Are Some Grass Shears Simply Incapable Of Being Sharpened?

[jim]

I've used hand files as instructed by various web pages. The beveled edge is nice and shiny, but still dull as before I started trying to hone them.

[pipedown]

The shiny blade is blinding you. Most of the bevel is useless and not used in cutting. It is the edge where the blades meet that counts, you need clean angle matching the bevel angle. Any rounding here is what amounts to dull. Try flattening the back of the blade by filing there too

Also if the pivot point is adjustable, you want it tight but not so its hard to close.

[Paul Franklin]

A file probably won't get them sharp enough, you need a sharpening stone. Try the fingernail test: Slide the sharpened edge of a blade along your thumbnail as if you were trying to shave it (away from your thumb!). If the blade slides easily and doesn't catch, it's dull.

If you get the blade sharp and it still doesn't cut, then the blade might be bent or as another poster said, the pivot is loose. As you close the shears, one blade should slice across the other with the contact point moving from the pivot side toward the end of the blades as you close them.

HTH,

Paul

[Roger]

Ditto comments on two prior posters. Make sure the bevel and the flat back of blade are both bevelled, and flat, respectively. For reshaping the bevel I use a carbide abrading tool such as this:

are nearly useless in my experience, as they produce an uneven, notchy bevel. I put the blades in a vise, do the bevel with the carbide tool, then finish and deburr with a regular carborundum (silicone carbide) sharpening stone, using it also to flatten the back of the blades. Make sure the pivot screw is tight, and hinge is oiled.