We all know that terrible, thick, almost chewing feeling of trying to cut through fabric with blunted scissors. It makes us reminisce about the days when our scissors, fresh out of the box, could zip through cottons, silks, and linens.
Luckily, blunt scissors aren’t the end of the world. It doesn’t even mean the end of your scissors. Scissor sharpeners can bring your scissors back from the brink of bluntness in the blink of an eye.
Not all scissors are created equal, however. There are a lot of sharpeners on the market but you’ll want to find one that takes good care of your shears. After all, quality fabric scissors aren’t cheap.
We’ve pulled together some of the best scissor sharpeners out there to help you out. We’ve considered a lot of different factors including ease of use, materials, and design. We’ve also poured over lots of customer reviews to pick the most loved products.
Want to be a cut above? Here’s our top pick:
Wamery Knife Sharpener 4-Stage Kitchen Knife and Scissor Sharpeners
This sharpener uses diamond abrasives to give you razor sharp scissors. It’s a substantial bit of kit that can cope with all your scissors and knives.
The design is sturdy and has a non-slip base and handle for safety. It won’t move around as you sharpen the knives which is always great to see. There isn’t a hand guard but the handle is quite a distance from the sharpening surfaces.
There are 3 stages of knife sharpening; coarse, fine, and ceramic. These allow you to sharpen, refine, and polish your blades. A lot of users are adamant that you only need a few passes to get your blades super sharp.
Another great thing about this sharpener is the design. It has a great ergonomic design and a pastel blue color that will match any craft room or kitchen. It’s slightly larger than other sharpeners but you can keep it on the unit with the cottagey overall look.
This handheld sharpener has a carbine ceramic whetstone that makes mincemeat of your dull scissors. The whetstone sharpens blades quickly and has excellent durability.
As well as the cutting action scissor slot, it has two slots for sharpening and refining knife blades. The scissor slot is in the larger handle of the unit so you have to hold the smaller handle to use the slot. It’s not ideal but it does the job.
What we love about this sharpener is the fact that it works for left and right-handed scissors. Better yet, it labels which way to use the tool for left-handed scissors. You never need to guess and accidentally ruin your scissors.
This is a great portable knife sharpener. If you need to travel with your crafting kit then this sharpener is ideal for you. It can clip onto your backpack or fit into a small pocket. It can also slip into a drawer when not in use.
Another thing we love about this sharpener is it’s price. We love that you can get this sharpener for under 10 dollars! I mean, who doesn’t?
This looks cool, as cool as knife sharpeners can look. We love the color scheme and the fact that it works as well as it looks.
It uses diamond covered abrasives to quickly and effectively get rid of dull edges. It also refines and reshapes the edge to give the blade better cutting angles. It creates a wonderfully even sharp edge so you won’t have dull tips.
The base has a non-slip rubber coating making it safe and sturdy on the worksurface. The large rubber handle also gives you an excellent grip as you sharpen.
We like the placement of the handle. It is far enough away from the sharpening surface to protect your fingers.
The scissor sharpening slot is slightly wider to accommodate the shape and size of the blades. It works in the same way as a knife sharpener.
You drag the blade from base to tip. You can sharpen both left and right-handed scissors by turning the unit around.
For your knives, or refining your scissors, you have 3 grades of whetstones. The coarser grades can refine the blades while the finer blades are excellent for getting rid of material on duller blades.
This is a wonderful desktop sharpener. It’s nice and small and is also really lightweight. You can keep it on your desk for frequent maintenance or slip it away for storage.
This is a cutting action sharpener so it sharpens both blades at the same time. The abrasive surfaces are self adjusting to get the correct angle.
It works for left and right-handed scissors but it isn’t labelled. You’ll need to work out the correct side. It’s a bit annoying but not a deal breaker. Especially when you consider the great quality of this sharpener overall.
There are some reports of scissors not fitting correctly in the gaps. This does seem to be a minority issue rather than a universal problem. Curved scissors definitely won’t fit but you should be able to sharpen most straight scissors.
