Schrade Tough Chip

[Chako]

Apart from the funny name, this is a nice little scissor based MT. The original Schrade USA tools are nicely made and well finished. Quality throughout. The newer Chinese made Taylor Schrade tools are not comparable in fit or finish.

I have a silver, red, blue, and green version. I know they also made a black.

[Lynn LeFey]

I just got a copy of this tool from Breezy (Thanks, Breezy!!!!)

Mine is marketed as a Craftsman, though. It's marked as a U.S.A. made product.

I thought I'd give a mini review.

When I first opened it, I thought this tool might have potential as the best scissors of any MT. The tool is rather big for its weight (about 2 1/4 oz), but folds out into a substantial size, with great, ergonomic handles, and really thick blades, which inspire confidence. For fine cutting tasks, these scissors excel. Paper, cardboard, both corrugated and non-corrugated, PETE, and heavier gauge plastics all cut easily. The problem is when it comes to soft material, like Khaki, t-shirt, leather, or 550 paracord. The blades simply fold the material. So, on my scissor-test scale, they score a 9 (out of possible 18).

One side of the tool has toothpick, tweezer, and removable nail file. The tweezers are the worst I've seen on a name brand product. I couldn't get them to grip a hair to pull. At all. The toothpick is a pointy plastic thing, and i'm sure it works fine, The nail file worked pretty well.

The other tool handle has a combo cap lifter/small flathead, a slightly larger flathead, a very fine phillips, a small blade, and a lanyard loop. Three of the tools, the larger flathead, the philips, and the blade, will lock into place. Disengaging to lock requires opening another tool. For the size of the MT, the tools are short, and I find them to be in an awkward position. All of the tools (except the caplifter, which I didn't test) seem to work fine. The philips in particular was handy, fitting both small screws (like on the back of an old calculator) AND a #2 philips in a door jamb lock plate.

Interesting tool, but too bulky for the tool selection, in my opinion.

[Sweety-Sama]

Well... Unfolded it somehow looks like a transformer ready to be unleashed. ^^;
The blue and red one looks good. Although it puts me a bit of that the middle screw (is it called that?) are coloured too.


-----------------------------

First and only

[hrvstmn31]

I have one of these just got a brand new sheath for it I like it I just don't like closing it.

[Breezy12]

I just got a copy of this tool from Breezy (Thanks, Breezy!!!!)

Mine is marketed as a Craftsman, though. It's marked as a U.S.A. made product.

I thought I'd give a mini review.

When I first opened it, I thought this tool might have potential as the best scissors of any MT. The tool is rather big for its weight (about 2 1/4 oz), but folds out into a substantial size, with great, ergonomic handles, and really thick blades, which inspire confidence. For fine cutting tasks, these scissors excel. Paper, cardboard, both corrugated and non-corrugated, PETE, and heavier gauge plastics all cut easily. The problem is when it comes to soft material, like Khaki, t-shirt, leather, or 550 paracord. The blades simply fold the material. So, on my scissor-test scale, they score a 9 (out of possible 18).

One side of the tool has toothpick, tweezer, and removable nail file. The tweezers are the worst I've seen on a name brand product. I couldn't get them to grip a hair to pull. At all. The toothpick is a pointy plastic thing, and i'm sure it works fine, The nail file worked pretty well.

The other tool handle has a combo cap lifter/small flathead, a slightly larger flathead, a very fine phillips, a small blade, and a lanyard loop. Three of the tools, the larger flathead, the philips, and the blade, will lock into place. Disengaging to lock requires opening another tool. For the size of the MT, the tools are short, and I find them to be in an awkward position. All of the tools (except the caplifter, which I didn't test) seem to work fine. The philips in particular was handy, fitting both small screws (like on the back of an old calculator) AND a #2 philips in a door jamb lock plate.

Interesting tool, but too bulky for the tool selection, in my opinion.

you're very welcome! and credit should also go to gregozedobe. consider it a contribution to your ongoing scissor testing from the both of us.

this mini review is exactly what I was hoping for when I sent you the tool. I only played with the tool a bit, didn't do much testing... but I have to say I'm surprised at the results of the scissors test. I thought they would fail across the board, to be honest. Glad to hear they're at least useful for the finer cutting tasks.

for what it's worth, I agree with your overall assessment -- "too bulky for the tool selection".

[Chako]

But they do make a great collector item. 

[Lynn LeFey]

I've looked this thing over, and I think I have figured out what's up with the scissors. Under that little 'cap' on the scissors is the spring that gives force to open the scissors.

But I THINK it also is the only thing forcing the scissor blades against each other. You can press the blades apart about half a millimeter at the pivot. So, it's not peened or held together by screws, but by spring tension. When the scissors are operated, they sound very precise, and I think this spring tension is why. They are under a specific amount of force. This makes them cut VERY well, right up until the spring tension force is exceeded, then the blade push apart.

Chako, could you look at yours and see if you think I've got this right?

If i do, I think it's kind of a genius way to keep scissors in good cutting order, assuming you're only using them for light cutting tasks (which would be the majority of what scissors are used for).

[Chako]

I agree. If you gently pull the blades apart, you can tell that the pivot point has some wiggle room.

[shecky]

If you're right handed, the scissors might tend to exhibit that particular problem, because they are left handed scissors!

AFAIK, These Schrades were all made with left handed scissors. Odd quirk, that one. Great news for leftys out there. Or maybe not, because I'm not that wowed by the Schrade overall. I found the little Phillips more or less useless, much more so than many "flat Phillips" implementations out there. And out of the several I have, all USA versions, the locking mechanism isn't particularly trustworthy. And when folded, it is bulkier than much of the competition.

The removable file is a pretty good idea, though.

