pictures taken and combed their hair between photo shots and quieted a crying baby Brooke. It was good to see you Tim. We also use him to bounce business ideas off because of his knowledge of hair cutting. Tim won't make the Sharpener's Jam this year, but maybe next. You may remember Tim as the guy on the Sharpening 101 video with the optivisor.

Here's a picture of Tim cutting Autumn's hair in the stock room. Autumn is Mystie and Jay's oldest child. Look at the evil look on her face. This is the same look you would get from Mystie when customers are late paying. Be glad we don't have camera phones!

June Newsletter

We are mailing the newest newsletter. For those who did not get it, and for those who want a jump on the mail, this is the content of the newsletter.

Note: These prices are for our sharpeners / distributors. They are not for hair stylists unless they are selling our shears. If you are a stylist and wish to become a sharpener / distributor, please contact us. Prices subject to change without notice.

• Congratulations to Mystie & Jay Hunter on the birth of their new daughter, Brooke Anslee Hunter April 21, 2008. 8lbs
  She is fine, healthy, beautiful and sleeps through the night.
• Sharpeners Jam. See all the details at www.sharpenersjam.com Let us know if you are coming. BOOK YOUR ROOM EARLY! Call 770-476-2022 or 1-800-HOLIDAY and tell them you are with the Bonika Shears Sharpener's Seminar. The room rates are $79.00 per night. This is the only charge unless you are taking one of the small clinic classes. Currently there is room in all the classes, but register now because they filled up last year.
• New Shear ... Twister Sister
  Forged, quality Japanese steel with smooth rotating thumb and finger. This is an extremely comfortable shear and is ideal for point cutting, slithering and more. It will be debuted at the Premiere Orlando Show this year. Comes in 5”, 5.5” and 6” MSRP $410.00, Sale Price $329.00 Wholesale $165.00.
• International Lefty This is the same style with butterfly even handles as the old International Lefty with a couple of changes, the screw mechanism is still gold, but an improved style, the shear is cast 440C Japanese steel , it comes in 2 sizes now and the price dropped. 5.5” and 6.”, MSRP $249.00, Sale Price $199.00 Wholesale $99.50 (No price change on other International models)
• Shoto Thinner Due to the success of the Shoto, we now have a matching thinning shear. Limited number in stock. MSRP $1199.00 Sale $899.00 Wholesale $449.00
• BabylissPro Specials
  · Buy the most popular Nano Titanium Medium Iron and get the Forfex 653 Cordless Clipper Free. 6/box. $71.50 each.
  · Vacation Time! Babyliss Ceramic Travel Dryer Folds for storage. $11.00 each 6/box
  · NEW! BabylissPro 6” mini ceramic flat iron. Heats to 420◦ Only 1/2” wide, gets close to the scalp. #CT3050 Salon Price $29.99, Wholesale $16.50 each. 6 /box.
• Josh Freund of Chicago calls on a lot of nail salons. He gave us two tips. The nail nippers on closeout he found to be of a good quality but he was most impressed with the price. He says he buys them to sell as nippers or to use the parts if needed since the nippers cost the same as the springs alone. He also found the manicurists like the Sumo Shear Oil for cuticles. The Camilla Oil in our containers is pure enough to use on the skin and those in the know realize this oil packaged for skin care can cost many times more. Next time you use this oil, swipe some on your nail beds for smoother, healthier cuticles!
• Specials, New Items, Changes and Discontinued
  NEW! SUMO SHEAR OIL MSRP $5.00, Sale price $4.00. Wholesale $2.00each or 12 for $18.00.
  New! Nail Nipper Closeout Second quality, would have sold for $30.00 retail. $2.00 ea or 24 for $36.00
  NEW! Lefty Silk Twister with blue screw hardware 5 3/4” length #TW575J MSRP $250.00 Sale $199.00 Wholesale $99.50.
  Nika Shears NKLB45, NKLB5, NKLB55, NKLBT These are the only Nika Models 440C SUS Japanese steel, MSRP $122.00 Sale $98.00
  Discontinued Shears NK5, NK5.75, NKe5, NKe6, NKeL5, NKeL6, NK55.
  New EDT Scissors for Carpal Tunnel MSRP $400.00, Sale price $319.00 Wholesale $200.00. No discounts.
  Discontinued All International Twisters. All Prisms. We still have a supply but when they are gone, they are gone.
  Coming Soon! 25 Tooth Texturizer like the T14 Wisper and T7 Chopper. Super smooth and nice. Wholesale $99.00
  Shoto Special Orders. If your customer wants them, you can special order Shoto Lefty and Shoto Fishbone. Ask for payment in advance and tell them the wait may be several months since they are custom made.
  Change. Some Silk Twisters and Curve Shears have the beautiful blue hardware. All will be blue in the future.
  Change. The Cutlass Razor has been renamed the Silver Sword. Some stylists thought “Cutlass” meant it didn’t cut.
• New
  
  updated Nickel Brochure. We update this one every couple of months. At a nickel each you can afford to leave one behind with every customer. Slap your label over our company information for your own brochure. Order in quantities, we’ll print more!
  
