How to Use a Hone to Sharpen Clipper Blades

Keep your scissors from dulling by sharpening them often.

Keeping your clipper blades sharpened is essential to cutting simple things--yarn, string, paper, etc.--properly. Most household clippers are used often but are not sharpened nearly enough to keep them from dulling. Instead of going out and purchasing a new pair of scissors, you can sharpen your clipper blades quickly and easily. Like steel hones used on kitchen knives, a smaller hone--often referred to as a "pen"--can be used on your clippers.

Things You'll Need

• Clipper or scissors
• Small steel hone

Instructions

1. Open the blades, holding them at the pivot in your non-dominant hand.

2. Notice the edge of the blades. Only one edge on a pair of clippers will be a cutting edge. This edge normally will have a slight angle to it. You will want to match that angle to properly sharpen the blade. Because there is only one cutting edge, only that edge needs to be sharpened.

3. Hold the small honing steel in your dominant hand. Place the hone at the pivot of the cutting blade.

4. Slide the hone across the blade from the pivot to the point of the blade. Do this several times to sharpen the edge.

5. Slide the hone across the other side of the cutting edge--again, pivot to point. This will square the inside corner, remove the burrs and complete the sharpening process.

References

• You Tube: A Closer Look at Sharpening Scissors