Scissors are hand operated cutting instruments consisting of a pair of metal blades connected in such a way that the blades meet and cut materials placed between them when the handles are brought together. They are used for cutting various thin materials, for example paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin plastic, cloth, rope and wire. Scissors can also be used to cut hair and food.
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Scissors are hand operated cutting instruments consisting of a pair of metal blades connected in such a way that the blades meet and cut materials placed between them when the handles are brought together. They are used for cutting various thin materials, for example paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin plastic, cloth, rope and wire. Scissors can also be used to cut hair and food.
Scissors and shears exist in a wide variety of forms depending on their intended uses. Children's scissors, used only on paper, have dull blades to ensure safety. Scissors used to cut hair or fabric must be much sharper. The largest shears used to cut metal or to trim shrubs must have very strong blades.
Specialized scissors include sewing scissors, which often have one sharp point and one blunt point for intricate cutting of fabric, and nail scissors, which have curved blades for cutting fingernails and toenails.
Special kinds of shears include pinking shears, which have notched blades that cut cloth to give it a wavy edge, and thinning shears, which have teeth that thin hair rather than trim it.
Terminology
The noun "scissors" is treated as a plural noun, and therefore takes a plural verb ("these scissors are"). Alternatively, people refer to this tool as "a pair of scissors", in which case it (a pair) is singular and therefore takes a singular verb ("this pair of scissors is"). (In theory each of the two blades of the tool is a "scissor" in its own right, although in practice such usage is seldom heard.)
The word shears is used to describe larger instruments of similar kind. As a general rule:
- scissors have blades less than 6 in (15 cm) long and usually have handles with finger holes of the same size.
- shears have blades longer than 6 in (15 cm) and often have one small handle with a hole that fits the thumb and one large handle with a hole that will fit two or more fingers.
History
The earliest known scissors appeared in the Middle East 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. These were of the 'spring scissor' type comprising two bronze blades connected at the handles by a thin, curved strip of bronze. This strip served to bring the blades together when squeezed and to pull them apart when released.
Pivoted scissors of bronze or iron, in which the blades were connected at a point between the tips and the handles, were used in ancient Rome, China, Japan, and Korea. Spring scissors continued to be used in Europe until the sixteenth century and the idea is still used in almost all modern scissors,
