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Whether you're using them to open packaging, trim herbs or spatchcock a chicken, sharp and comfortable scissors are a kitchen essential.
We tested the most popular kitchen scissors from under £5 to over £20 from brands including Fiskars, Joseph Joseph, Victorinox, Robert Welch and more, and found two outstanding Best Buys that are a cut above the rest.
The best scissors are comfortable to use and razor sharp. Read on for our full test results, whether we think it's necessary to buy left-handed scissors, and how to sharpen your kitchen scissors safely.
Compare our results and prices at a glance in our table below or read on for our full reviews.
Date tested: January 2022. Pricing and availability last checked: 13 December 2023
Cheapest price £17.49 at Harts of Stur, also available at Amazon
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Super sharp
Additional features Lid opening
These scissors are razor sharp and a real favourite of our panel, although they don't have quite as many additional features as some of the other scissors we tested.
While they're ridiculously sharp for tasks such as cutting herbs, packaging and tough plastic, they struggle with thick items such as bones or the dowel we used in our sharpness test.
If you bought these scissors you wouldn't be disappointed. As well as being sharp, they're also easy to use and easy to clean.
Only available at Amazon £14.99
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Sharp and very comfortable
Additional features Thumb grip, separable blades for cleaning, fish descaler
This is a sharp pair of scissors that are incredibly comfortable in the hand.
We liked the sharpness of these scissors, the separable blades and how easy they were to clean.
They're a bit awkward to use when spatchcocking a chicken and, due to the thickness of the blade, aren't the best pair for finely trimming herbs.
If comfort is your priority, though, then these are a worthy Best Buy.
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Cheapest price £15 at M&S (out of stock online), also available at Lakeland John Lewis Amazon
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Brilliant for stripping herbs
Additional Features Separable blades, herb stripping
These are a nice set of comfortable scissors, that are let down a little because they're just not that as sharp as the very best. However, the herb stripping holes are good for quickly stripping herb leaves from their stalks.
They're comfortable to use too, and the separable blades make them easy to clean.
Cheapest price £16.50 available at Argos Amazon also available at Robert Dyas Lakeland
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Good, simple scissors
Although Fiskars is a popular brand, we think you can get better scissors for less.
These basic scissors are sharp and moderately comfortable, but the hard plastic can dig into your hands when doing really tough tasks.
Due to the thickness of the blades, we also found them more difficult than other scissors to finely trim herbs with.
Only available at ProCook £4.95
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Feature packed but lacking sharpness
Additional features Fish descaler, beer bottle opener, lid opener, separable blade, flathead screwdriver
These scissors come with a lot of features, but are a little too blunt for our recommendation.
It's hard not to be wowed by the dizzying variety of tasks you can complete using these kitchen scissors.
But ultimately they forgot the most important element – razor sharp blades.
While they won't struggle with basic tasks, we found tougher ones such as spatchcocking a chicken a bit of a struggle.
Only available at Amazon £13.99
Pros
Cons
Our verdict It's worth paying a bit more
Additional features Beer bottle opener, lid opener and fish descaler
While they're comfortable, easy to clean and have some useful additional features, these scissors aren't sharp enough for tough kitchen tasks.
We struggled to spatchcock a chicken, and had to use two hands and a lot of force to cut through thicker items in our sharpness test.
Only available at Amazon £3.80
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Too basic, not very sharp
While relatively cheap and comfortable to hold, they were difficult to use in our tests.
Spatchcocking a chicken was a struggle, trimming herbs was a faff, the blades lacked sharpness, and there are no additional features.
Only available at Amazon £17.20
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Left-handers preferred the Best Buy Victorinox
We think there are better options than these kitchen scissors that have been specifically designed for left-handed users.
These scissors didn't perform very well in our sharpness tests and were only average for ease of trimming herbs.
They're good at tougher tasks, for example crunching through bone when spatchcocking a chicken.
Cheapest price £26 available at Amazon John Lewis
Pros
Cons
Our verdict Not worth the price tag
These were the least favourite scissors out of those we tested because they're so uncomfortable to use.
The plastic handles are very hard and can cause pain when chopping through tough items.
Despite this, they are easy to clean and pretty sharp. But we can't recommend them because of the discomfort we experienced while using them.
See the best tin openers from our tests.
Many of the scissors we tested are symmetrical, and therefore equally as comfortable for a right or left hand.
However, none of the left-handers in our panel preferred the left-handed specific scissors we also tested over our symmetrical Best Buy.
The simplest way to sharpen kitchen scissors is to treat them exactly like kitchen knives and use a knife sharpener or whetstone.
We tried a few 'hack' methods, such as cutting sandpaper or kitchen foil, but they didn't seem to sharpen the blades very effectively – and we wasted a lot of sandpaper trying.
If you're keen to have scissors that are easy to sharpen go for ones with easily separable blades, so that you can take them apart and sharpen them, and get brilliant results.
See the best knife sharpeners.
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