Cutting through aluminum foil to sharpen scissors?
 

I've read about doing this to sharpen scissors, but the whole idea makes me cringe.

Does anyone have "the real info" about this?

Google it and there are lots of places that say it works

I have never heard of it, but you can try it on an old pair of kitchen scissors first just to try.

I understand it's only a temporary fix, until you can get them sharpened the regular way. I think I tried it once, but was not impressed.

I've heard sandpaper vs foil paper. But I agree with others....try on crappy scissors first.

I've done this on rotary blades and scissors. It's temporary but if you need to get something done it works for a little bit. Problem is you need a pretty good pile of foil to work with.

I tried that with my rotary blade and don't think it helped a bit.

I tried it with pinking shears. They seemed sharper but still would not cut fabric.

I heard that years and years ago and I don't think it ever really worked.

Sounds dubious to me. Many years ago I ruined a good pair of pinking shears by using them on the seams of the Milium lining in a coat I made. Wouldn't that be kind of the same principle?

Daffy

It makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it!

I wouldn't try it. Never heard of this. I have only Gingher scissors and I wouldn't risk damaging them.

lol, that was my feeling (filling?).

I've heard of doing the same thing with needles by poking them into steel wool. Seems to me that would dull them, not sharpen them.

if that worked i'm sure i'd have heard of it a LONG time ago...there are other ways of sharpening tools, but I wouldn't want to damage a good pair of scissors...they're hard to keep!

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I agree! I have used this method to sharpen pinking sisszors but it did not really work. I do have a sharpener for Fiskars sissors and tthat does work on a lot of sissors. It is well worth the $10-40% off coupon at Joanns investment. But buy the bigger one since it easier to handle.

the steal wool does work on needles and pins. A couple of years ago my sister gave me a new pack of safety pins to use for quilting. Man, were they ever dull! I heard about the steal wool, so I bought some a tuck the safety pins in it and it worked. The safety pins are now sharp and I have used them numerous times in quilt sandwiches.they were

I've cut through aluminum foil as well as sandpaper and find that it has worked for me.

I've not tried foil but I've used 400 grit sandpaper (the finest) with pinking shears that would not cut fabric at all, and after a few cuts through the sandpaper they worked reasonably well on fabric. Not like new, of course, but I couldn't afford new back then, and really wanted to pink a few ravelly seams.

I tried it with my rotary cutter and then promptly ran the blade over my left hand index finger! I think the foil may have smoothed some of the tiny nicks out of the blade-- certainly made it sharp enough to cut skin-- but I agree, it's probably a temporary fix.

I have used foil on my rotary cutter and it seems to have worked. I haven't tried it for scissors.

It seems to work for me for both scissors and pinking shears. But then my scissors are not expensive at all. The expensive one would be worth taking to be sharpened.

Doesn't only work with scissors will help to keep an edge on your rotary cutter, won't take out nicks but definitely cleans and sharpens them.

I'm on the side of "it works". I make my own refilled Keurig cups and I cut tinfoil strips into fourths to place over the tops. To cut the tinfoil I used an old pair of scissors that I normally used for crafting. Suddenly became aware how sharp they had become when I accidentally picked them up to cut some fabric and found they cut really well whereas before they wouldn't cut fabric at all

I've never heard of that but do buy the cheap sand paper from the Dollar store and cut several slats in it and my scissors are sharp, works every time.