An Ausome Threesome

[decorum]

An honest title ~ my apologies if you nipped in expecting to see something else .


I've been looking for a decent pair of heavy duty scissors / shears for a good while and when these came up recently on eBay I watched them like a hawk .
It's always a risk when buying second hand but I hit lucky and these snip through 5mm armour bend like it were fog.

For scale, my frying pan and Dutch Oven ... All three are ausome*.





I guess I need to make a suitable sheath now .


* Ausome ~ Awesome and a half.



Thanks for looking ~ and my apologies to any Mods and / or Admin who might have been momentarily panicked by the title

 

[Mesquite]

Those shears do look the business Phil. Good grab on ebay

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Are the fry pan and DO from a dolls house or are those seriously big shears

 

[luckylee]

Are the fry pan and DO from a dolls house or are those seriously big shears

lol thats what i thought mate.
are they miniatures mat?

 

[decorum]

The pan and pot are both roughly 4" across ...

Are the fry pan and DO from a dolls house or are those seriously big shears

... but even with my hand providing a more appreciable example of scale, the shears aren't what you might term 'diddy'...




The thickness of each blade at the pin is roughly 2/5" (about 10mm in decimal) and weigh a smidgeon over 1.6kg :yikes: .

Those shears do look the business Phil. Good grab on ebay

They're a serious beast and were an absolute bargain .

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Wow, that certainly gives better scale. Zombie Apocalypse shears

 

[decorum]

Wow, that certainly gives better scale.

I really should take another pic using a pair of kitchen scissors to really highlight the size :evilangel:

Zombie Apocalypse shears

Bring on the zombie elephants ...

 

[decorum]

I really should take another pic using a pair of kitchen scissors to really highlight the size :evilangel:

 

[demographic]

Tailors shears have the long bolt that holds them so you can pick them up dead easy as well. Can't say I've seen tailors shears like that though.

 

[TurboGirl]

Good grief! Thats some heavyweight metal there!! I've always thought tailors shears had a flat on one handle with a cranked scissor action so they'd run along a table to bear their weight rather than the wrist... its very unusual to see the end snub nosed too, the designer didn't want to poke holes in whatever he designed them to cut! MOST interesting. Whats the cut like?

 

[decorum]

Tailors shears have the long bolt that holds them so you can pick them up dead easy as well. Can't say I've seen tailors shears like that though.

I'd wondered about the long bolt extrusions ~ I'd wondered whether they were intended to run in a groove / jig to ease cutting? .

Good grief! Thats some heavyweight metal there!! I've always thought tailors shears had a flat on one handle with a cranked scissor action so they'd run along a table to bear their weight rather than the wrist... its very unusual to see the end snub nosed too, the designer didn't want to poke holes in whatever he designed them to cut! MOST interesting. Whats the cut like?

I don't think they're tailor's scissors ~ they don't cope well with 'floppy' but slice through rigid (they went through 5mm veg-tan armour bend like it was fog but struggled with multiple layers of soft leather). The distance between the pivot and the handles gives excellent mechanical advantage which, combined with the heavy engineered chunkiness, makes me think they're designed purposely for thick rigid materials (leather / board etc). There's no apparent ability to adjust tension either which, again, points toward shearing thicker single layers ~ could well be barking up the wrong tree though (or, possibly, be just barking )

Cut's good on the straight, I've a small project in mind for tomorrow which has a curve or two ~ and that will tell me a lot more .


I think the name on them is T. Wilkinson & Sons of Sheffield. The mark is almost gone, so I could well be wrong .


Found a bigger pair ...

Pic found here.

 

[demographic]

I'd wondered about the long bolt extrusions ~ I'd wondered whether they were intended to run in a groove / jig to ease cutting? .



I don't think they're tailor's scissors ~ they don't cope well with 'floppy' but slice through rigid (they went through 5mm veg-tan armour bend like it was fog but struggled with multiple layers of soft leather). The distance between the pivot and the handles gives excellent mechanical advantage which, combined with the heavy engineered chunkiness, makes me think they're designed purposely for thick rigid materials (leather / board etc). There's no apparent ability to adjust tension either which, again, points toward shearing thicker single layers ~ could well be barking up the wrong tree though (or, possibly, be just barking )

Cut's good on the straight, I've a small project in mind for tomorrow which has a curve or two ~ and that will tell me a lot more .


I think the name on them is T. Wilkinson & Sons of Sheffield. The mark is almost gone, so I could well be wrong .


Found a bigger pair ...

Pic found here.

I don't know about those ones you have but I picked up a set of Wilkinson tailors scissors for my lovely wife from a secondhand place for a couple of quid, nearly fell off my chair when I saw how much they would be new as it was knocking on 200 quid. They could do with being cleaned up though as they were a bit rusty and to be honest I would want it done by a pro.

They have that very long adjustment bolt thing thats supposed to keep them semi upright when not in use.

 

[decorum]

I don't know about those ones you have but I picked up a set of Wilkinson tailors scissors for my lovely wife from a secondhand place for a couple of quid, nearly fell off my chair when I saw how much they would be new as it was knocking on 200 quid.

I have to agree, these do indeed seem to be tailors scissors ~ happy to be wrong as it leads to learning and understanding .

And yes, the heavy duty stuff isn't cheap :yikes:~ these were a steal too ..

They could do with being cleaned up though as they were a bit rusty and to be honest I would want it done by a pro.

I think these have been cleaned up after a heavy rusting (pitting is very evident up close). Having found the parent company I'm considering contacting them for advice about how best to adjust them ~ lord only knows what's been done to them to cause the maladjustment . Hopefully they'll also have a bit more historic information on this pattern .

They have that very long adjustment bolt thing thats supposed to keep them semi upright when not in use.

The extrusion works quite nicely for that ~ I guess I'm to used to leaning mine on stuff or leaving it protruding over an edge. Definitely a useful, if somewhat bulky, feature

 

[demographic]

I got a set of what I think are 10" Wiss Duckbill metal Shears a while ago from the same secondhand place (They say 10" and made in the USA on them and something about being drop forged if I remember right) and they are by far the nicest metal shears I've ever used. Because they have scissor style fingerguards they don't need a return spring to open them, the hand manages that just fine. Way better than the Gilbow straight and the (fairly cheap admittedly) aviation snips I own.
They look quite a lot like the bottom ones in this picture.

Cuts accurate enough to cut paper but its for metal really. Can't have paid more than a few quid for those either