The Budget-Friendly Option To Improve Your Kitchen Shears Is Already In Your Home

There are plenty of things kitchen shears can surprisingly do, making them a versatile tool in your cooking arsenal for a reason. Koreans, for instance, use them for almost anything — cutting KBBQ meat, slicing various veggies, and even portioning slabs of kimchi (the powerhouse addition to boost your ramen). But much like the love we show our kitchen knives, kitchen shears deserve some TLC, too. Chowhound spoke with chef Serge Krikorian, managing partner and executive chef of Vibrant Occasions Catering, to figure out a budget-friendly option to improve the pair you already have. And all it takes is a sheet of aluminum foil. "Fold a sheet of aluminum foil several times to make about eight to 10 layers," he exclusively advised us. "Cut through the folded foil with your shears, making 10 to 15 full-length cuts. Use the entire length of the blade with each cut."

However, the aluminum foil method is, as Krikorian says, "a temporary maintenance hack." Using it will hone your blades rather than sharpen them, addressing the alignment and straightness of the blade. Alternatively, you can make a yearly trip to a professional sharpening service (or send your blades to them), and they can give your kitchen shears back as sharp as new — and it generally won't cost you a fortune. But Krikorian offers another alternative, too: A purchase you can make for less than $30.

Serge Krikorian lends a helpful tip if you want something more impactful than aluminum foil. "I recommend investing in an inexpensive whetstone... This properly sharpens shears rather than just honing them," he told us, adding that it can be useful for kitchen knives, too. If you already know how to sharpen a kitchen knife with a whetstone for finely honed precision, this should be a piece of cake. It's pretty straightforward to do it well — just tip your shears at an angle as per the manufacturer's advice, though generally, 30 to 40 degrees should do the trick. Krikorian recommends working with a 1,000-grit whetstone — a good coarseness for regular sharpening — but one with an ultra-fine 6,000-grit rating will also come in handy for one finishing pass. Whatever your choice of sharpening tool, be sure to wipe off your shears and rinse them under running water afterward, as the debris can be detrimental to your health if accidentally ingested. 

Another nifty tip Krikorian shared with us is to disassemble the shears when sharpening for better accuracy. However, there are models that don't allow disassembly, but you can easily work your way around this by gliding each blade's outer surface on the stone. And before you know it, you'll have a pair that can cut through any ingredient you're going to work with, with even better results than before.