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Reviewed / Lindsay D. Mattison
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Credit:
Reviewed / Lindsay D. Mattison
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These well-designed shears are ultra sharp and so comfortable to hold. We felt like we could use them all day long without fatiguing our hands. Read More
Though not an impulse-buy, the Shun Classic Kitchen Shears can handle any kitchen task with ease, from breaking down chickens to cracking crabs. Read More
For precision work, a short and sharp blade comes in handy, which is what you get here. Some may find the comfortable handles too small, however. Read More
You can crack nuts, open a bottle, peel a potato, and break down a chicken with these multipurpose kitchen shears. The handles are comfortable, too. Read More
Though very sharp, these kitchen shears aren't well designed for kitchen use and may leave your hands cramped and aching. Read More
Are kitchen shears an essential cooking tool? I would certainly make an argument that they are. While your kitchen knives can do everything a set of shears can do, those kitchen scissors are the quickest way to perform tasks like snipping delicate herbs or cutting up a whole chicken. What really makes them essential is their ability to do everything else, which (if I’m being honest) is what my shears get used for more often than anything. Receive a package? Want to break down cardboard for the recycling bin? Need to cut open a plastic container or get into a bag of pasta? Using a pair of kitchen scissors—like our top pick, the OXO Good Grips Kitchen And Herb Scissors (available at Amazon for $19.99) —is a no brainer. Some of them even have extra features, like doubling as a bottle opener, nut cracker, or can opener, making them an all-in-one gadget.
I’m often in the market for a new set of shears—let’s be real, you can only abuse your scissors so many times by cutting up cardboard before it’s time to trade them in. Each time, I find myself overwhelmed by the choices. There are hundreds of kitchen shears, many of them with decent reviews. How do you really know which one to choose? The most important factors are comfort and blades that are sharp enough to cut through everything you can throw at it, so we put eight highly-relateda bunch of shears to the test. As luck would have it, we found a set that met those criteria while also happening to be quite the bargain.
The OXO Good Grips Kitchen And Herb Scissors were our favorite set of shears, tackling everything from hard cardboard to a whole chicken with ease.
The Shun Classic Kitchen Shears were the sharpest set of shears in the group, but they were also the most expensive.
We put each pair of kitchen shears through the same set of tests to determine which was the sharpest and most comfortable pair.
Hi, I’m Lindsay Mattison, a trained professional chef who’s always looking for a quicker, easier, more efficient way to tackle kitchen prep. After a trip to Seoul, South Korea, a few years ago, I was amazed at the variety of ways they use kitchen shears. It’s not just about snipping herbs; they used shears to cut things like cooked noodles and meat for barbecue. I took my newfound knowledge home, ditching the knife and cutting board in lieu of a pair of scissors for everyday tasks. It saves a ton of time on cleanup, but it does require one thing: A sharp set of shears.
Using kitchen shears to break down a whole chicken is much easier than using a knife!
We knew that a set of kitchen shears has to work on food, but it should also be able to tackle packaging material. So we threw as many different items at the shears as we could. We cut through cardboard, vacuum-sealed plastic bags, hard plastic clamshells, twist ties, kitchen twine, parchment paper, and the bags that hold whole chickens. The shears that cut through without snagging or stalling were awarded bonus points, and we purposely cut in circles to see if the shears could maneuver around strangely-shaped packaging.
Once they passed the everyday-use tests, we moved on to the food-specific tasks. We snipped delicate chives, cilantro, and green onions, testing to see if the shears created jagged tears or torn edges. As a final test, we cut up a whole chicken, which let us see how the shears could handle hard-to-grip skin, bulky meat, and poultry bones like the back and breastbone that often require spring-loaded poultry shears to get through. During the first half of the chicken, we kept our hands dry, but we greased them up with cooking oil to see how the shears could handle being used with slippery hands.
Throughout all the tests, we assessed the comfort level and ease of use of the scissors. Did they dig uncomfortably into our fingers as we used them? Could we easily maneuver around the bones and tendons in a chicken? Was it possible to slice through several herbs at once without sacrificing quality? In the end, we found that the shape of the handle and overall design of the shears played a big part in filtering out our top picks from our least favorites.
Shears that come apart are essential. They're easier to clean, and they allow you to sharpen the blades when they dull over time.
These scissors are one of the most versatile kitchen tool in your kitchen.They're often more useful than a knife because you don’t have to dirty up a cutting board! A high-quality pair of shears can chop lettuce directly into a bowl for salad, snip the florets off a head of broccoli or cauliflower, and trim the excess pieces off of pie dough. Almost any shears can cut through the more delicate items, but it takes the right pair to cut through bone when spatchcocking a chicken or snipping through rosemary’s woody stems.
Unlike other types of scissors, these kitchen gadgets are designed to be ambidextrous, so you don't have to worry about finding the right- or left-handed shears. But, you do want to find a set that's comfortable. That’s a hard thing to assess when you’re buying a pair online! There are a few things to look out for that indicate whether or not the shears will be comfortable in your hands. Look for finger bows that are wide and oval-shaped—overall, these were the shears that felt most comfortable in both my small hands and another tester with larger, meatier fingers. As the finger bows became more narrow and rounded, the more cramped our fingers felt. The last thing you want is for the shears to put pressure on your knuckles as you use them, so roomy handles are a must.
The second most important factor is blade design and sharpness. Unlike your knife, which is sharp on both sides of the blade, shears are only sharpened on the inside of the blade. One of the blades is smooth while the other one is usually serrated or micro-serrated. That allows the shears to simultaneously grip and cut the food, preventing the item from sliding backwards as you make the cutting stroke. The sharper the blade, the more effortless the slice.
Finally, another thing you to look for is take-apart blades. Most kitchen shears—but not all—have the ability to come apart into two pieces. This is helpful when it comes to cleaning the shears, and it’s absolutely crucial for good sanitation. While many sheers are dishwasher safe, hand washing is often recommended. If you’re using the shears to cut ready-to-eat herbs after breaking down a whole raw chicken, you really want to make sure there aren’t any lingering bits on the blade. Take-apart stainless steel blades are easier to sharpen, too, if you want to extend the life of the set once the blades begin to dull over time.
Sharp and maneuverable
Comfortable grip
Small handle holes
Slightly short blades
Long, sharp blades
Wonderfully multipurpose
Comfortable grip
None that we could find
Sharp blades
Small, cramped handles
Not well designed for kitchen use
Good cutting ability
Grippy
Long blades
No special features
Cannot disassemble for cleaning
Slightly small handles
None that we could find
Short blades
Uncomfortable to handle
Not sharp enough
Comfortable handles
Below-average cutting ability
Difficult to disassemble and clean
Lindsay is a professional chef, recipe developer, writer, and developmental editor. After years of working in restaurant kitchens, she turned to writing to share her passion for local, organic, and seasonal ingredients with home cooks and food enthusiasts.
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