How to sharpen scissors

I took a day off work today to get a bunch of things done that had been piling up over the last several weeks. My partner’s mom visited the last weekend, and I’m traveling home this coming weekend, so having this day off has been such a boon.

In short, today I got my car cleaned, went to the dentist (-_-), had a Zoom call, boiled a dozen eggs, and made chocolate chip cookies. Most of the dough went into the freezer, in preparation of the next “I seriously want a cookie but am too mentally exhausted to make one” day.

Yesterday was one of those days. I was curtly told that more time was being spent on me than others in the department… and all this because I asked for a 5-10 minute check in regarding my career development and progression.

Anyway, after I made the cookies, it was time to tackle the scissors. I got them used 3-4 years ago in a “freecycle” kind of situation. They worked great for a long time but in recent months have been causing me so much frustration. These scissors could not open any plastic packaging and could barely cut paper. I knew I could get a new pair for a couple of bucks, but I hate throwing stuff like this away since it feels wasteful and negative for the environment.

I discovered today that sharpening scissors is incredibly quick and easy. Here’s how:

1. Get a sharpening stone. I got mine at an Asian supermarket for less than $10. It looks like a two-toned gray brick and is about that heavy in weight.
2. Run the stone under water. Wetting the stone aids in the sharpening process.
3. Drag the scissors blade along the stone. A few notes here:
   1. Start with the coarser side of the stone.
   2. Keep the blade at a 45° angle to the stone. The scissors blade is mostly flat, but the edge that cuts is angled. You want this part to run along the stone.
   3. Slide the long edge of the blade along the stone. I just slide it from left to right repeatedly.
      
   4. After 10-15 passes, you can drag the blade in a perpendicular direction (up and down instead of left and right) to remove any burrs that may have formed.
      
4. Repeat the previous step on the finer grit side of the stone.
5. Rinse the stone when finished. You’ll notice that there’s some powdery residue on the stone from the sharpening process.

That’s all there is to it! The whole process took no more than 10 minutes. I was really pleased with the sharpness of the scissors. Now I can use them to open up bags of chocolate chips again!