[Lynn LeFey]

The blades pulling apart has nothing to do with them being left-handed scissors.

Also, I used them yesterday to cut a coupon out of a sheet of paper. While they cut the paper easily, they are impossible to keep cutting in a straight line for some weird reason. I'm not sure how someone screwed up scissors this bad.

[shecky]

While the blades on your ST2 might be too loose, the problem of blades pulling apart is one reason there are lefty and righty scissors to begin with. A right handed person closing right handed scissors will tend to force the blades together and cut efficiently due to the orientation of the thumb, even if the pivot is sloppy enough that the edges can be separated manually as they close. Like occurs on many of my Micra scissors. And several pair of good old fashioned full size scissors.

[Lynn LeFey]

While the blades on your ST2 might be too loose, the problem of blades pulling apart is one reason there are lefty and righty scissors to begin with.

I don't know how to say this nicely, so I'll just SAY it.

First, I'm left handed. There is really, seriously nothing you could explain to me about lefty-righty scissors that I don't know and live with every pair of scissors ever.

That is NOT the issue with these scissors. They are not solidly held together. They are not peened, and they are not screwed. They're held together with spring tension, and it does not matter one iota which hand you use to operate them, it is solely and ONLY spring tension holding those two blades together. The tests I did with them, where they performed abysmally, were all done left handed. And for ALL of my scissor tests, if a scissor seems ot be performing poorly, I'll try them right handed (Many of the results for my scissor test thread rate differently for left or right handed use).

Without using them for cutting, you can push the two blades apart, at the hinge, a small amount, and when you let go, the spring pushes them back together.

I'm not trying to start a fight or sound inflammatory, I just actually know what I'm talking about, and it's not a left/right issue.

[shecky]

I wasn't trying to start a fight, which is why I qualified my responses by saying "the scissors might tend to exhibit that particular problem", and "While the blades on your ST2 might be too loose". I do stand my characterization over the issue that pops up with the ST2.

It sounds as though your particular example is particularly faulty, as of the several I obtained in a group buy do not exhibit an unusually sloppy pivot. They're all quite solidly and consistently riveted construction, perhaps the most redeeming quality of the examples of the ST2 I own.

[Lynn LeFey]

Yeah, I think my previous post came out sounding a lot more sour than i intended. Sorry about that.

[ChopperCharles]

Yay thread resurrection!

Sooooo, I got tired of my Tough chip not being tough, or cutting much of anything. And I thought I'd fix that.

First, lets see how bad they are:



Yowza, that's a lot of blade separation with not a lot of force. Looking at it, there is some blade bending, but most of it seems to be the pivot. I tried peening the pivot tighter to no avail. So.... lets go to the shop. First I'll drill out the rivet



And then separate the tool out into its components.



Looking at the pic, what you see is the rivet, the pivot, a spring washer, the two scissors, a flange for the spring, the spring, and the spring cover. The problem with the tool is the pivot (second piece from top) is too long and contacts the bottom of the flange (third piece from bottom). It can never be a tight pivot because no matter how much you peen it, the pivot is a fixed length and no more pressure can be applied.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

So what do? Well first, I want to put a screw pivot in this thing. I have one that is almost the right size, but it's too big by just a hair. That hair happens to be a standard drill bit size. So... to the Lathe!



First, I drilled out both the pivot and the flange with the lathe. Easy peasy, just remember this is stainless so use a lot of cutting oil and a really sharp bit, at a relatively slow speed. This drill only removed about 2 thousandths.

Then, I drilled out the spring cover so it can center on the new larger pin.



Finally, I took a file to the pivot and reduced the height. This way it will sit slightly below the top of the two scissors when everything is assembled. This will allow the parts to be sandwhiched together. Here you can see it sticking up slightly, as the spring washer is not in place as I'm filing.



Not shown is me also filing the new threaded pin (which replaces the rivet) to length as well.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

And here it is all assembled. I don't know what the new threaded pivot pin is from, it might be a multimaster, it might be some cheap generic kobalt tool, I don't have a clue. It was just in my parts bin. The screw looks like a multimaster screw, though. (especially because it's soft as cheese)



So... how did this do? Well... better. But still not perfect.



The pivot is definitely tighter, but the scissors still bend paracord instead of cutting it. The pivot still has some play. I think the ultimate solution is to remove the spring washer entirely, and file the pivot height down even more to compensate for that missing part.

That will be part 2. 

Charles.

[ReamerPunch]

If only they had half the dedication you have. Excellent work!

I do not have one of these. I like multi-tool scissors, and it seems I am not missing out on much with this.

[ChopperCharles]

I have this, the Leatherman Micra, and the cheapie Craftsman scissors you can get in every Ace Hardware from here to the moon for ten bucks. And.... the cheapie craftsman has the best scissors of the lot. As far as mini tools go, that's the winner by far. The rest of the tools in the craftsman are shiatty, but the scissors are great.

Well, the phillips driver is passable. The other drivers and tools can be made better with a quick trip to the disc sander and finishing files. That gives the drivers nice sharp, non-rounded edges and the awl and can opener cutting surfaces. Still pretty smurfy, but usable in a pinch.

I have yet to try the SOG CrossCut, but for $20 I will probably snag it soon.

Charles.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Update: I removed the spring washer and filed everything down a dash more. And sadly, these scissors will just never cut paracord. Even with the pivot so tight that the scissors can barely move, they cannot cut it. At this point it’s no longer the pivot flexing, it’s the blades themselves. They are just not beefy enough, and they bend too easily.

That said, removing the spring washer does make a significant difference. There was a particular piece of glossy cardboard that these scissors would consistently bend, and now they cut it every time. So they’re far better than before... but still not great. Perhaps now on par with the Micra scissors.

Charles.