  
  Reminder: Mail in your Shoto entries by July 1! Drawing will be at the Jam session. If your customer’s name is drawn and you are present, you will win a Shoto, too. If Gene Megowan’s customer is drawn he plans to donate his Shoto back to a second drawing among Bonika distributors present at the Jam session. So send in your entries and don’t miss the Sharpener's Jam!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

New Nickel Brochure

Just arrived! Our new nickel brochure is hot off the press. This brochure is available in quantities for just a nickel each. It shows the suggested retail and the sale price of our shears and razors. These are updated about every 2 months.

The pictures are small. If you want larger pictures and more details get the catalog on CD. You can view it on your computer or print out the pages and make a full catalog. This CD has our other products as well including combs, cases and cosmetology supplies.

Shoto Sold at a Hair Cuttery

Jay Hunter, scissor sharpener and son-in-law extraordinaire sold a Shoto in a Hair Cuttey today. Way to go Jay! The customer asked what they would win if their name was drawn for the free Shoto at the Sharpener's Jam in July. I told him to tell her we would give her one of the new Shoto Thinners.

True Damascus Steel

At the recent IBS Show a sharpener picked up our Shoto Shear and accused us that ours was not true Damascus steel. He gave two reasons, one our price was too low (I can't explain that away .. we simple don't over price our shears) and the other that the grain lines did not show up on the inside blade. Since I am not a metallurgist, I could not answer him but I put the question to the factory and got a reply today. This is the explanation:

We imported the Damascus Steel exclusively from the same Japanese factory as Matsusaki in Japan. Matsusaki was the first company to use V 10 Damascus Steel on hair scissors. Today, there are some companies that use "laser engraving" and "chemical erodent" techniques to imitate the effect of the texture of Damascus Steel. These techniques actually will make the texture come out even more in the inner blade. They also call it "Damascus Steel," but it is absolutely not true Damascus Steel at all.
Our V 10 Damascus Steel has 15 layers, which combine hard and soft steel. So the first layer is hard, second is soft, and so on. In addition, you can see the texture on the side of the blade, which runs through the entire blade--all the way to the tip. This is the distinguishing character and feature of using Damascus Steel on hair scissors.
We believe that someone familiar with the metal would recognize our Damascus Steel as genuine. Thus, we believe that the person at the hair show was not a professional in the metal.

I thought that was a good answer. The 15 layers of steel are folded on themselves thus created the thousands of layers found in the V10 Damascus Steel. If you get one of these to sharpen, you may want to send it back to us because of the high cost and risk. However, if you do sharpen it, use a 50 to 55 degree angle and a 15 micron. Take it slow and don;t remove more steel than necessary. Generally these shears just need a light honing to bring back the sharpness. We have not yet seen one seriously nicked. The screw is tough. Although our UFO tool will work on it, because of the precise fit of the screw it is best to use a modified spanner bit on a strong screw driver to put the screw in.

Unusual screws seen at IBS

I took photos of two unusual screws at the recent IBS and thought I'd share them.






This is a Rusk Beta Blade. The top screw looks like a regular screw and the back looks like a UFO screw. Take this apart by using the Wolff Scissor Pliers with a regular bit then come up through the hole in the bottom with a spanner bit on a screwdriver.







This is the Spring Hopper. Remove the screw to reveal a spring washer. Once apart you will see the spring in the recess. This spring will pop off and fly across the room if you are not careful. This is easy to assemble and take apart as long as you put the spring back where it came from.

Special thanks to Ted Powell of Guin, AL in discovering these shears among his sharpening at the New York IBS show.

Letter Sent to a Pastor from a Sharpener

I wanted to share a letter that was emailed to me by Greg M. a new sharpener. I asked him if we could share it and he replied:



I'm glad my letter touched you. Feel free to share it with others as a testiment to the power of God and how he is willing to move heaven and earth when we follow his plan for us. In this case it seems the blessing was spread across three states. MI, GA, and CO. How great it is that your business brought all of us together across so many miles. Thank you, Greg



Here is Greg's letter to Pastor Charles Stanley of First Baptist Church here in Atlanta:

