Can beauty scissors be sharpened with a belt grinder?

[SHARPCO]

As you know beauty scissors has convex edge.  So to sharpen it, we need WOLFF Hira-To or TAS(& convexing clamp). 

But belt grinder(e.g. Viel, Kally) can sharpen convex edge knives. 

How do you think about it? Is there any problem with sharpening beauty scissors with belt grinder?

[grepper]

No. I wouldn't even attempt sharpening them with a Viel or Kally.

[Mark Reich]

Very few things motivate me like hearing someone say, "You can't do that". No one has told me I cant sharpen hair shears on a belt for quite a while, so I had to grab a pair of hair shears and sharpen them so I could remember the impossible part.

It's actually more like, "Improbable without practice". The tricky part is Not over grinding in front of the plunge line, or at the tip, which is remarkably similar to sharpening anything on a belt.  

I played the hair shear game briefly. The only thing worse than working for young girls is dealing with scissors that were sharpened... I don't know, maybe on the sidewalk? By a plumber?

It's worth the price of a cheap hair shear to find out what you're missing for yourself.

I think you could do it, Mr. Grepper.

[grepper]

Cool Mr. Mark!  I've been called a lot of things in my life but never motivational.

Considering how brief and unequivocal my response was, I figured I’d end up having to explain a bit more. Given the context I’d still reply the same, but, I would have to agree that anything is, of course, possible.

I'm assuming that Mr. Sharpco was asking in relation to precision salon shears and not just run of the mill hair cutting scissors. 
 
Given that, is a Viel or Kally the right tool for the job?  Not really.  Is there a high likelihood of screwing up and damaging the shears?  Yes.  Is there much of likelihood of getting a perfect grind along the entire edge with professional results?  No.  Would I recommend that anyone lacking a thorough understanding of what is involved and the performance expectations of expensive, finicky, fine beautician instruments go anywhere near those things with a Viel or Kally?  Well, no!  Danger Will Robinson!  You know, any little slip on the belt and you could end up shelling out big $$$ to replace them. 
 
Fancy-pants salon scissors can be expensive, $500 or much more.  The folks paying that much expect them to cut perfectly without grabbing or pushing the hair in front of the cut right up to the very tip.  The edge and grind has to be perfectly even and consistent along the entire length of the blades or they won’t perform to expectations.  Then, the picky customers expect them to be returned perfectly polished and in factory new like condition.  Add to that the tips on these things are very small and considering the cost metal removal must be as little as possible.  Any screw up at all around the tip and the things are trashed. 
 
All of the let’s sharpen salon shears equipment I’ve seen use flat stones and convexing jigs.  I’ve never seen a single one that uses belts.  I’m not an expert at all in sharpening salon shears, but it sure seems to me that a Kally or Viel is just not the right tool for the job.  Kally and Viel do great for sharpening paper, fabric and kitchen shears, etc., but are not designed for sharpening convex salon shears.
 
That said, my wife cuts my hair with scissors I sharpened on my Kally.  They do OK, but she does not have the level of expectation that beauticians do, and the scissors are just your basic department store straight blade variety of hair cutting kit stuff.  That’s a completely different animal than expensive fine salon instruments.
 
Personally, I wouldn’t even let these https://kamisorishears.com/ be in the same room as my Kally!
 
FWIW, that's my reasoning for responding the way I did.  I thought about all that stuff before posting my first reply, but succumbing to laziness and not feeling like typing a bunch at the time simply summarized and responded with, “No.”
 
Watch this Bonika representative sharpen their shears.  I’m ‘bout 100% sure I could not pull that off with such precision using my Kally:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGMk7qMPeSk
 
Here’s how good shears are expected to perform:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E38M7C_afas

[DanielRJackson]

A belt is an amazing tool for a lot of things: convex edge geometry is one of them, but plunge-to-tip evenness is not.

I wouldn't try to grind the edge for a razor with a belt, either, for the same reason. (Though there are plenty who can and do.)

[Ken S]

This question also reemerges periodically on the Tormek forum. The answer remains the same. The practical answer is NO. The exception to this is sharpeners who are willing to dedicate several thousand dollars and time for specialized training and equipment.

Knife and scissors sharpeners may look jealously at the fees charged to sharpen salon shears and want a piece of the action as a sideline. Bad idea. A much more practical sideline is sharpening woodworking chisels. A surprising number of construction carpenters either cannot or do not choose to sharpen their own tools. Adding chisels to one's sharpening service requires very minimal, if any, capital investment and can be easily learned.

Ken

[Edgepal]

I do not like beltgrinders

My tools can sharpen scissors, both flat and convex edges - thins soon 20 years back in time. I even hade a special tool, EdgePal Barber, just for scissors.

In my opinion, the convex sphere must be fully controled in the angles. That means that there must be a starting point and. Stop point dor tye convex sphere - and in my way of thinking, this two points have both degrees.

Also on scissors the convex sphere are different, some holds 6 degrees ore more, others hold 2 degrees - or less. This means that the tool must have a function that can be adjusted to any wanted convex sphere - with. Startpoint and stop point in known and wanted degrees.

With this function tye edge, and the convex sphere, can be maintained without any change of the convex sphere and the degrees there is on the cutting edge.
It is also possible with a tool like this to make micro serrations so that free hanging hair can be cutted without hair move between the scissors edges - and that also this micro serrations can be maintained.

Also, in my mind, a pro barber is the person that shall test the function of the edge that have been sharpened. Scissor works like ice drill edges - that must be tested on ice. There is no other way to test ice drill edges. They will work - or not work at all. The edge must be perfect for just ice. It can be perfectly sharp - but not drill at all in ice...

When I constructed EdgePal Barber I work together with barbers that tested the scissor I had sharpened.
i acted from the barbers opinion, experiances and thoughts about the scissor worked and change the edge from that - and let the batbers test the edge again. That was a good way to go in my opinion.

Many barbers use very expensive scissors. I have sharpen scissors that cost more then 1500 USD - and I am responsible for the scissor - and the function of the scissor = i cannot destroy the scissor becosue then I must by a new scissor to the barber...

Today we also have another thing to ttink about...ceramic scissors with convex edge - and how to sharpen them...

Thomas

[SHARPCO]

Thank you all.

For the sharpening beauty shears, I'll order WOLFF Hira-To someday.

[Brent Riggins]

As you know beauty scissors has convex edge.  So to sharpen it, we need WOLFF Hira-To or TAS(& convexing clamp). 

But belt grinder(e.g. Viel, Kally) can sharpen convex edge knives. 

How do you think about it? Is there any problem with sharpening beauty scissors with belt grinder?

I would get a pro to do it. What is going to happen is, you are going to remove some of the material from the blade. If you have a super fine belt and a real steady hand go for it. But I get my hair shears from Kenchii. They have different level shears to pick from and I only sharpen them once a year. Go to https://kenchiibeauty.com/shears/ and pick a level 3 shear, they also have a life time warranty.

[grepper]

Mr. Riggins, your post looks a bit like an ad for Kenchii and made me curious, do you work for Kenchii? Those are some expensive shears!

If so, the question of sharpening beauty shears comes up here every so often and it would be good to have someone on board who really knows about it. What equipment/process does Kenchii recommend for sharpening?

You mention that you sharpen your shears one a year. Could expound on what equipment you use? Everything that I've read indicates that special equipment and training is necessary for those type of shears.