Cutting Leather With Shears
A good pair of shears is a thin-leather tool. Most of the trouble starts when people forget that.
Leather shears are the tool everybody reaches for first and trusts the longest, because they look like the scissors in a kitchen drawer and nobody needs a lesson to pick them up, and that comfort is exactly why they get pushed into leather they were never built to cut. A pair of shears pinches. The blades close on the leather from both faces and shove it sideways as they go, and the thicker and stiffer the hide, the harder it shoves back. Buy the right pair and they will cut suede, lining and light straps all day. Buy the wrong one and they’ll chew the edge of good bridle and leave you with a cut you have to trim twice.
Video: Leather Scissors Shears: Gingher Utility Shears vs Tandy Leather Blue Craftool Sure-Grip Compared, from TechLeatherCraft on YouTube.
That’s TechLeatherCraft putting two common pairs side by side. My bias, before the list. I build briefcases from thick bridle, and the posts on cutting a briefcase out of a bend and why bridle is a hard first leather say why that leather is a fight for any blade. So weigh my opinions against that. The specs below come from the makers and sellers, and the field reports come from the leatherworker.net forum.
What makes leather shears different
A short blade, a hinge close to the work, and teeth that hold on.
Fabric scissors fail on leather for a simple reason: the leather pushes out of the blades before they meet. Leather shears are built to stop that.
The first trick is the hinge. In a forum thread on choosing a good make of leather shears, Tallbald noticed that the hinge bolt sits closer to the cutting edge than on fabric shears, which puts more force where the leather is. The spec sheets show the same thinking in the cut length. Whiteley’s 8-inch pair has a cut length of 74 mm, under three inches. Gingher’s 8-inch leather scissors, as Sailrite lists them, cut with blades 2-3/4 inches long.
The second trick is grip. Many leather shears serrate one blade. The Wiss W8BLT listing on Home Depot describes one blade serrated and one edged. On the forum thread about scissors for leather, Gump explains that the serrations sit on the outer edge rather than the cutting edge, so they grab the leather and stop it pushing out of the blades.
Serration has a price. Cardinal leather, in the first thread, says his serrated pair has to be kept square to the leather or it wanders.
My opinion: serrated is worth it on anything slick or springy. On thin calf, a plain knife edge leaves the cleaner line.
Five pairs worth knowing
Prices and claims as the sellers list them, October 2026.
These are the pairs that turn up again and again in makers’ talk and on sellers’ pages. The figures are the sellers’ own.
| Pair | Blade, per the seller | What the seller says it cuts | Listed price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gingher 8 in. leather scissors | Knife-edge blades, detachable for sharpening | Leather up to 3 mm | $37.95 at Sailrite |
| Whiteley 8 in. leather scissors | Serrated carbon steel, made in Sheffield | Full and half grain, suede, nubuck, heavy fabric | US$84 |
| TandyPro Super Shears | Medium-carbon stainless, about 9.8 in. | No thickness given | $79.99 |
| Wiss W8BLT | One serrated, one edged, drop-forged | Leather and welt cord | Not shown on the page |
| Kai 7250 | 10 in., thicker blades for heavy cutting | No leather claim made | $74.95 |
The Kai is the odd one in that list. Its seller never mentions leather. It’s there because Bigpaws, on the scissors-for-leather thread, rates the KAI 7000 series above his old Tandy pair and calls them sharp all the way to the tip. Treat that as one maker’s word, not a spec.
Left-handed? Ask before you buy. Tandy sells the TandyPro pair in right- and left-handed versions at the same price, and the Gingher at Sailrite is listed as a right-handed pair. Buy the hand you cut with. The European reseller Pet Hardware lists the left-handed TandyPro under its own code, which tells you it’s a different tool and not just a different grip.
One more test, and it costs nothing. Take a strip of your own leather to the shop or ask for a sample cut, and watch the last half inch at the tip. Bigpaws praised the KAI pair for being sharp right to the tip for a reason. A pair that cuts in the throat and folds the leather at the point will do that on every curve you ever cut.
The Wiss has the best field report for weight. On the same thread, Gump says the Wiss 8BLT easily cuts 10-ounce veg tan, and an answer from Apex Tool Group on the Home Depot listing puts its limit at a quarter inch of strap or belt leather.
Johnv474, in the first thread, names Gingher and Wiss as the major leather shear brands and says sizes run from about 6 to 12 inches. Trevor, in the same thread, uses two Wilkinson Sword pairs made in Sheffield for heavy veg-tan and everything else.
How thick a pair of shears will go
Somewhere around eight to ten ounces, the knife wins.
Nobody who makes shears for a living gives you one honest number for this, so the forum fills the gap.
In a thread on shears for leather over 10 ounces, the starter reports that Tandy’s Pro series is said to cut only to 9 ounces. Gump answers that a Fiskars serrated pair will cut 10-ounce leather. TinkerTailor says a knife is easier to keep sharp and use, and calls it the only practical hand tool above about 8 ounces. Gingher’s own rating, through Sailrite, is 3 mm of leather, and that’s the only maker’s limit in this whole list.
