Look for a quality pair of heavy-duty but comfortable kitchen scissors (6″ to 8″ long) that give you about a 3″ to 3.5″ cutting edge. The larger handle openings of kitchen scissors makes it easy to grip, although all-metal textile scissors like from Wiss and Wüsthof (or any of the other German brands–from Solingen), are outstanding. For a half-decent pair of kitchen shears that will last for 5-10 years, it will cost you between $20-30. Anything above that is going to be higher quality, require less sharpening and will last a lifetime.
Scissors are a specialized cutting tool, and consequently are faster and easier to use than a knife, in many of the practical situations where something needs to be cut accurately and quickly, such as clothing, or plastic bags, duct tape, string/rope, bandages, etc. In a survival situation, this convenience repays itself in spades for the negligible weight of a pair that you carry.
The primary differences between scissors and shears are:
- Scissors: have equally sized finger holds and are symmetrical, so they can be used by either left-handed or right-handed users; scissors are defined as being shorter (7 inches or less in total length) than shears
- Shears: are longer (8+” in total length), and typically have different sized finger holes; in the textile industry they are purposely shaped for either left or right hand use; but very large shears (like for gardening) have ambidextrous finger openings, or straight handles
Scissors should have a strong precision metal screw or pin holding them together. This metal pivot point allows for heavy-duty cutting power without splitting apart at the tip of the scissors. The metal pivot point will let you cut thicker material the first time. Some scissors allow you to easily disassemble, without any tools, for cleaning. All-metal scissors are easier to clean/sterilize (drop into boiling water) because they don’t have nooks and crannies, like plastic handled ones, but will be colder to use in outdoor cool weather conditions like winter. Most of the higher-end scissors will also have a micro serrated edge which keeps them sharper for a longer time. This serrated edge makes a huge difference when trying to cut straight on the first attempt without binding.
I like, or have used the following scissors in the past, and highly recommend or suggest some of the following brands:
- Wüsthof (Model 5553, or Model 5556)
- Wiss (any — 28N is good value)
- Cutco (Model 77 is my absolute favourite that I purchased years ago, and use regularly in the kitchen, but apparently cost over $180 now!)
- OXO Good Grips
- KitchenAid
- Scotch, Fiskar, or LivinGo (shears and electrician scissors), and Lamson
Scissors are a very important part of first aid treatment. You should ALWAYS add a pair to your kit.
You can purchase specialized blunt-tip trauma shears (that are normally part of a first aid kit), or as I prefer, substitute in a higher quality pair of regular scissors in the kit — since you will most likely be very careful cutting off clothing (rare occurrence), whereas the finer cutting tip of a regular pair of scissors is much more useful for detailed cutting work on bandages and other medical related cuts in the field. The Olfa SCS series are an excellent, yellow-handled high-visibility sharp pair of blunt tip scissors that can be added to your medical kit.