When is 90 Degrees Zero Degrees? When Sharpening Shears!

When is 90 degrees Zero degrees? When you switch from sharpening knives to sharpening beauty shears in the USA.

I trained a new shear sharpener yesterday who has copious experience in sharpening and making knives. He was left hopelessly confused with the crazy way we measure angles when sharpening beauty shears and scissors. I have run into this problem before with people I have trained from Asian countries who had some limited experience in sharpening hair scissors because over there, the angle on hair shears is measured in the same way that the angle on knives and other sharpened tools and instruments are measured throughout the world.

Here is a chart that will help in converting the angles. Understand on shears, the higher the angle, the more acute or sharper the edge.

So, things might be upside down in Australia, but shear angles are for sure backwards and wacked out here in the USA. Don’t expect this to change. We Americans continue to measure distance in miles instead of kilometers. Some things you don’t have to understand. You just go with what is accepted. Since the average age of the American shear sharpener is probably about 60, I don’t ever expect to see a budge in the USA shear sharpening scissor mechanics measure shear angles.

Please, Watch, LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my Youtube videos. I think this one may explain the angle dilemma for sharpeners who sharpen for the beauty and hair industry.

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