Sharpening Made Easy

Knife Sharpening Information and Equipment

Various scissor and shear sharpening bevel angles. This is the angle as measured by scissor sharpeners - children's paper scissors are 0; higher numbers are sharper. Knife and tool sharpeners measure from the flat or inside of the blade; lower numbers are sharper. To convert, subtract this angle from 90.

	Thumb*	Finger
Delica 3 1/2" blade desk scissors	40	40
DaVinci 2 1/2" blade	30	45
Wiss thread nippers	10	10
Wiss dressmaker	25	30
Clayton 7"	10	10
Kleencut	20	20
Japanese kitchen shears	35	40
Wusthof kitchen shears	25	35
Italian pinking shears	15	15
Fiskars dressmaker	30	30
Gingher "Knife Edge" dressmaker	15	45
Gingher thread snips	15	15
Gingher snips resharpened	35	35
Old Wiss pinking shears	15	15

For general use scissor blades and handles are often the same. On shears with identical handles but different blades, the thumb blade is defined as the one that is sharpened at the more obtuse angle. The thumb blade is sometimes serrated.

Some general angles by usage

USAGE	Angle
Children's safety scissors	0
Pinking shears	0 - 5
Cast Iron paper scissors	5 - 15
Bandage scissors	20
Grass and hedge trimmers	25
Embroidery, cuticle, nail scissors	25 - 30
Fabric, tailor and industrial shears 7" and longer	35 - 40
Knife edge finger blade (thumb blade is 15 - 20 degrees)	45 - 50

4/15/2008