How to Make Tweezers Sharp Again
Don't Chuck Em Out!
Blunt tweezers are a hurting….literally! A couple days ago I noticed a strand of white hair darting out from my brow (gross I know), so what practice I practice? Grab my tweezers in an endeavour to pluck the sucker. What should've taken less than 10 seconds, took about 2 minutes. Frustrating to say the least, simply that's not fifty-fifty the worst part. Considering they couldn't grip onto the hair tightly, the tweezers would pull then slip….ouch! If you've experienced this, you'll know exactly what I hateful. As I continued in ache, I had one of those light bulb moments (okay maybe non quite):
Instead of throwing them out, why not learn how to sharpen tweezers!
Believe it or not, but tweezers ain't exactly what I'd consider cheap. A good pair of stainless steel tweezers will run you about $20 easy. Information technology doesn't terminate at that place. A pair of precision tweezers is about $30-35. Call me a cheapskate, but there's no ways I'm dishing out that kind of money. Granted, I probably don't demand anything more than than a $ten pair, but hey that'due south still $10! $10 I could employ for a hot hearty Vietnamese soup to keep me warm on a cold winter dark! Dorsum to the topic at hand, why should you sharpen your tweezers?
- Considering you save money in the long run. This one'due south kinda obvious!
- Because you go to larn a skill in the process that volition serve yous for the rest of your life!
- Because sending them to get professionally sharpened likewise drains your wallet!
- Considering pilus strands sticking out of your forehead (amid other places on your face) ain't cool!
If the in a higher place 4 reasons aren't plenty to motivate yous, I have no promise. In all seriousness though, sharpening tweezers aren't all that difficult, and you'll see that as we go through the iii dissimilar methods. Merely earlier nosotros look at each of the 3 ways, we need to empathize…..what the heck are we sharpening anyways!?
What Exactly Are We Sharpening Anyways?
Before we get into the details of how to sharpen tweezers, information technology'due south important to understand what exactly we are trying to accomplish. What are we sharpening, and how can we test/bear witness our results? For most tools, this is straightforward. For example, to acuminate a pocketknife, you would sharpen the cutting edge (AKA the part that does the bodily cutting) and test for sharpness by slicing through a sheet of paper. It's not as cut and stale for a pair of tweezers, however. Tweezers don't necessarily cut anything, so technically there's no "cut edge". Dislocated notwithstanding? Don't worry it'll all make sense in the end.
Tweezers grip not cutting, and it's this ability to grip that we aim to restore on our tiresome pair. As such, saying we are "sharpening tweezers" isn't exactly correct, because that's non what we are doing.
So what are nosotros doing? two words: removing imperfections.
That's it. Some call information technology deburring, and others phone call it realignment. I like to telephone call information technology removing imperfections. Our goal is remove imperfections from what I like to call the "gripping border" AKA the two surfaces that grip or hold (see image below).
My apologies if I have confused the heck out of you with all that. If y'all've read any of my previous posts, you'll notice I like to get very detailed, so you know exactly why we practise things the way we do. I detect this more valuable over but listing out iii or iv means to get information technology done. In an attempt to make things uncomplicated, whenever I say sharpening tweezers, I actually mean removal of small imperfections. I hope this all makes sense. Alright, let's go into the nitty gritty!
#1 Use A Leather Strop
If you don't accept a leather hone, any other piece of leather should be fine. If yous have an quondam leather belt kicking around gathering dust, now is the time to bring that bad boy out. Why leather you inquire? I use leather for a lot of things: stropping my knives and straight razors are a couple examples. Unlike most abrasives, leather is soft and basically a lot less aggressive. Equally such, information technology'south perfect for removing imperfections and polishing a surface.
Important: This method will only work for tweezers that require a quick touch up. Refer to #2 & #3 for extremely dull tweezers.
The actual sharpening process is pretty like shooting fish in a barrel. I'll break it downward into 3 simple steps so it's easy to understand:
- Step 1—Pinch downward on the leather surface, such that both tweezer tips are in full contact. Don't pinch too hardly….a moderately house grip will suffice.
Compression Downwards With A Firm Grip! - Step ii—While standing to pinch down on the leather, pull away and outward until both tweezer tips no longer make contact with the leather. It's piece of cake to rush this…..slow downwards. Slow, smoothen strokes all the fashion!
Pull Towards You Till Both Tweezer Tips Make Contact - Step 3—Complete the "pinch" and "pull" in steps 1 & 2 a total of 10-15 times. Depending on the condition of your tweezers, you may need to repeat a few more times.
Finally, give it a quick exam and see how information technology plucks. If information technology does the task, voila….no more awkward face hair! Again, I recommend this method for tweezers that just need a quick touch up. The methods below utilize a more aggressive abrasive to remove imperfections.
#2 Everyone's Favorite—Sandpaper!
Sandpaper is one of those things y'all only gotta have at all times. The fact that it'south versatile means that It tin be used for diverse applications such every bit knife sharpening, maintaining cutting boards, and even polishing upwardly former or rusted steel. Hither's an awesome write up from Jillee @ onegoodthing that talks most all the unlike uses for sandpaper. Information technology's definitely worth checking out!
Before I go any further I'd similar to say, both sandpaper or emery cloth will become the job done…..so don't freak out if all y'all tin can get your hands on is emery cloth! What about dust? I always recommend getting a multifariousness of grits, as opposed to just 1: coarse, fine, and extra fine is plenty in my opinion. Anyways back to the topic at mitt. Permit'due south talk about how to sharpen tweezers using sandpaper!
The sharpening process is pretty much the same every bit the leather we talked virtually in #one. Follow the 3 stride process to a higher place, only always always e'er recall to get-go off with a fine grit….I can't stress this plenty people. If you don't go results with a fine grit of sandpaper, and then switch it up and use a more than coarse grit. Don't jump the gun!
#3 Use An Unglazed Ceramic Mug Or Plate!
Yup, your coffee mug tin be quite effective when it comes to restoring dull tweezers. Who would've guessed right!? Although, you gotta be conscientious because this will only work for unglazed ceramic. Most java mugs I ain are all glazed, so i'll be using a ceramic plate instead. How does this work? Simple. Ceramic is quite a bit harder than steel, and considering of this it's able to strip/abrade steel when the two come into contact. In fact this is the verbal reason why most people use ceramic to sharpen knives (always heard of ceramic water stones?).
The sharpening process is a little different from the 3 step procedure described earlier. Here's what's worked for me:
- Step 1—Pinch down on the base of the ceramic plate ensuring you lot take a house grip.
Start Here! - Step 2—Complete half a circular revolution around the plate. Important to not lose grip in this step!
Practice A One-half Revolution! 
Consummate Some other Half Revolution By Tracing Back Up To Where You Began - Step 3—Echo steps 1 & 2 a total of v-ten times equally required.
And That's Pretty Much All You Demand To Do!
That'due south how to sharpen tweezers! Pick your favorite of the 3 methods above, and see how it works. One last matter I almost forgot to mention:
Continue your tweezers clean at all times!
Get in the habit of washing them after every use. Finally, If you lot want to relieve a couple more bucks, here's a post I wrote on sharpening nail clippers. I effigy it may be useful to some of yous. If you're interested, give information technology a read!
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you did, consider sharing on the socials. Lastly, if you accept whatever questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. You can either get out a comment below, or send me an email at support@myelectricknifesharpener.com. Cheers for reading. Run across y'all in the next one!
*Besides, if you're in the market for a pocketknife sharpener, why not cheque out our reviews?*
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