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Comment by rixrax | Hacker News Reader

If you’re looking for a quality Scissors, there is a Finnish company called Fiskars[1] that makes amazing high quality scissors (and shovels) that amazon.com carries.

Disclosure: not affiliated. Just wanted to give them a shoutout since very few people I ran into have ever heard of them.

[1] http://www.fiskars.com/

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I'm surprised you don't meet many people who have heard of fiskars - I grew up in the Northeast USA, and there's near-universal agreement in my social circle that Fiskars makes the best quality scissors on the market, to the extent that we all share memories of fighting over who got to use the fiskars during craft time in elementary school. Weird!

I wouldn't consider it universal. They farm out much of their production to China and the quality suffers.

Heritage (now owned by Klein tool) is a domestic US manufacturer of forged scissors in a variety of styles available at competitive prices. They eclipse the typical ground scissors that permeate the retail market.

Grew up NE US also, never heard of them

If you sew or garden it’s hard not to bump into them.

I grew up in the Midwest and it's the only scissors brand I can name from memory. Maybe it's a thing for US Millennials.

If you want a really good one, Forged steel scissors, the kind that tailors use for their whole life; look no further than:

~ $20 (I bought them back in 2000's when they were $50) Gingher http://gingher.com/

~$150 William Whiteley http://www.whiteley.co.uk/

I bought Gingher 5" craft scissors in 2013 to keep at the office and liked them so much I bought another pair in 2015 for the house. The quality seems top-notch. I use them to cut everything--sometimes just because I can--and they're still as sharp and perfectly aligned as the first day.[1]

Like any geek I had spent an absurd amount of time researching scissors. Even by 2013 Fiskars had already seemed to be moving manufacturing off-shore to China. Not that there aren't top-notch products coming out of China, but as a consumer it's a gamble. Fiskars has a quite large product line so maybe they still make some stuff in Europe or the U.S., but that didn't seem to be the case for the stuff I had found on Amazon.

[1] That's an exaggeration, of course. (The "everything" part; they really are still as sharp and aligned.) I try to use our crappy kitchen sheers for anything that might require extensive cleaning (e.g. cutting meat packaging) because I suspect the Gingher are high carbon steel and the edges would likely rust if I kept washing them. (I use alcohol wipes when necessary, like to remove packaging adhesive.) And I use a pair of aviation snips for really tough jobs, partly because of the better lever action and partly to postpone the day I need to actually sharpen the Ginghers. The Ginghers could probably take much more abuse then I give them, but I can't say for sure.

Huh. It seems Gingher has been a subsidiary of Fiskars since 2005. So Fiskars does indeed still make great scissors!

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.a...

I don't really like all this China bashing. Lots of companies are moving their production to China not because it is cheaper to produce there, but because the quality is much better.

Eg. just 2 weeks ago a favorite kanoe designer of mine announced to move his production from the US to China. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1015742899150912...

China produces some excellent quality, and a vast amount of awful quality as for the last couple of decades that has been their selling point.

It's not so long ago that it was Japan that produced mostly crap and made lots of inferior copies of western goods. They moved past it, and now are often superior, as will China.

I see it not as China bashing more brand bashing. There's an expectation of quality from some of the old names that built reputation making a particular product. In the main, quality manufacturers that have moved production elsewhere have lost a lot of that quality - wherever they moved it to. Just the same happens when brands become just a word in someone's brand portfolio after they've been bought up a time or two.

e.g. Fiskars are huge and spent the 2000's buying up dozens of famous international luxury brands, closing their factories, and selling much inferior, made elsewhere, products on those brand names.

I don’t agree with the comparisons with Japan in the 80’s. It seems like every time someone bring ups China’s manufacturing, they have to somehow relate to Japan’s past. For one, Japan isn’t an authoritarian rule and second, we are about 4 decades into the future. There was no e-commerce, no internet, na completely different world. Commerce wasn’t the same as it is today. Furthermore, Chinese and Japanese values are on opposite side of the spectrum.

...and? Before Japan it was Hong Kong and South Korea making the crap, before that someone else. South Korea was authoritarian and autocratic, whilst its economy grew at breakneck pace starting in the 60s, and remained so until the late 90s. Japan had democracy thrust upon it rather earlier for well known reasons.

They all seem to take a markedly similar approach to development catch-up, namely a heavy emphasis on education and steadily moving from cheap and inferior copies to local innovation and quality. China is well along that route.

Authoritarianism doesn't rule out development, neither does democracy.

During the 80s Japan was ruled the a single party that had been in power since the end of WW2.

Yeah, it's not so much China per se as once quality brands increasingly churning out mediocre goods at low costs in various overseas factories. Mind you, the trend of retail conglomerates, private equity firms, etc. owning a bunch of brand names/catalogs is nothing new. But current trends towards disposable goods, fast fashion, etc. have exacerbated it.

Exactly. It's strange how a lot of people just lump all these various companies together and just call it "China."

There are tons of Chinese companies that make extremely high quality stuff. You just have to be willing to pay for it.

Wow. I didn’t realize they were Finnish. I’ve grown up with so many of these in India, I used to think they were actually Indian! TIL.

I'm in New Zealand here, I used to think they were from here too

Bata is not Indian either. It's a Swiss company. I wonder how many know that in India.

Bata is originally a Czech company (Baťa), their owners were forced to emigrate and lost everything they owned in the Czechoslovakia after the communists came to power. The family of the owners was famous even during communism here, because while they were industrialists, certainly not the heartless kind. They built universities and whole towns so their employees could live in comfort. Now I read there are towns named after them in other areas in the world, so they took the practice to the global stage. Interesting.

That's great to know! Thanks a lot for the information!

> Now I read there are towns named after them in other areas in the world, so they took the practice to the global stage. Interesting.

Yep! We have one in India as well called Batanagar (City of Bata): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batanagar

I wonder if someone in China was thinking the same? Because the reality is now it is Chinese.

Fiskars seem to be everywhere I’ve been. They’re kind of mass market these days and routine quality. Not bad, but not anything particularly outstanding.

I bought a Fiskars hand axe, in part, because I liked the idea of having an axe that was the same brand as the dainty little shears we have in our "craft box". (It's also a nice hand axe, too!)

If you use scissors professionally or just like nice things I'd recommend Kai. Fiskars are what your aunt buys from the fabric store.

Your aunt doesn't know better then. As some others have pointed out, it's now Chinese made and the Q&A on all products out of mainland China is just a gamble.

Weird that people haven't heard of them, they were super common here on the West Coast USA when I was in school.

I'm a big fan of Kai scissors. Their shears are a joy to use -- super sharp, chomps through fabric like butter, with soft plastic handles. I found them a step up from my Gingher shears, definitely easier on the hands.

They also make the best damn bobby pins, pins that literally do not deform or break, that seem like they could last a lifetime.

I think they make knifes under the Kershaw brand. I've had one I really like, but I don't know much about knives.

These are also fine scissors:

https://www.harborfreight.com/7-inch-multipurpose-stainless-...

If you live in USA you are probably close to a Harbor Freight, so you could have them today.

HF gives these away for free sometimes:

https://www.harborfreight.com/multipurpose-scissors-47877.ht...

I have many pairs -- they work fine for most ordinary tasks.

Do you have a recommendation for American-made scissors?

Klein Tools. Very high quality stuff.

Thanks! I'm one of those old farts who uses zip ties to organize cables around the house, I think those Klein scissors will stand up to my abuse quite nicely!

Klein tools are borderline pornographic. I own their linesmen pliers and scissors. I also use their canvas zip bags as a man purse. Ridiculously amazing in every aspect.

They also make a wonderful push lawnmower.

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