A Speciality Sharpening hairdressing scissors is a specialized niche market. You need patience, ingenuity, experience and a passion for doing it. Obviously you need the right tools, and if you don’t have them you have to manufacture them - plain and simple. I’ll not go into techniques as this is not a course - take note that although hairdressing scissors might look more or less the same, and even if they are the same brand and model, they still all are different and unique. Especially taken into account that they are all used by different people in different ways - so, no pair of scissors is the same, neither do I approach them as such. An Art, a Passion Sharpening scissors, especially hairdressing scissors, is an art. It involves much more than going on a course or two, getting certificates with strange and exotic names on them, buying some equipment, acquiring the sales talk and glib mannerisms. You do not need expensive gadgets with fancy names, the lights, the bells, the whistles. What you need is primarily a passion for sharpening and a lot of common sense.  What you need is a knowledge of the material you work with. What you need are the right and best tools to do the job at hand. What you need is the ability to listen and respond to the needs of the client - who, after all has been said and done, must use the scissors to earn his/her living. What you need is experience and patience, there are no short-cuts! Myths Myths and urban legends abound in the ‘scissor world’ and having been involved in the industry I’ll mention some: • Self-sharpening scissors - they don’t exist. • Special hardened steel, never needs sharpening - they don’t exist. • Special steel will never rust - I’ve seen the best stainless steels being pitted and eroded, same destruction a rust would do. • Special steel, can’t be sharpened - show me. • My scissors don’t need oil - neither does your car??? • Ceramic scissors can’t be sharpened - I’ve sharpened them, they needed it! • Scissors must be sent to factory to be sharpened - 3 months and R700 later you get them back and they are not perfect, what do you do? At least I give a warranty and you can phone me! • Pakistani, Indian, Chinese and Korean scissors are inferior - false, look at the price/quality factor and they work out more cost-effective - in fact odds are you already have one! • I have to purchase new scissors, mine are too old... - I’ll most probably be able to restore them better than new! • I have a genuine .... - could be, but I’ve seen brand name imitations mostly from the East. • Big Dealers in SA ensure quality purchases - sorry, I’ve seen fakes and second hand products been sold to naive stylists. Sharpening 1 Jesus Christ and the Art of Scissor Sharpening But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness... Matthew 6:33 I am Gabriel. I have been blessed by Jesus Christ with a passion for sharpening hairdressing scissors. I am what you could call a professional sharpener of hairdressing scissors. You might need me as a sharpener on occasion, but we all need Him - always and forever! No Short-cuts! The bottom line is that sharpening salon scissors is not just a job. In my case I started off by sharpening knives on oil stones at the age of 13 (and I am way past 50 now :-). Throughout my life I have tried many sharpening tools which I would classify as gadgets as they are aimed to do what is primarily an exact discipline the easy and fast way - as there are no short-cuts in life, there are none with sharpening!  There are different techniques, but all of them focussed on a quick fix are really non-events and will in the long run (or even in short term) lack quality and will be expensive by ruining your scissors!  Techniques Just as a stylist will have to apply his/her talents and use different techniques during a session in order to achieve the required result - which, although having used slightly different movements and cuts - results in a new, unique and beautifully satisfying creation, in the same way every scissor will have to be approached as something unique and different techniques will have to be used in getting it not only exceedingly sharp but also well balanced and ‘tuned’. The ‘Salons’ Remember, there is no such thing as professional sharpening being done at your salon, for professional scissor sharpening has to be done in a workshop equipped for the work, my ‘salon’ - just as professional hairdressing requires the equipment and know-how which can only be found at a professionally equipped salon, your ‘workshop’.