I absolutely hate dull scissors, or scissors with nicks or dings in the blade! I notice it especially around Christmas when I go to cut wrapping paper and it just rips the paper to shreds. Lame! But did you know, you can sharpen scissors at home with sandpaper?! Don’t put up with dull or nicked scissors anymore!
How To Sharpen Scissors With Sandpaper
All you need is your dull pair of scissors and a piece of sandpaper! The grit doesn’t matter too much, but the finer the grit, the smoother your scissor blades will be.
Just fold the sandpaper in half, rough sides out, and cut through it with your scissors ten to twenty times. The grit on the paper will sharpen the blades right away!
I’ve also heard you can sharpen scissors with foil, so I tried that as well. And it totally works, but the foil doesn’t smooth out the blades, it just sharpens them. If you’re rough on your scissors like I am (*cough *cough, I KNOW I’m supposed to use wire cutters to cut wire, but the scissors are just more handy!), the sandpaper is really the best way to sharpen scissors. Not only does it sharpen the edges of the blades, but it also smooths out any nicks and dings.
Could your scissors use some sharpening?
Linda says
will it work on pinking shears as I have 2 pairs and both are quite dull?
Jessi Wohlwend says
It should!
joanne stubbs says
didn’t know that you could sharpen pinking shears. I almost threw mine away.
Susan says
Awesome! Thanks for the tip. I have a pair of Wescott (titanium) just like those and they are so dull they barely cut paper. Using Fiskar sharpener on them doesn’t work at all.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Yeah, I have a Fiskar sharpener too and sometimes it just doesn’t work! No idea why, but the sandpaper really does help!
cucicucicoo says
I just gave this a try on my regular household scissors and it worked a charm, even rubbing off all sorts of gunk that was caked on them! I’d heard of the pin method before, but I never managed to get it to work well. Now I’ll go do this sandpaper method on my fabric scissors! Thanks so much! 🙂 Lisa
Jenni says
Will try this advice about scissors today as I was about to buy new ones and have at least 4 pairs that are so blunt so hope it works for me as well. Tks
Deebi27 says
This would be so much easier than having a friend do for me! And those nicks in my knife…gotta find some sand paper!!! Thanks!
Msjbelle says
Thanks for this awesome tip. I had heard about the foil method and use it often. Next time my scissors get dull I will try this.
Betsy @ Romance on a Dime says
Good to know. I’m going to need to do this! Thanks for linking up!!
~ Betsy @ Romance on a dime
Vanessa says
I have so many scissors I’m ready to scrap because they’re so dull. Definitely should try this first!
Angela @ Angela Says says
Great tips, I’ve tried sharpening my scissors with foil and it worked fairly well but I’m interested to see if the sand paper works better
Gwen says
I will have to try this! I’ve been using my fabric scissors on paper..yikes!
Jessi Wohlwend says
My brother used to do that all the time! He didn’t understand that fabric scissors were only for fabric; he’s pretty sure scissors are just scissors. 🙂 But it will totally work, just use a real fine grit sandpaper so they stay super smooth!