These Fiskars scissors [Update: they’ve moved to the Gardening section. Try there or there. ] seem to be intended for sewing & quilting, but they work just fine for snipping plastic filament, cutting tape, and severing hangnails…
The titanium nitride coating probably doesn’t add much value to the mix, but that’s what they had at JoAnne Fabric when I bought ’em.
This detail of the tip shows why they’re so great for detail work: each blade ends in a two-way taper to a genuine cutting point. Of course, that means they’ll survive exactly zero falls to the shop’s concrete floor, but they’re fine while they last.
The trick is to sign up for JoAnne sale flyers, which regularly deliver “40% off any one item” discount coupons, then make a targeted shopping expedition. Those coupons account for the green self-healing cutting mat that’s in the background of so many pictures around here, too…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
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6 responses to “Recommended Scissors”
N has several sets of those, with the intended target materials written on the side: “plants”, “art paper”, and so forth. They sure are nice. I believe they’re even available in lefty version.
My esteemed wife has several sets of very sharp sewing scissors, each with the inscription “Touch these and you draw back a bloody stump” in blinking bold red italic letters. They cut nothing but cloth…
Once upon a time I borrowed my mom’s Belding Corticelli sewing scissors to cut some silver sheet solder into tiny pieces.
Once.
I’m typing this with ten fingers only because I was her child, I’m pretty sure.
I thought you typed with a limp; didn’t want to say anything, though…
The best general purpose pair of scissors I’ve yet owned are these from Harbor Freight, surprisingly heavy duty and great quality for $8. I’ve been using the mine near daily for the past few years, and they have no substantial wear. Alas, no tapered end like those Fiskars, but how rare is it for just one implementation of a tool to be sufficient? I also have a pair of scissors that are designated fabric only, so it goes.
Those look remarkably like the garden shears in my esteemed wife’s collection; from a different source, but the same general idea. She thinks the return spring has entirely too much oomph, although the blades work fine.
She refuses to let me remove a coil or two, which indicates how much she likes them.