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I have a pair of J. A. Henckels kitchen shears that look exactly like this:

enter image description here

The joints are covered with a blue cap on both sides.

I sharpened them recently, but they still don't cut well, and I realized it was because they weren't tight enough.

I tested it by holding it upright, opening one side at a 90 degree angle, and then dropping it to see if the blades would catch, something like what is described here: https://www.darkstag.com/scissor-shear-tension/

So I removed the blue cap on each side of the joint, and it looks as such:

enter image description here

enter image description here

What kind of joint is holding the blades together? It does not seem to be a screw, but I am unsure. In the 3rd image (the reverse side of the scissor), there appears to be a washer (pointed at by the green arrow) in the joint.

I tried hammering the pivot together, but it only seems to slightly reduce the gap between the blades. Should I use more force, or is there another way that the tightening should be done?

XYkik
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2 Answers2

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Looks like a pretty normal rivet-and-washer (or rivet-and-burr) joint.

Careful work with with an anvil (or anvil-substitute, such as a sledgehammer head) and a ball-peen hammer (moderately small) will tighten it up. Support one side on the anvil, and tap the other with the ball-peen hammer (or, I suppose, some other sort of hammer, but the ball-peen is better than a flat one for the purpose.)

Repetition rather than great force is the generally safer approach, since there's no easy way to loosen it if you give it a big whack and they become too tight to close. Each tap slightly deforms the metal, and many repeated taps will move metal in ways that one huge bang won't.

Ecnerwal
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I had an "inny" which the rivet/burr were inside scissor (had plastic handle) so I used 2 dimes (on 1 side) which just fit in hole and tried to tighten with hammer and nail punch. Failed! So I did the same set up with 4 dimes (on 2 sides) and put it in a vise. I used a pipe on the vise handle for leverage. Two dimes were slightly bent but it Worked!!! I can't believe it. Thanks!

Tom
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