Care and tips for Thinners, Texturizers, Blenders & Chunkers. (TTBC)

Many Stylists and even sharpeners do not realize these shears can be serviced and sharpened. If you purchase a good quality TTBC and take good care of them service as needed these can easily last you your entire career.
A little extra care needs to be used on these tools, always keep clean and oiled and the tension should always be a little tighter than a regular cutting shear. Great care must be used to not drop or bump these tools even the slightest Damage to either the toothed blade or cutting blade will make these shears not function. Never force these shears to cut if they are not functioning properly, you will end up damaging the fine teeth and lowering the chances of these being serviced and used for many more years.
The best way to test these and see if they are functioning properly is to make a cut on a client with nice straight hair, keep them closed and try to pull them out of the hair, if the come out easily, like a comb your good to go, if they grab or pull any hair or do not slide out of the hair easily you need to have these serviced. Be very carefully on the type of company you choose to service tools like this, They are very tricky to recondition properly and many of the sharpening companies will grind on the toothed blade, ultimately effecting the performance and the percentage of hair they were designed to cut. Many companies will tell you they can’t be serviced and work at selling you a new pair.            

Shear tip of the day #4

Always service your shears as needed, using dull shears is no fun and causes more damage to them and you, and in the end more metal has to be removed to repair compared to if you just had them honed when they first started dulling.

If you have dropped your shears and there is a nick you can feel or see stop using them and get them serviced, if the balance or set was knocked out from the fall and they are not working correctly, same answer, stop using them and get them serviced.

If you are missing the silencer or bumper stop using them, if you continue to use them the tips will be overlapping, causing damage to the edges and the chance of you cutting yourself or a client .

Never force your shears to cut, if they are struggling with certain hair types or because you are cutting to large a section take smaller sections and spend a little extra time to get the job done.

The whole key here is servicing as needed (if by a proper service) and not putting it off will actually help your shears last longer giving you a bigger return on your investment. Example, Sally has her shear serviced every six months and is very careful to keep them clean, oiled & adjusted properly, When she does have them serviced they usually just need a nice honing, removing hardly any material from the blades. Now Jessie puts off service and keeps using her shear way past the point of just dull, for the last year she has been forcing her shears to cut by using heavy side pressure with her hand and she has been hacking and chopping at the hair to get the cut done. By the time Jessie finally has them serviced there is so much damage that a lot of work and a lot of metal had s to be removed in order to get a new edge. Just 1 of these types of services can remove more metal than 6 or more of the honing services that Sally received. You can always contact us at totallyshears@gmail.com  &  www.totallyshears.com & Totally Shears on Facebook for info or with your question

 

 

Shear tip of the day #3

Your shears are now clean, oiled & tension adjusted, Now let’s talk about safe storage during use and not when in use. Shear stands are great, keeps them safe and ready to go right on your station, Shear pouches and belted tool bags are another great way to keep them safe and easily available. If you choose to keep them in a drawer use dividers or non-slip mats to keep them from banging around with other items in your drawer every time you open/close the drawer.

Avoid leaving them on your station, especially on a towel or magazine; this is the #1 cause of shears hitting the floor.  We have included pictures of examples of safe, proper storage.

Checking and adjusting your shears tension.

Shear tip #2, After your shears are thoroughly cleaned and oiled your tension will need to be checked and adjusted. Proper tension is the absolute most important factor on how well and long your shears will perform and this is the Stylists responsibility. Tension that is too loose will force you to use un-necessary side pressure with your thumb and wear or grind your edges down and also cause damage, Tension is too tight this will also cause damage to your edges and your hand. Correct tension will also help protect your blades if dropped to the floor. Follow the direction on the picture below and feel free to contact us if you need any help with