Show us your Shears, Scissors, and Secateurs!

[d42jeep]

While I had some Dunlap tools out today, I took a picture of my Dunlap scissors.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I found these at the flea this morning. The design patent was granted in 1936. The utility patent was granted in 1937. I haven't tried them yet. They were shown in some 1941 QMC documents, but I have never seen them in any wartime manuals. It is a substantial tool and I really like the extra bow for the thumb.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here's the markings and some documentation.

 

[Outlawmws]

Very cool Lugs! I've never seen a pair quite like that (and I've been buying snips for almost 50 years...).

Those are steel, right? In the pics they almost looked like aluminum frames (and would use hardened inserts for the edges)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Very cool Lugs!

Thanks and agreed!

I've never seen a pair quite like that (and I've been buying snips for almost 50 years...).

Same.

Those are steel, right? In the pics they almost looked like aluminum frames (and would use hardened inserts for the edges)

Definitely steel. The soft appearance is only due to their exceptional condition and the light.

Based on my limited experience using shears (i.e., I have straight and duckbills and have used both for home projects, of course, but not professional use), my knowledge of their production, by type, for several sets during WWII, which included straight cut and "combination cut" (the duckbills) - for making either straight or curved cuts, and my knowledge of WPB limitations, including L-216, which was hell on redundancy, I am inferring that the WPB thought them redundant. They were designed to be used for making irregular cuts, and so were duckbills. That doesn't explain why they weren't resurrected after the war, though, unless the WPB's efficiency got translated to industry. That is possible. That's exactly what happened in other instances, including the composition of steel itself.

I'm going to look into it further.

 

[Outlawmws]

I'm not sure when Aviation snips were introduced but I've seen pairs that were likely wartime, and are certainly more versatile than big snips for curved cuts.

Yep Pre war invention: In 1934, a German man named Karl Klenk invented aviation snips for cutting the sheet metal on these new plane designs.

 

[four.cycle]

^ I'd like to see some of those fancy cut-outs with that thing! Very cool.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

^ I'd like to see some of those fancy cut-outs with that thing! Very cool.

I have something in mind. I need to find the right sheet and some time. And thanks!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I found these shears the same day I found the Wiss Scroll-Pivoter. I'm not sure what they were intended for. The finger and thumb bows look like tailor's shears, but the blades look more like tin snips, and they are fairly massive. Both blades are chipped, it's not the prettiest example leoparded with box rot spots like that (I couldn't read the branding at the time), which is why they were on the $1 table.



But I am glad I bought them. They are "Wendt & Seymour"...



...which can be very narrowly dated to 1859 (when the company was established) to 1870 (when the company was dissolved after a devastating fire).



Herman Wendt started in 1848, with a different partner (Leonard), and has a slew of patents to his credit, including this one, with bows that look similar to mine, if not as pronounced, and a different pivot.



All of the information above was gleaned from Phillip Pankiewicz's excellent and oft-cited collector's guide, American Scissors and Shears, with generous accessibility to many pages linked here.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I really like the ergonomic design and comfort of the thumb and finger bows on all these antique shears. Design, dating back millennia, has always been derived from nature.

 

[Outlawmws]

Very cool shears/Snips Lugz! I would think the black was remnants of Japaning?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

It is on the bows, for sure. Maybe the blades, although I'm not used to seeing that.

 

[WisJim]

I found a nice pair of 7" Wiss No 27 scissors at a thrift store today. They are marked with a 1965 patent for the "locked bushing pivot bearing". Priced the same as all the made in China Fiskar imitations.

 

[WisJim]

Luga, looks like there are 5 pair of the Wiss 9x shears on eBay at the moment.

 

[jabberwoki]

Dug this old pair up yesterday no markings other that those shown.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

These are going straight into the user drawer. Intended for light wire and filament, they'll be general purpose cutting for me when controlled precision is necessary. The volute spring and short blades are a tight, powerful combination. I'll have to make some time later to figure out when they were made using the type of scissors and pending patent notice.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I'll have to make some time later to figure out when they were made using the type of scissors and pending patent notice

"Later" came sooner than I thought. My example was made some time between Nov 3, 1928 and Aug 2, 1932. 1,870,025.

