Instructions for Sharpening Scissors

Video Transcript

"My name is William Perkinson, and I'm here to give you instructions on how to sharpen scissors. This is a basic household pair of scissors. If you've got a sharpening stone, it's going to be real easy. If you've got one of those handy machines from the upper-end kitchen supply stores, it just takes a couple of seconds. But I'm here to show you what to do if you're like me and just need to sharpen your scissors and don't have that type of equipment. The number one thing we want to do is clean them real good with a little bit of rubbing alcohol because tape -- the goo from the back of tape and whatnot -- can get on scissors and really gum them up. We want to take a soft cloth, rub the scissors really good to get that residue off of there. Maybe even a little rust or whatever can build up on them. And then we're going to start the sharpening procedures. We have three ways to sharpen them today. One is going to be using some fine steel wool like you'd have in the kitchen. And you just want to roll a little bit of it out like I have, and we're going to take the scissors and we're going to cut through it nice and slow with even pressure. And this fine steel wool is going to be honing the edges and sharpening them to a fine point. And you can do it several times -- as many times as you want to -- and it'll really put a fine edge on them. If you don't have steel wool, you can try sandpaper. What you want to do with the sandpaper is to fold it over like I have to where the grit is out. And we're going to cut through the sandpaper. And this, too, what it does is it's an abrasive. It goes on that edge, puts a fine point on the edge, cleans up the rust and the build-up that might still be left. And we can do it several times. Hit the point. And it hones it and sharpens it. If you don't have steel wool or sandpaper, another technique we can use is aluminum foil. We want to fold it over several times, get to the right thickness or the desired thickness, and we're going to cut along lengthwise. I can tell I've already sharpened it. Just look how quick...how easy that's going through there. We'll do it two or three times, just putting a little finer point on it each time. And I've got a pretty sharp pair of scissors. Let's see. Like a hot knife through butter. All right. I'm William Perkinson, and that's how to sharpen your scissors."