Scissors

Scissors are a tool with two crossed pivoting blades that are used for cutting paper, cloth, hair, nails, skin, yarns and various other materials.

There are certain criteria to help you decide if you have found a good pair of scissors.

1. Do the tips of your scissors meet perfectly when closed?
2. Do they cut from the point where the blades meet all the way to the tips?
3. Do they feel smooth when you open and close them?
4. Do the handles fit your hand well?

If you can answer yes to all of the above, you have found a good set of scissors.

Technically, shears are six inches or longer, while scissors are under six inches in length. Scissors tend to have matching handles for the fingers to fit into, while shears often have differently shaped handles, with a large hole for the fingers and smaller hole for the thumb (or just a flat surface for the thumb to press against).

Kitchen scissors, for example, are more hefty and can often be disassembled for ease of cleaning.

Pinking shears have a serrated edge to prevent fabric from fraying.

While most pairs of scissors are built for people who are right-handed, specially designed scissors have been made to fit the hands of lefties.

Most children have been warned not to run with scissors, but musician Weird Al Yankovic had a hit with his album "Runs With Scissors".

• In the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors", scissors beats paper but is destroyed by rock.

1. Kitchen Scissors

2. Sewing Scissors

3. Pinking Shears

4. Hand Embroidery Scissors

5. Haircutting Scissors

• Fiskars www.fiskars.com
• Gingher www.gingher.com
• Tooltron www.tooltron.com
• Wiss www.jwissandsons.com
• DMC www.dmc.com/majic/pageServer/1x0100017x/en/scissors.html
• Singer http://www.thefind.com/query.php?query=%22singer+scissors
• DOVO http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/01/sharp-and-small-scissors-for-hand.html
• Wilkinson http://www.whiteley.co.uk/
• Mundial http://www.mundial-usa.com/buy.html
• Richardson Sheffield http://www0.dealtime.co.uk/-richardson+sheffield+scissors

• AsSeenOnTVGuys.com: Samurai Shark Sharpener

• Amazon.com: Scissor Racks

• Toys & Games Online: Wood Scissor Organizer

• teachers paradise.com: Acme Scissor Storage Rack

• Dick Blick Art Materials: Cutting Mats