Dear Pastor Stanley,

I want to thank you and to share Gods works through your ministry, in my life.I recently rededicated my life to God, as a result of things going so wrong and coming to the realization at the advice of my family doctor to turn it over to God. I live in Michigan and was desperate for a job. The stress was overwhelming at times. I had lost my job as a Sheriff’s Deputy (That I loved). I have 3 little children and needed something to support them, and supplement my wife's income. I was looking through a dog grooming magazine, and saw an ad for scissor sharpening as a home based business. Now I have never given any thought to this as a career, hobby, or anything else. I had even seen that add a couple of times as I flipped through that magazine at different times over the last couple of months since getting it. (This time was different. I had recently rededicated my life to the God, and was gaining strength in him through your on line ministry.) I called the number on the ad, and found that this person was not someone I wanted to invest money with. Further research led me to a company called Bonika Shears from Duluth, GA. They are a Christian family that make shears and equipment to sharpen them. I felt God was leading me to them. We spoke several times on the phone about the prospect of me starting a business as a sharpener and taking training with them. But how would I raise the almost $5000.00 I needed. Well I left it to God and drew patients from Mathew 6:25 - 34, and Mathew 7:7. As it turned out our tax refund worked out to be enough to cover the expense, Praise God! Well we finally received my W-2 from the Sheriff’s Department, and we went up a tax bracket once again putting the goal out of reach. I continued to pray, and give thanks to God for his continued grace and giving me peace, as I knew he would provide a lamb, if I was truly following his will for me. Would you know that around a week later I got a call from a Police Officer in Colorado who was running a sharpening business, because he could no longer be an officer due to the fact that he had been shot in the line of duty and was paralyzed from the chest down. Toby (the officer) had the machine and equipment I needed to start my business, and needed to sell it because his hands are getting bad from wheeling himself in his wheel chair. Here is where the true Grace of God comes into play. The price for this used equipment was exactly what I needed for me to faithfully pursue my goal of starting a business. The cost of the used equipment, the trip to Duluth, Ga, the training, and the start up inventory all equaled exactly what I had to invest through that now lower tax refund. Praise God! I was getting a new start, and giving Toby a break at the same time. God blessed both of us at once, and allowed us to come together through Bonika Shears.I went to GA, and took my training with that wonderful family and had hoped to come to see you preach while I was down there. As it turned out, I did not make it to your church as a matter of timing and expense of the extra night in a motel, but I did ask God to continue to bless you as you continue in your wonderful life changing work. I feel so blessed as a result of your ministry and that great advice from my doctor to give it all to the lord. We have a truly wonderful Lord.My business is growing slowly, but has been a very positive experience. I am excitedly looking forward to my future being led by God.Incidentally I listened to your sermon about your grandfather today. The part about seeing the falling stars as a sign from God to lead him and yourself, prompted me to want to share my story too. Your preaching has been a major contributing factor to saving me, and helping me to deliver myself to God.Thank you,Your friend and brother in Christ,Greg M.

Shoto Thinner

Just came in yesterday, the NEW Shoto thinning shear. If a stylist has the money and the appreciation for perfection that they own the Shoto Damascus Steel shear, they will most likely want the thinning shear, too. We've been waiting about 5 months to get this shear in. The process for making these shears is so slow and painstaking that there is often a wait. We can also special order a lefty and a Fishbone in the Shoto Damascus Steel style.

IBS New York

The New York show is behind us. It is one of the shows we must be at and have a presence but everything is twice as expensive as other shows except the New York City Hot Dogs which are expensive. Many thanks to Ed Wozniak who ran our other booth and his duaghter Robin. Also to Ted Powell who sharpened for us. He broke the record for the number of shears sharpened at at New York show and that was with a 20% price increase! No one complained about the price. Also kudos to Sheila Tate who helped at our booth. It is great to have such a knowledgeable Barber -stylist to work with us. Also to Chuck Chivaras who worked tirelessly demonstrating his new EDT Scissors for carpal tunnel syndrome. Also, Leah Watson's class on Crop Circles. As usually she had rave revues. She taught an energetic class even though she had just had a stroke and was supposed to be on complete bedrest. Now that we are back we had two days to catch up then I am training today a sharpener from Mobile, Al and on Monday a sharpener frm Louisville will be staying a week with us. My goals this week is to get the list of helpers finalized for the Premiere Show. Ed Wozniak is currently at the International Hair Show in Secaucus, NJ. We expect great sales since Nikita Smith will be demonstraing the shears in her classroom and also this is the home of Yancy Edwards. We sold several shears in New York just from the recommendation of Yancy. All his DVD's promote our shears just because he likes our shear and us. sort of gives us the warm fuzzies since we are not big and wealthy enough to pay a corral of platform artists like our competitors.

We got a wonderful letter form a recent trainee that was addressed to Charles Stanley how we changed his life. If he gives me permission I will post it in my next blog.

Saw a couple of new scissor screws at the last show. I hope to get those ready for the next blog.