My wife cuts food with her own sewing scissors. I never realized i was living with a crazy person until this point. (Ok maybe i kinda did)
As a seamstress: fukkin’ yikes.
If she only sews casually, that would make sense, though. But it still gives me the jibblies.
Yah it’s like once every few months or so to fix up a new outfit or something. It just happens to be close to where the upstairs TV is so she’ll grab them if she needs some while we’re eating while watching a show or something. Then they end up in the utensil drawer and I’m usually the one that finds them and furrows my brow a bit before putting them back by the sewing machine
So I am definitely the odd person in the sewing world who cuts everything with my scissors. I’ve been a sailmaker for 30 years and we cut paper, Mylar, Kevlar, carbon fiber, fabric (of course), rope, tape, adhesives, you name it. I’ve been using the same pair for 20 of those 30 years as well. We do get them sharpened but not all the time.
Dyneema is the one thing that will mess up your scissors though. My buddy at work had a dull spot on his that wouldn’t sharpen from dyneema webbing. We ended up getting a special pair for that and Kevlar, with micro serrated teeth.
I will say though that a person’s scissors are sacred, you don’t touch another sailmakers pouch and tools. What they do with them is their business, use your own tools.
That extends to all tools in my opinion.
Don’t borrow someone’s tools without their express permission, and don’t lend someone a tool unless you either know what they’re doing with it or you don’t care if it gets damaged.
Yup. I hired an apprentice once, and the first few days every time I’d come into the shop my pouch would be either missing or emptied and I’d have to run around finding my tools. Did that twice and was like your first job is to make your own pouch and then got him his own tools. My fault really, I should have done that right off the bat.
Mind if I bug you with questions about sail making? That sounds like a super interesting job!
For sure! Though I apologize if I don’t answer right away! I will answer though.
How do you get into a job like that? I figured they would mostly be made by machines nowadays.
What’s the biggest sail you’ve worked on?
Best/worst material to work with?
What kind of equipment does your job require?
You mentioned a knife but I’m guessing it’s not a common knife. I’m imagining more of a hook shaped blade to pull easier, but would love to know if I was wrong
Hey did you follow the americas cup this year?
What did you think of the wingsails / twin skins / no boom configuration?
Interesting, is sail fabric thicker or easier to cut than like clothing fabric?
Also it’s interesting to see so many people who do different jobs online, I met someone the other month who lived in a boat during the FL hurricanes.
It can vary from thicker and heavier to lighter, and there are lots of different finishes as well so it can be quite stiff or supple. The cloth is made from polyester, or Dacron as it’s also known. We also use ripstop nylon for spinnakers. And then you have the laminate sails which can be made with Mylar and different fibers like carbon, Kevlar or dyneema.
Interesting, thanks for the information! In exchange I will give you information about my workplace.
At the grocery store when you have something you don’t want to buy just give it to the cashier, we have a dedicated system for someone to go put it back. don’t leave raw chicken sitting next to the candy, we can’t sell raw warm chicken.🙃
Whats the deal with fabric scissors? Do they break when used on other things?
fabric scissors need to be sharp to do their job effectively.
cutting other things, even paper, can (and will) dull the blades enough so they’re no longer suitable for their original intended task.
then when gramma, or whoever, wants to use ‘their scissors’ to cut some fabric, and they aren’t functioning properly… let’s just say it may not go well for the guilty party.
tl;dr: they’re no longer pure and must be replaced with new virgin scissors.
Can’t you just sharpen them? Won’t fabric dull them? You can’t tell me that paper dulls scissors faster than fabrics.
I highly doubt using fabric scissors one time for cutting paper will do anything to them
You are hereby banned from the sewing room.
You think cutting through a tree won’t dull scissors? Fabric is made from plant fluff or hair.
More seriously - Yes you can sharpen them but many fabric stores no longer offer the service regularly. Some knife sharpeners will do it but others won’t. My scissors can be sent back to the maker to be sharpened but then I would be without my fabric scissors for weeks. If you do it yourself you will fail.
Does cutting fabric not dull the blades? It seems like a lot of fabrics should be tougher to cut through than paper?
Fabric scissors just happen to be very good at cutting most things. I use mine to cut open packages, leather, plastics, and cloth! Just avoid cutting anything harder than the steel your scissors are made out of like metal, wires, and such. A quick hone will refresh the edges when you need it.
I was totally ignorant to the world of fiber crafts the first- and last- time my wife found me cutting up something with her sewing scissors.
Of course, that was before she became addicted to every fiber craft under the sun. Now I live in a house with several spinning wheels and a tapestry loom. This could be you too if you start crocheting. Take heed.
(I’m actually fine with it because she’s making me an Ernie sweater. I saw an Ernie costume on Halloween and I suddenly realized how much I wanted an Ernie sweater. So I asked and she immediately said okay. Yay!)
The thing is, it’s pretty dang easy to sharpen scissors on a sharpening stone. Like, use em for everything! Go ham! Just sharpen them when they get dull.
So you know how when you cut something and the object was to hard for the scissors and the object turns sideways between the 2 blades and makes it so the scissors never function as well again? I’m way to good at doing that… Other than pulling my head out of my ass and using a different tool, any suggestions on how to fix those tools? My kitchen sheers are like that now after using them to prune my strawberries outside. (Clearly I need to have designated sheers/scissors for different things, but sometimes I’m just that idiot that thinks 1 hammer fits all jobs
Scissors work because the blades are tight against each other – there’s no gap between them when they’re cutting. When they “go sideways” it’s usually because the hinge is loose.
If they’re good quality scissors, you probably need to tighten the screw holding the blades together.