Sharpening Dog Grooming Scissors for Better Performance
Dog grooming scissors must be sharpened to maintain performance and extend their longevity. If grooming scissors aren’t at their optimum sharpness, they stop cutting your dog’s hair with precision and can even end up folding the hair rather than cutting through it.
This makes the grooming experience more troublesome and causes it to take longer, which can be especially problematic if your dog is fussy about grooming.
Signs that Your Dog Grooming Scissors Need to be Sharpened
After checking that the scissor tension is correct, consider the following points:
- Does the scissor feel like it is pulling or grabbing the dog’s fur rather than cutting?
- Does the dog’s coat bend rather than cut as the scissor blades are closing?
- Does it take more effort to cut than usual, resulting in hand stress and tiring?
Can You Sharpen Dog Grooming Scissors Yourself?
The short answer is no. Sharpening dog grooming scissors should be carried out by a skilled professional using precision tools to maintain and sharpen them correctly. Sharpening dog grooming scissors without the correct tools or knowledge can actually make them function worse. Even if you sharpen your kitchen knives at home yourself, scissors can be a lot more complicated because you’re working with two blades that must interact to perform best.
Instead, consider a specialised dog grooming scissor sharpening service. There may be a specialist mobile dog grooming scissor sharpener in your area that can come to your salon, but, if not, you can send them to one of the many scissor sharpening services which work using a postal service.
That may not be the (cost-effective) news you were looking for, but we can provide some helpful tips and advice on how to extend the timeframe required between sharpening services, which ultimately saves you money in the long run.
How to keep Your Dog Grooming Scissors Sharper for Longer
You need to pay for dog grooming scissor sharpening to keep the scissors performing at their best, but you can mitigate this cost by extending the time it takes for your scissors to need another sharpening. Here are our three top tips to extend the sharpness and longevity of your scissors:
#1: Wash Your Dog First
As any dog groomer knows, the dog must be washed before it is groomed. Most dog owners will wash their dogs before giving them a groom at home too. However, if the dog is reluctant to bath time, skipping the first bit can be tempting. The problem with this is dirty dogs cause even the best grooming scissors to become blunter faster. So, if you want to keep your scissors sharper for longer, make sure your dog is clean first.
#2: Regular Maintenance
Regular scissor maintenance is crucial if you want to keep your scissors sharper for longer. We have written a separate blog on how to clean grooming scissors correctly, including how to check tension and oil scissors.
The quick answer is to use a dry microfibre cloth or piece of kitchen roll to wipe away fine hairs on both sides of both blades. Read our blog for more tips and tricks as part of the process.
#3: Don’t Leave Scissors on Tables
This one can seem trivial but we’ve heard a similar story from dog owners so many times. The groomer or owner is grooming the dog and has left their scissors in the vicinity on a table while they use the clippers. The dog or the groomer then accidentally knocks their scissors to the ground. These sorts of bumps and accidents can contribute to damaging the scissors.