 

[Outlawmws]

Wiss too! Nice find!

 

[RTM]

"Later" came sooner than I thought. My example was made some time between Nov 3, 1928 and Aug 2, 1932. 1,870,025.

Those look quite handy for certain jobs, nice grab.

 

[Bryan Burns]

I picked up these giant PEXTO bench (or blacksmith's) hand shears for $10 last weekend. 39" long and weigh 22 pounds. Penny for scale.

 

[Outlawmws]

Black smith, the one handle end should plug into the prichard hole of an anvil.

 

[kwigly]

I picked up these giant PEXTO bench (or blacksmith's) hand shears for $10 last weekend. 39" long and weigh 22 pounds. Penny for scale.

I like the handle design on these, those bent ends help prevent squishing of your fingers when you're cutting material that's lying flat on the floor/bench

 

[ecotec]

These are already in the garage sale thread, but I got three pairs of Clauss 3760, at an estate sale, for $1 each.

I have enough pairs of scissors now… so I only buy barely used Made in USA pairs for a dollar or less.

Scissors are definitely an easy to find tool on the secondary market. I can’t imagine paying more than $2 for a pair.

 

[Outlawmws]

I can’t imagine paying more than $2 for a pair.

I can, but it has to be something really out of the ordinary

 

[ecotec]

I can, but it has to be something really out of the ordinary

That’s totally fair… I guess I would too… for something I had to have.

My Felco pruners and my Malco snips were not cheap. I, certainly, paid retail for those…

And Olfa scissors are really light. This makes them ideal for a hand box for work.

Household scissors though… and ribbon scissors, and heavy duty scissors and dressmakers scissors… there is tonnage of it out there for cheap. Be as picky and cheap as possible… and you will still find lots of pairs.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Picked these up at the flea this morning. Interesting, ingenious shape. The finger guards are completely offset from the cutting plane. Light weight, light duty. Not sure who made them. My son, who is pretty darn good with Chinese, can't decipher the characters. He thinks it's a form he has not learned, or possibly Japanese instead.

 

[Outlawmws]

He thinks it's a form he has not learned

IIR they (Chinese) write vertically, so orientation?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

He looked at it multiple ways. I'm going to need some expert help or source.

 

[RTM]

. My son, who is pretty darn good with Chinese, can't decipher the characters. He thinks it's a form he has not learned, or possibly Japanese instead.

Google Translate on my phone via camera got either

South China Sea

or Nanhai Welding (Nan something another quick view)

Going back into desktop Google Translate for English to Chinese (simplified or traditional), the South agrees with the first symbol, but nothing else

Putting in Nanhai seems to get the first two symbols.



Welding didn't work, nor did blacksmith. Give the kid something to start from, maybe cutler, etc

This does read vertically down from the Pivot

 

[Private Lugnutz]

the South agrees with the first symbol, but nothing else

I'm going with "South Park City Sushi".

 

[Outlawmws]

Forgot to post these here: my latest from Wiss, 366 -Post E-rust bath,

 

[RTM]

Couple of recent acquisitions to my scissors and shears drawer.

1st up, a 7-1/2" pair of Stiletto scissors. Stiletto was the name brand of SF based hardware distributor Pacific Hardware, Baker, Hamilton, and some of their predecessors, which go back to 1850. Have not figured out an age on these from a catalog (yet). These were scored from an ES where I had to wait forever to check out my tiny haul. Little sharpening and rust removal, and tightening of the screw, and we're off and cutting.



Next up is a Compton U set, grabbed because they were nice and heavy, but kept since Lugz has extolled their coolness for us.


