Following in the footsteps of the tin opener, ;the kitchen scissors also broke. At some point one of the handles had gotten too close to the stove and been melted a little. Then someone else seems to have dropped them and the loop of the handle has snapped. Although this is all supposition, I was presented with them as "found like this." On inspection you can see that it is a clean break.
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| Damaged kitchen scissors |
At this point I'd pared back the bubbled plastic so it isn't really visible on the close-up. Ideally I would like to have solvent welded the break but, as I couldn't identify the manufacturer (initially), I couldn't find out what polymer it was made from. Assuming it might be ABS I tried MEK but it didn't touch it at all, with none of the usual tackiness that usually results from interactions between the two. My next guess was nylon, as the bubbling on the handle looked a lot like the same damage you get on a fish slice that has been overheated, which means superglue. In the end it turned out to be polypropylene so superglue was probably not the best choice, but I didn't know that at the time.
So I retrieved the superglue from storage, applied it and it stuck well. However superglue does not do well in water so I needed to protect the joint somehow. I settled on a liberal application of black electricians' tape. The result, whilst not pretty, was functional.
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| Repaired kitchen scissors |
If I'd had my wits about me I would have used heat shrink sleeving instead but I didn't have my good head on that day.
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| The Wrong Head |
Fast forward six months and the repair is still solid, so no complaints, even though now I'm not sure whether it is the superglue or the electrical tape that is holding it together. However one of the tykes has walked off with them and they are not coming back (just the scissors, I think). So I am back into purchasing mode, as with the tin opener 'repair.'
I'm not sure where the scissors originated from. The view is that they are probably from Oxo but no-one really knew. However, they had been a good pair of scissors and were still providing reliable service. Five out of seven review sites recommended Oxo Good Grips Kitchen & Herb Stainless Steel Scissors. These aren't the same design as the earlier scissors (if they were Oxo, that is), but the most important feature is that they come apart for cleaning. It also makes sharpening them a lot easier as well.
In an ideal world an all steel design would be better as there is no risk of the blades parting company with the handles. The downside of this, though, is that it increases their weight and to minimise this manufacturers make the handles smaller and thinner and this impacts on the comfort of using the scissors. I suppose wrapping a stainless steel core with a better grip would ease this, but that is more pennies for the manufacturer to lay out. Another factor against all-steel designs is that they are pretty exorbitant, think £50-100 a pair compared to £17.50 for the Oxo scissors, ouch! You'd have to get a lot of use out of a pair to support that cost and our last pair has lasted over 10 years.
So, Oxo it is.
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| Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Scissors |
Probably.
Not being able to identify the source of the original scissors was irking me. Guessing that they might be from Lakeland or Debenhams a Google search for images identified something similar from Lakeland. Right-clicking the picture and copy image link and it was off to Google image search (which has steadily become more and more useful over the years).
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| Using Google Image Search to identify the manufacturer |
And they were quickly identified as Arcos Prochef Series 195 mm Kitchen Scissors. As I had no complaints about the first pair I dropped the Oxo scissors and rebought the original ones from the Arcos Store on Amazon. Even better they were only £9.86, about half the price of the Oxo scissors.
Their advert could use a bit of work though. I could have had them for £7.20 if I would have picked them up at the local Post Office, but the delivery time, stated as "Usually dispatched within 6 to 7 months," was a little too long to wait. Also the handle material was described variously as polypropylene, polyoxymethylene and wooden all on the same page.
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| Arcos shonky Amazon product page |
Arcos makes a great play of their Spanish heritage but, like everything else, these are made in China. The blades are fashioned of something called Nitrum stainless steel; it turns out that this is a tradename for Arcos' own brand of stainless steel. Its composition is a secret, apparently. A secret to everyone, that is, apart from any other knife manufacturer with access to an XRF analyser who will know the elemental composition. Arcos haven't patented it, so my guess is that this 'secret sauce' is probably more marketing than technical know-how. Not that this really affects my use of the scissors.
Once the scissors arrived they were washed, dried and put into service. One thing I noted when dealing with the packaging was that they come with a 10 year guarantee that isn't even mentioned on their Amazon product page, which is nice.
So for Arcos, 9/10 for their cost and quality but 2/10 for their Marketing Dept.
JOB DONE
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