Thread: A set of tailors shears I had kicking around

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Many years ago, I used to make my own clothes on an old treadle machine. Now I have the professional shears maybe I should revisit that. Ya, na.

Na, yeah, do it!

Quite a few years ago I got interested in tailoring and made a few jackets among other things. Thing was it was mostly hand work and what needed sewing was quite easily done on a treadle machine. I got rid of my mother's treadle machine when she passed away and always sort of regretted it. These days I still enjoy make an occasional shirt or repairing something and just use my wife's machine.

Love the shears! I think they would also work pretty well for cutting felt linings for boxes.... more honourable for them than wrapping paper.

Fantastic looking shears, I vaguely remember my mother who wasn’t a professional seamstress but apparently was very good, numerous wedding dresses numerous frilly curtain thingys an numerous kid’s clothing, but I still got stuck with iron on patches on my trousers knee’s [emoji849].

But I remember her voice echoing through the house “Don’t you dare use my good scissors on paper”, it was something to do with paper blunting a good pair of scissors??

Mums still got them an they look just like yours.

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

Na, yeah, do it!

Quite a few years ago I got interested in tailoring and made a few jackets among other things. Thing was it was mostly hand work and what needed sewing was quite easily done on a treadle machine. I got rid of my mother's treadle machine when she passed away and always sort of regretted it. These days I still enjoy make an occasional shirt or repairing something and just use my wife's machine.

Love the shears! I think they would also work pretty well for cutting felt linings for boxes.... more honourable for them than wrapping paper.

Most of what I made centred around my obsession with river fishing. Made my vest, my hiking shorts and a few shirts out of some heavy-duty canvas. Could never have enough pockets LOL.

Sadly, one of the things caught up in my Swedish death cleaning was the ol sewing machine. It was a Singer from the Early 1920s made in Eastern Canada that my mom had. When she died, I got it and dragged it all the way to Australia 20 years ago, but rarely used it. It sat rusting so I sold it on to someone that would at least use it or restore it. Apparently, they go for a lot of money in the big smoke when tarted up.

Ya, I should avoid paper. Not good for keeping good shears/scissors sharp. Same reason why you shouldn't wipe glasses with paper towel to toilet paper. The paper has grit trapped in it.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Fantastic looking shears, I vaguely remember my mother who wasn’t a professional seamstress but apparently was very good, numerous wedding dresses numerous frilly curtain thingys an numerous kid’s clothing, but I still got stuck with iron on patches on my trousers knee’s [emoji849].

But I remember her voice echoing through the house “Don’t you dare use my good scissors on paper”, it was something to do with paper blunting a good pair of scissors??

Mums still got them an they look just like yours.

Cheers Matt.

Maybe they're Browns also...

In my exploration of the shears I saw a couple vids of some numb nuts "restoring" a pair. Clearly, they were click bait vids because these muppets had no idea what they were doing. They honed flat the inside of the blades, essentially wrecking them. Very much a shame to see people do that.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Maybe they're Browns also...

In my exploration of the shears I saw a couple vids of some numb nuts "restoring" a pair. Clearly, they were click bait vids because these muppets had no idea what they were doing. They honed flat the inside of the blades, essentially wrecking them. Very much a shame to see people do that.

Mr Ian,W
Made mention in some other thread, that he sharpened a pair of scissors for the better half, as any woodworker would, because we know best [emoji849],only too find they were actually too sharp, and fabric scissors need a bit of tooth too the edge, I think my mother would have not know that,(She unfortunately is the type that knows everything but unfortunately nothing)but just knew not to let them cut paper, is paper too abrasive??

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Mr Ian,W
Made mention in some other thread, that he sharpened a pair of scissors for the better half, as any woodworker would, because we know best [emoji849],only too find they were actually too sharp, and fabric scissors need a bit of tooth too the edge, I think my mother would have not know that,(She unfortunately is the type that knows everything but unfortunately nothing)but just knew not to let them cut paper, is paper too abrasive??

Cheers Matt.

A good set of scissors or shears are concave in their length and width, on the inside face. Hone that out of them, even to a small degree, and they won't cut easily, if at all in the material they were intended for (not paper). You actually sharpen the top of the blade as opposed to the inside face - if that makes sense. I use a fine diamond plate to touch them up, and only sparingly.

And one has to be very careful with tensioning them up. Too much will ruin them. Better to error on the side of too loose than too tight.

I scored a pair of Wiss for $2 from a thrift shop about ten years back.
I was doing a fair bit of auto body panel shaping and the guys at Motorretro had similar for cutting card templates or layovers to work out where shrinking and stretching was needed.
These live in my front tool cupboard and are in frequent use but rarely for fabric.
My wife uses Singer and Mondial and would kill me if I cut paper with them.
I have picked her up a pair of Wiss, W Marples and another pair whose maker I can’t recognise, these are sad and neglected but the Wiss are still sharp. Just cut some paper with them to test them.
H.

Originally Posted by clear out

I scored a pair of Wiss for $2 from a thrift shop about ten years back.
I was doing a fair bit of auto body panel shaping and the guys at Motorretro had similar for cutting card templates or layovers to work out where shrinking and stretching was needed.
These live in my front tool cupboard and are in frequent use but rarely for fabric.
My wife uses Singer and Mondial and would kill me if I cut paper with them.
I have picked her up a pair of Wiss, W Marples and another pair whose maker I can’t recognise, these are sad and neglected but the Wiss are still sharp. Just cut some paper with them to test them.
H.

Those Wiss are definitely worth restoration. Be a shame really not to