How can I reuse or recycle broken scissors?
(Hi! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I’ve been ill and have mostly been slumped on the sofa in a heap. Feeling a bit more human now so without further ado…)
We’ve had an email from Lesley and Julia, explaining:
We have a pair of scissors at work. There’s nothing wrong with the blades, but the rubbishy plastic handle has broken off. Any ideas?
I remember a pair of all metal scissors breaking at the hinge when I was in my teens, and I kept the blades to use instead of a craft knife — but the individual blades were nowhere near sharp enough or thin enough to do that well.
So any other suggestions?
My FIL repaired mine using some sort of superglue and two pieces of steel wire. These were a pair of expensive German fabric scissors that I’d bought for a king’s ransom way back in 1979, and during a move they ended up under a heavy pice of furniture that snapped the handle (yeah, the floor is my cutting table…). My FIL drilled small holes near where they’d broken, put lots of glue on the ends and then pulled the wire through the holes and twisted them together. It looks like some fancy surgical intervention. The handle isn’t as comfortable to hold as it used to be, but it’s been six or seven years now, and it’s still as good as new cutting-wise.
Its very important that people do not buy very light weight new scissors with straight blades and plastic handles. These scissors are designed to break at the handles, forcing you to buy another pair. The metal in them is not very good either.
You are best off buying an old pair of solid scissors in a second hand store. Preferably rusted ones. Avoid the cheep chrome plated scissors because the finish is usually trying to disguise poor quality steel blades. A good pair of old style scissors will have angled blades and are quite heavy in the hand. Cleaned up and sharpened, these will last you a life time.
Hardware shops selling cheep Indian, Chinese and Pakistani tools will often have new scissors made in the old heavy style. These tend to be very good.
This article has been very helpful; thank you for posting. I recently broke a pair of scissors and now I know what to do with them!
Seems my dog likes the chew of the plastic like handles on some yet very sharp scissors. I have seen some repair suggestions yet how do I get the remaining plastic off the handles.
I will try pliers, needle nose, and wire cutters yet maybe someone knew of an easier way.
Thanks