There are a lot of reviews who are happy to expound the excellency of these knife sharpeners. It seems to be particularly popular with sewers. They can’t all be wrong!
This electric sharpener won’t break the bank but it will get your scissors back to perfect sharpness. It has a host of features that we just love and hopefully you will too!
First things first, this is a fairly small machine. It won’t take up a whole drawer or shelf which is great. Despite it’s small size, it has a lot of sharpening prowess.
Not only will it sharpen your fabric scissors, but it can also take care of knives and screwdrivers. There are four different slots for knife sharpening ranging from very coarse to very fine.
The scissors slot is on the side of the machine. You sharpen the scissors blade by blade rather than with a cutting action. This isn’t a big deal as the electric action of the sharpener gets your blades sharpened quickly anyway.
The unit has rubber feet on the base to help it stay in place. The instructions do say to hold the sharpener when using. This is a bit concerning as there isn’t really a safe place to hold the machine.
There are no guards or handles to keep your hands away from the blade as you sharpen.
The machine needs to cool down after every 3 minutes of use. To be honest, you won’t need it that long to sharpen a pair of scissors but if you’re planning on sharpening a whole set then you’ll need to take breaks.
Pros
Cons
We’re going to break things down for you in this section.
The idea is that you’ll have all the information you need to find the right scissor sharpener for your needs.
There are a couple of different design types available. Some of them can multitask as knife sharpeners, others are specifically designed for use with scissors.
Here’s a breakdown of the more common kinds of scissor sharpeners.
The material we are interested in is the sharpening stone, also called a whetstone.
There have been many different kinds of materials used to sharpen blades over the centuries. In our time, there is a scarcity of the natural stones that have been traditionally used. As such, many sharpening blocks now use man-made materials.
Below is a list of the common materials used for scissor sharpening.
Sharp scissors are dangerous. If you didn’t already know this, then you probably shouldn’t be using them!
Sharpening a pair of scissors can lead to cuts and gashes if you don’t do it correctly. Some sharpeners have built-in features that help to prevent accidents from occurring.
Where possible, you should look for a sharpener that has one or more of the following:
Some blades should not be sharpened. Serrated blades are really tricky to sharpen. This is because you essentially have lots of little blade surfaces on your knife.
You need a specific sharpener for serrated blades. It looks like a thin file and needs to be used between each serration.
The other kind of blade you need to be mindful of is ceramic knives. Obviously, a ceramic sharpener won’t be able to sharpen a ceramic knife. You need something harder. The only thing harder than ceramic in terms of sharpeners is diamond.
If you have ceramic knives you need to use a diamond knife sharpener. Most sharpeners will highlight the fact that they are suitable for use with ceramic knives.
If you use a carbine or ceramic sharpener on a ceramic blade, you’ll just be dulling the blade. It is literally, a complete waste of time.
Yes and no. Cutting through aluminum foil will help to hone a slightly dull pair of scissors but it can’t bring your scissors back from complete dullness.
The results will be fairly minimal no matter how much foil you cut. This is because the foil just isn’t strong enough to take a lot of material off the blades of your scissors.
In nearly all cases, you’re better off using a sharpener.
Most sharpeners tend to work for both left and right-handed scissors. Blocks or flat sharpeners don’t have a handedness so they can be used for any scissors.
Knife block sharpeners may need turning around depending on the configuration of the whetstone. The issue really, is with cutting action sharpeners.
Most of them allow you to sharpen left-handed scissors by placing the blades in from the back of the unit rather than the front. Often, the sides are marked as left or right handed.
While most sharpeners can cope with left-handed scissors, it isn’t true of all. Do check reviews and product listings carefully if you’re a lefty.
In some cases, yes. Usually, more expensive sharpeners allow you to open up the unit and replace a whetstone that has become ineffective over time.
The major issue is finding a replacement part. If the manufacturer doesn’t sell replacement whetstones, you need to be very careful when buying a replacement. It may not fit correctly.
You need to consider not just the size of the replacement But also the shape and angle of the replacement whet stone.