With modern-day blade designs, it’s always better to have a little more tension than to be too loose.
When it comes to shear tension, Andrew Carruthers, education director for Sam Villa says, “In order to ensure that your shears are performing at their best, you really should do two things everyday – clean them and adjust the tension.”
Here are a few tips:
1. Setting tension too low can cause hair to fold or push out of the shear, while setting it too high can shorten the life of the edge.
2. Extra pressure is needed to open and close the shear, contributing to repetitive stress injuries. Perfect tension prevents folding and pushing, so opening and closing shears is easier overall.
3. Make sure to clean and lubricate shears.
4. When shears are fairly loose, hold the thumb grip and take the finger portion about 45° up to where blades connect. Then, drop the finger side, if it goes down it’s too loose and turn adjuster to the right one click to tighten. Repeat this exercise until the open finger section is dropped and doesn’t move – this will indicate perfect tension.
Carruthers adds, “The tension should be perfectly even from the pivot to tips, if you can’t achieve that with adjustments, it could be that you’ve been working with improper tension for too long and your shears need to be professionally serviced.”
Credits: Sam Villa/Andrew Carruthers
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