“Less is more,” or so they say. Surely this is true of lawn decor, cosmetics, and tequila, but scissors? Yes, I have seen the light.
Throughout my 15+ years of quilting and sewing, and I’ve snipped, sheered, and clipped my way through countless pairs of Fiskars, Dritz, Singer, Gingher, and Clover. Honestly, whatever fit my budget and was available at the local discount store usually worked for me. Somewhere around 17 years old, I think, I learned that household scissors and sewing scissors are very different things. The scissors I used to cut foam board and duct tape for my science project should NOT be the same scissors I use to cut satin for my homecoming gown (ya think?).
First, I moved up to a “special” $10 pair that I kept hidden (a must in a house of 2 brothers & 2 sisters, in which working scissors always seemed to be a rare commodity). Then came my ergonomic soft-grip spring-loaded blades of glory, or so I thought. They lasted about 5 minutes, and were replaced with $20 “heavy duty” orange clad 8″ Fiskars, and some 4″ Mundials for small projects. No complaints to speak of, since I’d learned to grip and squeeze the handle at just the right angle to achieve a nice clean cut. I did have to position the fabric as far back on the blade as possible, since that was the only part of the blade that could cut.
Done and done, right?
Wrong.
It wasn’t until this spring, thanks to my partners in crime over at the quilt shop, that I discovered a new planet known as Dovo. At first glance, these things just look like kiddie school scissors (or at least they did to me). But a closer look and a test drive, reveals a cutlery masterpiece.
Basically, Dovo scissors are 2 high-quality knives joined with an adjustable screw. They’re the Mercedes Benz of scissors. No padded soft grip ergonomic mumbo jumbo clogging things up, just cold hard steel. The tag is written in German (I’ve always been a sucker for German engineering). It reads, “This article is made by Solingen master grinders under most rigid control, from the finest, hot forged special steel.” And they ain’t lyin’. These puppies slice through fabric like a hot knife through butter- all the way to the tip of the blade, with mind-blowing precision. Seriously, the first time I tried them out, I felt like Moses parting the Red Sea. When the fabric saw which scissors I was holding , it cut itself.
Trouble is, once you’ve cut with a blade like this, you can never go back. So, today I happily announce that I’ve purchased my first pair of expensive “big girl” scissors. I got some basic 5 inchers, and the $40 price (minus my meager employee discount) still stung a bit, compared to the $12.99 deals I’m used to getting, but it paled in comparison to $80 & $90 Dovos with the gold-plated handles and double pointed tip. Maybe in my next life…
For now, I’ll have to be content with the best pair of scissors I’ve ever owned.
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