Selecting and Caring for Grooming Shears & Scissors
There are many different types of grooming scissors and shears. When grooming both large and small dogs you will find that you will prefer the long shears. The longer shears will give you more coverage.
The shears should fit nicely in your hand and have some weight to them. They should open and close very easily, but at the same time not be so loose that they wobble. They should not be too tight where the blades scrape together or stick.
Your set of finishing shears and scissors should include Long Straight, Long Curved, Blending, Small shears, Ball Point scissors, and Thinning shears. Many groomers have several of each type. When one set is becoming dull or is out being sharpened, the groomer is still able to work. At least one set of scissors to be used primarily for your precuts on unwashed dogs is a must. The precut scissors and shears will be the ones that you have dropped or just do not cut well anymore even after sharpening.
Long Straight shears will be useful for scissoring cylindrical legs on curly coated breeds as well as the skirts on breeds like the Cocker Spaniels, West Highlands, and Maltese. Long Curved shears will cover most all over body work, a quality pair of blending shears will help to conceal mistakes made by the clipper or scissoring, and the long thinning shears with slightly larger teeth will help to remove bulk on Newfoundland’s and other large breeds.
To maintain the life of your finishing scissors and shears you should not cut wet or dirty hair. This would be like cutting sand paper. Also, the scissors and shears should be only used to cut hair and never to cut other types of materials. Scissors and shears should be cleaned after each dog and kept in their cases or in a scissor keeper and not bunched together so they do not scrape each other.
