How To Sharpen Scissors At Home

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 at home: Sandpaper sharpens the blades as well as smooths out nicks and dings!

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!

How to sharpen scissors at home: Sandpaper sharpens the blades as well as smooths out nicks and dings!

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?
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Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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  1. Linda says

    10 years ago

    will it work on pinking shears as I have 2 pairs and both are quite dull?

      • joanne stubbs says

        8 years ago

        didn’t know that you could sharpen pinking shears. I almost threw mine away.

  2. Susan says

    10 years ago

    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

      10 years ago

      Yeah, I have a Fiskar sharpener too and sometimes it just doesn’t work! No idea why, but the sandpaper really does help!

  3. cucicucicoo says

    10 years ago

    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

  4. Jenni says

    10 years ago

    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

  5. Deebi27 says

    10 years ago

    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!

  6. Msjbelle says

    10 years ago

    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.

  7. Vanessa says

    10 years ago

    I have so many scissors I’m ready to scrap because they’re so dull. Definitely should try this first!

  8. Angela @ Angela Says says

    10 years ago

    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

  9. Gwen says

    10 years ago

    I will have to try this! I’ve been using my fabric scissors on paper..yikes!

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      10 years ago

      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!

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