Meet Lisa Johnson, Sharpener from Charleston, SC

Lisa Johnson is the owner of Diamond Cut Sharpening, LLC in Moncks Corner, SC, just outside Charleston, SC. We wanted to feature Lisa this week because she distinguished herself at the International Salon and Spa Expo in Long Beach, CA sharpening shears for the stylists and platform artists who attended the show.

Although Lisa has only been sharpening for a short period of time her dedication to constant improvement, her innate abilities and her hard work ethic has brought about a successful business in a short period of time. She know sharpens for well known hair artists such as Frances London Dubose of Charleston, SC and Ray Parker of Hollywood, CA.

Lisa sells Bonika shears as well as combs, dryers and irons. She was trained by Bonnie Megowan with advanced training as well and uses the Scimech Scissor flathone, Twice as Sharp and the Extreme Cut equipment for sharpening. She sharpens beauty shears, barber scissors, industrial scissors, groomer scissors, knives and clipper blades.

Contact information if you are in the Charleston area and need sharpening is 843-509-7263

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.

Sharpen Faster and Easier DVD

The newest sharpening DVD is ready to ship. I have shot and edited a lot of training DVD's but I think this is the best for content and clarity. This would be helpful for any shear sharpener, but especially for those on the Scimech. Even if you are a seasoned veteran sharpener, you will learn something from this video because it is a compilation of sharpening knowledge I have gleaned over the years from actual sharpeners in the field to improve and speed up their work. I would highly recommend it. Below is a clip I uploaded to the web. Of course your DVD copy will be much higher resolution.

Expo Latino

Gene and I just finished the Expo Latino show in Long Beach, CA. Sheila Tate of "Cutting Cross Cultures" taught a class called "Cutting Cross Cultures." We were told it was one of the better attended classes.

This was a party group. Most attendee were more interested in buying cosmetics and spa items than shears. Most of our shear sales were to platform artists. I sharpened about a dozen shearrs. There were other sharpeners at the show, but I was the most expensive at $30.00. One shear I sharpened was the infamous original Vortex. The screw design on that shear makes it impossible, plus there were other design flaws. Fortunately I cn sharpen using the clamp on the Scimech without taking it apart and since the rideline looked good, that's what I did. I tightened the screw with an allen wrench on one side and a UFO tool on the other. It takes 3 hands. (Not really, but avoid this shear if at all possible.) I offered her a $50.00 trade-in on any shear so I could show this baby off to other sharpeners as a warning, but she wanted to keep her shear. I think hell for a shear sharpener would be sharpening this particular shear all day long, and only this shear.

I didn't mention our other adventures. Northwest Airlines sent one of our suitcases to Texas rather than California. This, after charging us $25.00 to ship our luggage. Then FedEx let us down, too and 3 of our displays were broken is shipping. So I don't know which is best for shipping to a hair show. Also, our bi-lingual model was not provided as promised. But, all in all, these were minor annoyances and our good surprises like friendly, helpful union workers at the convention center more than made up for the bad!

We were surprised how many people spoke English at this show and how many non-Latino's attended. Tomorrow we host our Sharp and Shop here at the Clarion in Carson. We expect a small group but are really looking forward to this. We may try to pull this together for future travels.

Photos from the show http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/ExpoLatino2008

Bronner Brothers Summer Hair Show 2008

We finshed the Bronner Brothers summer show last night at 7PM and was out of the show by 7:55PM a new record! The unions were more cooperative than usual and over all it was a great show for us. Busy enough to keep us from getting board and slow enough so we were not overwhelmed. Special thanks to those who worked the show with us this year. Of course Gene and me, Jay Hunter sharpening, Ron Ellis who held down our second booth, Carissa Roper employee extraordinare, Nicole, Tamara, Christine, Cathy and our two platform artists Sheila Tate and E. Hosea Hicks.

