My Little Adventure with Safety Scissors
Alright, so the other day, I found myself needing scissors for a project with my nephew. You know how it is, lots of paper, maybe some yarn, sticky tape involved. My first instinct was just grabbing my regular desk scissors, the sharp ones. But then I thought, hang on, he’s only little, maybe not the best idea having super sharp pointy things around while he’s enthusiastically waving paper about. Safety first, right?
So, I specifically went looking for “safety scissors”. Just typed that into the search bar, probably typed “safety scissors scissors” by mistake at some point, you know how it goes. Ended up ordering a couple of different kinds online because I wasn’t sure what to expect. One pair was all plastic, bright yellow. The other looked more like traditional scissors but had really rounded tips and shorter blades.
When they arrived, I obviously had to try them out first. Practice run time!
- First pair (all plastic): Picked them up. Felt super light, almost toy-like. Tried cutting some standard printer paper. Honestly? It was awful. It didn’t really cut, more like… chewed the edge of the paper. Really unsatisfying. Tried it on thicker construction paper? Even worse. Basically useless for anything other than maybe snipping a single thread, if you were lucky. Binned that idea quickly.
- Second pair (metal blades, rounded tip): These felt a bit more substantial. Had a proper metal blade, just very blunt at the end. I grabbed some construction paper again. Gave it a snip. Okay, much better! It actually cut. Not as clean or fast as my proper scissors, obviously, but it made a definite cut. Tried it on some thin cardstock. It managed, but I had to put a bit more effort in. The rounded tips were great, definitely felt safer knowing you couldn’t accidentally poke someone’s eye out.
So, the practice session was pretty clear. The all-plastic ones were a no-go for what I needed. The metal ones with blunt tips, though? They were the winners. They actually functioned as scissors, albeit slightly clumsy ones, but the safety aspect was spot on for having a kid around.
We used them for the craft project later that day. It worked out fine. Took a bit longer to cut shapes, sure, and the edges weren’t perfectly crisp, but nobody got hurt, and we got the job done. It was interesting, really focusing on just using these specific types of scissors. Made me realize you trade off quite a bit of cutting performance for that safety aspect, especially with the really cheap plastic ones. But finding a pair that balanced safety with actually being able to cut something was key. Ended up keeping that second pair in the craft box just for when the little one is around.
