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

How to know what you’re buying when it comes to Haircutting shears, protect yourself when making this investment in your cutting tools.

Purchasing shears can be very confusing and sometimes misleading!  After you have done your research and narrowed down your choices ask these questions. And ask for the answers in writing, if the company can’t or won’t give you these answers in writing say no thank you and continue searching

 1- What steel is used in the blades   Find out exactly what stainless steel the shear blades are manufactured with. The steel material is one of the most important factors in shear cost and how well the edge will hold up.

 2- How are the blades manufactured, CAST- (lower quality shears) or Forged  ( higher quality shears)

 3- What is the hardness of the blades  (answer should look something like this ( 59 +-1) the answer should be somewhere between   57+-1 (low quality) up to 61+-1 (highest quality) 59+-1 is pretty average and a good all-around hardness.

 4- Type of edge design, CONVEX EDGE – higher quality, Razor sharp, Best for razor cutting techniques, but very delicate and great care needs to be taken when sharpening, Don’t hand these type of edges over to your local portable grinding/sharpening company! BEVELED EDGE- Found on lower quality shears, not as sharp as convexed edge but very strong and durable, found on most German shears and good for bulk cutting/Dry cutting.  Please note: If you are purchasing or have purchased any kind of plated or colored shear these all come with a beveled edge, these shears no not have a convexed edge no matter how expensive they are, Company’s will use the words like “semi Convexed” to disguise this fact but it is not true, all plated, colored, coated shears have a beveled edge.

 5- Country of manufacture- Today this really doesn’t matter as much anymore, There are great shears coming from all these country’s now- Japan, Korea, Taiwan & China.  This question will just get the sales person to commit to the proper answer. Most of the shears being sold today as Japanese shears are not from Japan, as I stated it really doesn’t matter all that much but it will keep everybody on the honest side of things, and let you know exactly what you are purchasing.

 Avoid shears from Pakistan, Turkey etc.  These are of the lowest quality and not for professional use, they do not cut well or last at all. You will find many of these on the internet, EBay, Amazon and places like that are flooded with them. They generally run $10.00- $50.00 and will have no markings on them at all, in an attempt to disguise where they are from.  Many of the very inexpensive colored shears you find at internet shopping sites are from these countries and may be OK for home use but will not hold up to professional everyday use.

If the company you are thinking of making a purchase from can’t put this into writing for you this should be a warning sign and you should not purchase from them. If after making a purchase and you find any of the written answers to not be true you will have far more power to do something about it.

In coming months I will try to break down each of these questions and give you more info about each one.    QUESTIONS?

Open Questions and answers, topic & forum..

This topic will be for you to ask any questions you need answers for about Hairstyling shears.
If you need some info or have a question that does not relate to any of the topics being discussed already, use this topic box to fire away.

Enjoy your visit

Ed
http://www.totallyshears.com/

Questions and Answers and information about having your Professional Haircutting shears professionally serviced

Having your Hair cutting shears serviced professionally, correctly and in a skilled, timely matter is extremely important. Stylist can find this as confusing and sometimes misleading as it was when going through the process of buying new shears. We expect this topic to generate a large amount of questions, and we will do our best to answer them all in easy to understand terms.

Getting your professional Haircutting shears serviced can be a frustrating and sometimes scary process,  we hope to arm you with info on The how and who and where you can find proper service. And know how to recognize good service.
You will learn what questions to ask before handing them over to any service company or person.

Why is service important?
Why it must be done correctly?
How to find a quality service company.
Common myths and misconceptions about servicing your shears.
What is the Stylists responsibility in keeping their edges in top notch shape?

All these questions and more will be discussed and answered, one at a time under this topic.

Current topic under this post - why it’s important to service your shears.

Next topic - How to find or get quality service, What to look for and ask your service company.