Hi Warren,
My scissors are stainless, offset, inexpensive ($3), made in Korea, bought at
a local cloth store, and have served for the whole build. Stainless is
preferred because they are washed so often. The main reason for choosing them
was that they are offset, i.e. the bottom blade can be laid on the table and
one's knuckles will clear the table - this offset is important else one's hand
disturbs the area just cut. I use an inexpensive sharpener (from the cloth
store, again), its just a 1.5 inch piece of plastic with a little ceramic rod
inset but it works very well for sharpening scissors. On large layups I
sometimes sharpen a couple of times since it only takes a few seconds to re-
establish the edge -- if scissors are dull, the cloth tends to squirt out as
the blades close, although on thick glass (biax, etc) this is unavoidable.
For trimming at the green stage, I initially got up in the middle of the night
to knife trim at just the right time, sometimes getting up several times to
get it at just the right stage. I eventually concluded that knife trimming is
exhausting and much over rated. I now get up in the morning and trim with a
razor saw (available from a hobby shop) - much easier and usually more
accurate. On trailing edges, wait a few days after trimming with the razor
saw until sanding produces a fine powder and doesn't gum up the paper, then
finish the edge with a long sanding board to get it straight.
And if you oversleep, there's always the Dremel with a carbide blade....
Regards, John A044
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