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A discussion on kitchen shears

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kitchen shearsScissors are like the socks of the kitchen. Socks mysteriously disappear when you put them into the dryer and scissors, at least in my house, mysteriously disappear when put into a kitchen drawer. Sometimes they will reappear, of course, or they will not vanish at all, but in my experience it is inevitable. It happened to my favorite pair of kitchen shears this past week.

Kitchen shears are unlike ordinary scissors because they are intended for use in the kitchen. The main property that qualifies them for this position is that they are very easy to clean. In fact, just about every good pair of shears will easily come apart, allowing it to be hand-washed or put in the dishwasher and cleaned; there are no hard-to-reach joints or angles at all with this type of scissor. I tend to use mine for everything from cutting open packages to cutting down sheets of homemade marshmallows into cubes (not at the same go, of course).

To pick out a new pair, I could have gone into any kitchenware store and picked out the first pair I saw, but instead I decided to reference an older article in Cook’s Illustrated that rated kitchen shears. Their advice was to look for a pair of “take-apart” scissors that were sharp (though the blades can be sharpened quite easily), lightweight and easy to handle. Blades should be straight and not too short, as short blades mean that you’ll need more cuts to get through whatever you’re working with. Messermeister’s Take-Apart Shears won their test, though because they were far more comfortable for right handed people, CI also pinned Wüsthof’s Come-Apart Kitchen Shears as a winner.

I opted for the Wüsthof’s and, so far, have no complaints. Hopefully they’ll stick around for a while before ending up in the land of missing scissors and socks.

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4 Comments
  • Nicole
    March 4, 2008

    I am constantly misplacing my kitchen shears! I have two pair now and I still find myself searching for them at least once a week. They are the only thing in my kitchen that go missing on a regular basis!

  • Chris
    March 4, 2008

    I too have the Wusthoff shears and they are fantastic. They come apart so keeping them clean and sanitary is easy and they work great!

  • Cathy
    March 4, 2008

    I just have to say that I haven’t lost any shears since the kids moved out. ;-D

  • Lorinda
    March 5, 2008

    I KNOW!!! It’s so aggravating because it’s one of the best kitchen gadgets!!

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