I was a little worried when we did not have the same booth location as last year and saw another scissor company was there. I was extremely upset to say the least then I remembered "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." I calmed down and reconciled myself to the less visible location. This new location proved to be the best of our two booths althouh less visible and further back. I heard from one of the employees at the other scissor company who had our old location and they said their sales were way down from last year and that's what they heard from other vendors as well. I said, truthfully, our sales were up. His reply was, "Well, of course, you are Bonika."

Saturday was exciting because Tornado warnings closed the World Congress Center and after a 12 hour day we had to stay on the floor an extra 30 minutes until they released us. Here are photos of attendees sitting on the floor waiting to leave.

Our hair cutting class was packed even though it was first thing on Monday morning. We had about 200 in attendance. E. Hosea Hicks from Columbus, GA was our guest instructor.

Tamara in the photo above who bought shears from us a while back gave them to another sharpener who happened to walk in her salon. He broke her shears and tried to give her something other than her Bonika to replace them. This is a lesson to stylists and to other sharpeners, this is what happens. She spotted the sharpener at the show and was able to persuade him to buy the replacement shears from us wholesale. I talked to him again about upgrading his equipment froma TAS to a Scimech but he said the problem was not his technique but blamed illness that day. Tamara had seen him bending the shears on a yellow block with slits when her shears broke. This sounds more like technique rather than illness. Please, any sharpeners reading this who suspect they do not have proper training or equipment get help somewhere. Don't put yourself and your clients through this.


Here is the link to all the Bronner photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/BronnerBrotherSSummer2008

Kuda Workshop Finale

Yesterday the Kuda Workshop wound up. We've already had phone calls from at least one sharpener we met at the workshop and set up some new distributors. Five sharpeners were certified on sharpening Bonika Shears. I'll have their names listed once released by Kuda.



I had a chance to look at the Kuda system and of course I think our Scimech is superior, I was impressed. Everyone who tried to certify sharpening Bonika Shears that used their system passed. I wished their clamp did a full convex rotation like our Scimech but I like the torsional compensation and the cool technological look. The Scimech is a little less complicated and the scissor twist has been addressed in the new method of sharpening I plan to demonstrate at the sharpeners Jam here in Atlanta in July. Our equipment is more ergonomic, especially for those with back or hand problems like arthritist or carpal tunnel. However, in the past I've often told people that if they did not buy the Scimech I would recommend Larry Brook's Hamurguri machine, but I think I will now include Len's Kuda equipment as well.



I was super impressed with Mike Borsch nipper sharpening machine. It is simple, but effective in correcting all type of nipper problems. We will be talking by phone tomorrow about including his machine as part of the equipment line we will be providing to sharpeners. We hope to have me thoroughly trained and ready to sell and train on the machine by the Sharpeners Jam. I was really impressed by Mike's nipper knowledge and plan to dive into his brain and be teach and communicate his knowledge to future nipper sharpeners. The equipment should run less than $1300.00. It would take a little over 200 nippers to pay for the machine at $6.00 each and about 160 at $8.00 each. That is not quite as good as our Scimech Scissor Flathone which breaks even at 116 shears at the going rate of $25.00 per pair sharpening, but if you sharpened 10 nippers per day the equipment would be paid for in just one month. It is also more portable, quieter and cleaner than clipper blade sharpening.

Video Clips and new shears

I've been busy adding video clips to the website and making website changes and improvements. See the clip on sharpening on the Scimech on our site. Also a hair cutting clip which shows the Bonika Baby and the T14 Wisper shear. Both are some of our most popular. I also added a package deal based on the shears we will sell at the IBS New York class with Leah Watson. Take a look at the package deal called Hair Cropper Set. Coming soon a thinning shear to match our Shoto Damascus Steel Samurai Shear our most expensive shear. Don't forget the Win a Shoto Contest. No baby yet. I'll be in training with a new sharpener from Virginia next week. We picked up a new sharpener in Isreal this week when one of our current sharpeners moved to the Holy Land. This gives us two sharpeners in Isreal with the Scimech. It would be great to go visit them if we get the time.