So the useful range is clear enough. Up to the middle weights, a good pair works. Past that, the leather is fighting the blades, and every inch of cut costs your hand more than it should.
Bridle is where I live, and it’s the worst case for shears. It’s thick, waxy and stiff, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere. The post on reading a bend before you pay for it gets at how dense the good part of the hide is. I cut from the bend and use the shoulder for small parts. The belly goes in the trash. None of those parts is shears work, in my opinion. A panel cut with a pair of scissors leaves a pinched, slightly crushed edge that the beveler and the burnisher then have to fix, and they can’t always fix it.
Where shears earn their place
Thin leather, suede, curves, and thread.
Here’s what I’d buy them for. The list is short, but it’s real.
Linings first. I offer calf suede linings, and suede is soft, stretchy stuff that drags under a knife and creeps out of line under a straightedge. That is the job serrated shears are built for, holding a material that wants to slide.
Then curves in thin leather. A knife on a tight curve in light calf has to be turned a little at a time. Shears follow a pencil line around a curve with less fuss, as long as the leather is thin enough that the blades close cleanly.
Then trimming. Excess lining after gluing, a stray thread end, a little overhang on a pocket. That’s small work where a pair of shears is safer than a blade dragged toward your own thumb.
And rough cutting. Some makers use shears to cut a part loose from a hide before the clean cut with a knife. My opinion: that works on light leather and wastes time on heavy, because you’ll make the cut twice.
Whatever you buy, keep it for leather. Trevor, in the shears thread, says never to cut anything except thread and leather with them, and not to lend them out. He keeps his sharp with a diamond file. TinkerTailor, in the other thread, says to send hard-used shears out to be sharpened, because home sharpening is easy to botch. Tandy’s care note for its pair is to keep it clean and dry and oil the joint every few months.
The case against shears, and the hole in it
I argued for the knife. Then I counted what I actually need.
Here’s my case. A briefcase is cut, not snipped. On thick bridle, the knife leaves a square, clean edge that the rest of the work can build on, and shears leave a pinched one. I work with a ruler and my eye instead of templates on my own bags, cutting a part out of the hide the way a sculptor takes stone off a block. A knife does that. A pair of scissors doesn’t.
Now the hole in it. My cases are not all thick bridle. A gusset is thinner than a panel, so the case bends without creasing the outside. A suede lining is thinner still. Every one of those thinner parts is a place where shears are the faster, safer tool, and a man who sneers at them would be cutting suede with a knife and swearing at it.
So the honest advice is narrower than the one I started with. My opinion: if you work mostly in heavy veg-tan, buy a good knife first and a pair of shears second. If you work in garment leather, suede and light calf, it’s the other way around, and the shears are the tool you’ll reach for all day.
If you’re still putting a first set of tools together, the older post on a complete leather craft tool kit lists what usually comes in one.
The pair you buy matters less than the leather you point it at. Get that wrong and the price of the shears won’t save you.
12-Inch Stainless Steel Metal Ruler with Non-Slip Cork Backing: A 12-inch stainless steel ruler with a non-slip cork back. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).
Leather Round Knife with Wooden Handle: A round knife with a wooden handle for cutting leather. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).
WORKPRO 18mm Retractable Utility Knife: An 18 mm retractable utility knife with snap-off blades. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).
Fiskars 18 x 24 Inch Self-Healing Cutting Mat: A self-healing cutting mat, 18 by 24 inches. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A commission may be earned if you buy through this link, at no extra cost to you.
Sources
- Sailrite, Gingher 8 in. Leather Scissors, Right Handed: https://www.sailrite.com/Gingher-8-Leather-Scissors-Right-Handed
- Whiteley, 8 in. Leather Scissors: https://www.whiteley.co.uk/product/8-leather-scissors/
- Tandy Leather, TandyPro Super Shears: https://tandyleather.com/products/tandypro-r-super-shears
- Home Depot, Wiss 8-1/2 in. Serrated Blade Belt and Leather Cutting Scissors (W8BLT): https://homedepot.com/p/Crescent-Wiss-8-1-2-in-Serrated-Blade-Belt-and-Leather-Cutting-Scissors-and-Pouch-W8BLT/204158811
- Home Sewing Depot, Kai 7250 10 Inch Professional Shear: https://homesewingdepot.com/products/kai-7250-10-inch-professional-shear
- Pet Hardware, Pro Super Shears TandyPro 25 cm: https://www.pethardware.com/en/leather-scissors/pro-super-shears-tandypro-5196/
- leatherworker.net, Good Make and Style of Leather Shears: https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/65153-good-make-and-style-of-leather-shears
- leatherworker.net, Scissors for Leather: https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/109075-scissors-for-leather
- leatherworker.net, Scissors / Shears: https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/72389-scissors-shears
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