How to Sharpen a “K” Blade Scissor

What is a “K Blade” Scissor? One blade is curved making the open shear look roughly like a “K”, According to Joewell, who makes most of these, this blade creates a better cutting angle for consistent cutting through the entire shear. The popular seems to be in the small 4.5” or 5” variety. They have been around a long time and are usually owned by older stylists. Sometimes you will find a shear like this that is quite old.

Early in my career, I encountered these shears and after messing a few up, I can offer some advice based on my opinion and experience. There are four caution signs I want to put up for you when sharpening these shears. Beware.

Caution One: The curve blade. The “K” blade on the Joewell K blade shear is the most obvious difference. The caution is, DO NOT THINK OF THE BLADE AS CURVED. If you think curve, your tendency will be to lift the back up too high when sharpening and remove too much metal at the tip. This will cause the tips to not meet. Instead, think of the blade as “L” shaped. Work the back part of the blade and the front part of the blade and blend the two straight sections together at the middle.

Caution Two: The screw. For some reason the screws on the shears seem to have more problems. Check the screw and be sure you can set the tension before you sharpen them. If you can’t get the tension right, there is no need to sharpen them.

Caution Three: The ride. The inside hollow is very shallow with a ride that tends to widen very fast. If I work the ride at all, I work it very gently being careful not to strip or wipe out the tip. A blunter edge around 35 or 40 degrees works best rather than one that is too sharp. Even though the Joewell website calls this a “convex” edge, I usually sharpen it as a bevel or semi-convex but often with a cushion plate instead of a flat plate. This is based on experience, not any technical knowledge. This is the only beauty shear that I will sometimes sharpen the “K” blade blunter, maybe 35 degrees, and the straight blade sharpener at a 40 degree. Ask the customer what type of cutting they do. If they don’t expect these to slight cut, low angles work well. Try to get away with cutting off your bur without working the inside. This will protect you from problems with the screw and wiping out the tip. Remember less is often more when sharpening this tiny delicate shear.

Caution Four: Previous sharpening. Since these are difficult shears to sharpen, you will often find them messed up by a previous sharpener. Be prepared to walk away from any work you don’t feel comfortable doing. I have found these tiny blades and skinny handle shanks are easy to snap if you are trying to put bend them. If I want them to try a different and easier to sharpen shear I will often put our Bonika Baby A45 in their hands. These can be sharpened at a sharper degree than the K blade and function well for those who like the Joewell K Shear.

If any of you have some additional suggestions on the “K” blade, email us so I can share it on our blog or Facebook. There are other brands of shears with similar blade configurations and the cautions seem to be the same on those as well.

A New Method of Sharpening

I wanted to share with all you Scimech Shear Sharpeners who sharpen on the side a new grip on the Scimech clamp.... it's the Johnny Cash Grip.

We came up with this name not because the hold is as bright and simple as music in the country, but because a new sharpener named Johnny Cash cam up with this hand positioning.

When Johnny came for sharpening training, yes I admit, I was perturbed that he had not watched my fabulous collection of DVD's. He tested out as I expected as a hands-on learner so I let him jump right into sharpening rather than demonstrating. He grabbed the Scimech, repositioned it and came up with this hand positioning. (See the new position followed by the old position)

The Johnny Cash grip takes care of the one drawback of side sharpening over upright sharpening. Side sharpening can be slower because it is harder to see the burr come up on the edge. When positioned like the picture and the light is brought down close to the wheel, it is easy to see the nicks disappear and the burr come up speeding up sharpening. I tried this grip at the Bronner Show. With my arthritic hands, I found this position not only easy on my hands but a faster method. I normally don't sharpen at shows because the arthritis in my thumbs slows me down. I was able to easily keep up with the steady sharpening. I had to modify Johnny's grip. My left hand also held the clamp rather than the arm as in the photo but having the plate at nearly right angles to my body was an advantage. One hint, don't sit directly down wind of the wheel unless you want to get dirty. I was dressed up for stage work and stayed relatively clean during my work. I also used a color stain remover from the beauty supply to quickly clean my hands without a trip to the sink. James Lanier uses a pink scented alcohol he buys at Sally to clean his shears and his hands. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to.

It was so nice to have so many Bonika Shears to sharpen at the show. At least 1/2 of the shears we sharpened at the show were Bonika. Bob and Jim sharpened about 4 each and I did the rest. Hardest to sharpen? The Bonika Baby. The blade is so tiny and must be sharp enough for slithering on dry hair, but they must be strong for cutting on dry hair. We didn't sell too many of these because they are out of stock until next week and we didn't promote them. However, I think all the platform artists at the Bronner Show had these shears.