Well, ladies, I feel your pain. I have promised gloom and doom, but found my aaplique sissors-the ones with the bill with a huge chink out of it, same with my Gingher Shears. I discovered my son didn't like the way his braces felt, and he would clip them--with you guessed it, my sissors. He used fingernail clippers, plyers etc. too, I have several small applique sissors and my daughter loves them--to cut the split ends off her hair! I bought her several pairs of sissors, which she never found when she wanted them, so I got her a pair of applique sissors. I've had better luck since she has been away at college.