A nice lady rung me up on Monday morning from an industrial sewing machine supply company in Leicester, England.
I was asked if I still wanted some William Whiteley 1920NP-12 side-bent shears that were out of stock in mid August; of course I said yes and carded it over the phone.
All I can say is "WoW" - the quality is extraordinary and I`ve seen and owned really good American Wiss and Japanese Kai and artisan German models that were not cheap.
The quality is as good or better than artisan Japanese scissors in my 40+ year experience of buying, using and hand forging Asian-style knives here in NW England and in the Far East.
They are much better than any domestic scissors I`ve ever owned.They weigh 754 grams which is about a pound and a half but are perfectly balanced.Most good consumer scissors weigh 250 to 500 grams.
The handles are not dipped in paint or rubber coated - they are stove enameled.
They are carbon steel with a HRC-65 hardness of the blade; the handles are softer even though the scissors are hot forged two-piece designs.
You can not see much daylight at all between the blades when closed which is a sign of perfect grinding.
They came in triple-wrapped bubble wrap and on each individual package was written "Sharp Scissors" in red marker pen !
Now I know why they had 3 warning labels on them - they can cut off 1/25th of an inch of a cigarette paper accurately and effortlessly with the very tips of the blade - unbelievable precision for such massive scissors.They can also cut 50 plus layers of paper towels effortlessly; I am not kidding.
They are hand made by an English craftsman with over six decades of experience; I`ve seen him on their website.He is well over retirement age.
The firm in Sheffield, South Yorkshire has been making hand made scissors continuously since 1760.
There is only a handful of staff in the whole 100 plus year old tiny factory.
They were an unbelievable bargain - less than £60 with tax and FEDEX next day delivery.
They are easily worth £300 plus - they are heirloom scissors and one of the best bargains I`ve ever seen.
Naturally I`ve ordered some more Whiteley scissors - a pair of ten inch ones for glass fibre, carbon fibre and kevlar / aramid and some five inch electricians scissors which were both less than £100 all inc.
They also do bespoke scissors with a waiting list and made scissors for the English Royal Family and the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace - London.
I`ve seen pictures of their scissors and they are truly works of art - fully jeweled and pierced and mirror polished like a Swiss watch.
Their normal range goes from £6 - £7 up to £6700.00 and bespoke is sky is the limit.
Naturally they ship Worldwide and have distributers in North America.
For the handmade quality the prices are unbelievably low; they must be doing it for love and pride
) neighbour, but in mostly men's tailoring plus he taught at the local technical institute. Again a collection of really cool tailoring shears. Their shears are as precious to them as out most prized knives are to us.
