on sharpening scissors...
 

I inherited several pair of scissors when my sister passed away. They are good brands but they are dull and don't cut well.
I thought there had been a thread here on the board about this, but my searches yielded no results. Are scissors even worth sharpening now days? Is it expensive to have done, or hard to do oneself?
I would love to use her scissors in her memory, but if they can't be productive tools, I really don't have room to just store them.

If they can't be salvaged, I would just keep one pair in her memory and discard the others. There are 5 pair all together.

Call your LQS and ask them if they have someone they send scissors to be sharpened out to. I know our Viking dealer here in town sends them out to be sharpened. But the little LQS doesn’t. It’s pretty small and just changed hands.

Look for businesses that sharpen knives. Most of them will also do scissors.

Gingher offers a repair service for Gingher scissors

http://www.gingher.us/Gingher_Maintenance.html

JoAnn's fabrics and other stores used to have someone come in and do them there or pick them up. I"m sure other places could be of help too.

Our local farmers market (Saturday market) has a vendor that sharpens knives and scissors, might be worth checking out in your area.

I’ve read cutting fine sand paper will sharpen scissors, but I’ve never tried it.

Our sewing machine repair shop sharpens scissors. The last time I had my Gingher shears sharpened it was around $5 (several years ago). Well worth it if you want to use them.

Don't let your husband do it. DH worked on my Ginghers and they have never been the same. Yikes!

When I worked at JoAnns---we sold a Fiskar scissor sharpener---and that's what we used. We used to have someone come in periodically---but they stopped that.

I just use the scissor sharpener I bought at the store. It works for my scissors.

There's a man who has a booth at the farmer's market each week. You may want to see if there is someone in your area. His prices are good.

I found it's not worth it unless a real pro does the job. To do a great job the scissors have to be ground and then whetted, smoothed, whetted and smooth for a good long time. Remember the men sitting around with sharpening their knives on a whet stone? Not many will spend the time to do the job right to get an edge that will last.

Try a local hardware store. Ours sharpens scissors for a reasonable cost.

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. I knew you would not let me down!! Hugs and smiles everyone!

I've always heard that you should send Gingher's back to them to sharpen. There's something about the way they do their edge that's different than other scissors and it's easy to ruin them.

If you find they can't be sharpened, instead of discarding them, maybe make a shadow box with them inside and hang on your wall. Do a google search for shadow box display and see all kinds of ideas. Just an idea.......

Our Ace hardware sharpens scissors. If you decide to keep a pair of your sisters scissors, I would have them mounted in a shadowbox frame for your wall as a special momento.

Murphy224...I must have been typing the same thought as yours was posting. Two great minds that think alike!!

I would use some of them in a shadow box with a sewing theme fabric in the back ground or doily may be even add a thimble or a spool of thread or even put a picture of your sister in the shadow. Just a thought. It would be something you could remember her by and hang up in your sewing room out of the way. If she has kids you could make a couple of them as gifts.

I have and use the Fiskars scissor sharpener. I must admit that I haven't tried it on my good sewing scissors, but for the other scissors in the house, it does a great job and I can cut fabric with them if I wanted to.

For good sewing scissors, I would want to find a professional to sharpen them, but mine don't need it yet.

You might try your local barber shop or beauty shop. They have to get their scissors sharpened and they may have an idea where you can get that done. We have someone locally that does that. He will only do good quality scissors. He says the cheaper ones are just not worth the work and don’t sharpen well.

I honor my Gingher scissors by treating them with care. My kids learned early on NOT to touch my scissors and DH knows never to mess with my sewing tools, just as I would never mess with his work tools..

Our Joann's has someone come in once/month. He does knives and scissors. The price seems to depend on the scissors. He takes them apart, so that there are 2 pieces to sharpen. The price I have paid has varied from $2.50 for those little spring loaded scissors with short blades up to $5 for normal sewing size scissors.

Prices in other parts of the country probably vary from this greatly.

If they are good scissors, yes, they will take a sharpen very nicely no matter how old they are. Even new fiskars take a sharp well. Think about all the cutting (especially on fleece) that Joanns does. We have our scissors sharpened every 6 - 8 weeks. Usually the person contracted to do it also does local farmer's markets. My suggestion would be to call your local Joanns or LQS and ask them for his name. Or google scissors sharpening and find someone. We charge $5 per pair. They took a very old pair of dressmaker shears of my mothers and did a great good.

If scissors have a "knife edge", sharpen like a knife.

Just a note, if you decide not to have them professionally sharpened you might try this old time trick. Fold a piece aluminum foil into several thicknesses and cut through it several times. It does seem to help to at least make the scissors serviceable. If it is a last resort, it certainly can't hurt. And if it works, so much the better. I do love the shadow box idea as well.

Again thanks for all the great suggestions! I especially appreciate the shadow box ideas, as that's very clever and I would not have thought of it. Hugs and smiles everyone!!

I've had some of my mother's scissors sharpened...but they were honest about the ones that were beyond repair... Good luck and I hope you get to enjoy them as I have enjoyed using my mother's!!