Bought these at a family run estate sale, and had to chuckle when one of the family members said in a far too loud voice "why would anyone buy a pair of old scissors?" No idea why I buy them, but once I cleaned the rust off the cutting faces, they cut just fine. Little bit of a ding above the T of U Set, but I'm not going to sharpen it out.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Picked up these circle pattern tin snips this morning at the flea if only for the logo, but they are also exceptionally well-built. Prewar imports. Gustav Weissenfeld, in Remschied.

 

[Outlawmws]

I picked these up 2 -3 weeks back: Bonsai pruner scissors, (No markings but sharp everywhere) and what I believe to be wick trimmers.



I have a similar pair of Wiss trimmers with the "Gripping spring" and I thought at first possibly for cutting flowers and being able to set them somewhere, and I see a lot of these listed as such, but trying them for that was clumsy at best - far better wick trimmers for either candles or lamps:

 

[RTM]

Here is what Wiss sold as flower trimming scissors in 1963.

Wiss Pruning Guide : Form PG-25M-4-63 : J. Wiss & Sons Co. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

52 p., illus., 22.5 cm, trade catalog and instructional booklet

archive.org

The wick trimmers I found all had pockets to catch the wick.

 

[Outlawmws]

The scissors I have won't look anything like those. the Wick trimmers with catchers I have seen are all ancient. nothing modern. meaning mid century to today. getting back to the flower scissors in the catalogs. those overlap well into the 60's maybe more.

Also none of the catalogs show this type I have as flower scissors.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I was ecstatic to run into this empty wedge-shaped envelope (between the safety glasses pouch and the pez dispensers...) thumbing my way through a bin of random old "paper" (ads, magazines, 45 record sleeves, etc) at the flea yesterday.



The text and graphics are idenitcal to those used in the 1934 catalog...



Despite the wear and tear, it makes for a really nice historical display piece.

 

[Outlawmws]

And you had the 1-KS scissors? Awesome!

 

[kerrynzl]

These are already in the garage sale thread, but I got three pairs of Clauss 3760, at an estate sale, for $1 each.

I have enough pairs of scissors now… so I only buy barely used Made in USA pairs for a dollar or less.

Scissors are definitely an easy to find tool on the secondary market. I can’t imagine paying more than $2 for a pair.

Those 3 look like paper scissors

Hairdressers pay a lot more than $2 a pair
And I certainly would for a decent pair for Upholstery and Trimming [I would rather but old scissors and sharpen them myself on an oil stone [by hand]


Here is my Grandfather's old scissors ,he was a Wallpaper hanger for sometime in his working career [as a drifter / laborer according to my mom]
He passed away in 1957 before I was born.

My Grandmother gave them to me in 1977 when I just started out doing upholstery [she confirmed these were his]
So they must be at least 65 years old , that I know of, Probably a lot older

But I have never used them because they are paper scissors and I needed heavy scissors for Canvas / Upholstery

 

[Private Lugnutz]

And you had the 1-KS scissors? Awesome!

I found and posted them last year (post #120, page 3), but they're not marked. They play the part well, though - and will do as a representative facsimile until the real thing comes along in my flea market forays.

@Mintgrun has WISS kitchen shears (post #71, page 2), but they're missing the notch for lifting pressed and crimped metal beverage bottle caps. A significant feature for dating them, methinks.

Tom, note that my No. 1-KS paper envelope and the 1934 catalog both refer to the No. 1-KS kitchen shears as "New." I don't think that refers to their debut introduction as a type of shear. I think it refers to the notch. Note that the 1934 catalog refers to the teeth in the opening between the handles, "for unscrewing tightly fitting caps from ketchup bottles, etc., and for cracking nuts" as "An original feature." I think yours, without the notch, are older than 1934.

How much older I have not been able to determine.

No kitchen shears of any kind appear in any WISS catalog between 1917 and 1927. The first WISS literature of any kind on IA/ITCL that includes a reference to kitchen shears is a Price List dated January 15, 1933. If they started making them in 1928 or thereabouts, the new and improved version with the bottle cap opener was added in short order.