The Ship Model Forum

I just blew $25 on a pair of fine tweezers from a jeweler supply shop - and I think they're worth it. (German made: Wiha is the name of the company I think.) I have several others from Micro Mark that I think are perfectly good but these guys are so fine they'll pick up a really fine piece.

Wonder if a Mercedes class pair of scissors is out there for rigging. I'd go $50 for a pair if they were really good. I've got several decent pair - one from a fly fishing shop does a pretty good job. But there are times when it would be very nice to get in and snip off the remains of a thread however attached during rigging. Even my best small ones will allow a small target to slip between the blades. Do any of the wizards out there use something that's fancy and worth it? It's certainly possible that I just don't get a bead on things correctly - but I wouldn't have guessed that expensive tweezers would have been any different either.

Eric

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A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and will not sink with you in it.

I use surgical micro-scissors. They come in different sizes, are very sharp and cut closely - after all they are used for instance in eye surgery. Just some examples here:



I got them from a seconds trader at a fair and paid around 50 DM (about 50 Euro today). Normally these micro-scissors have macro-prices - listed prices can be in the range of 150 Euro.

I never use them on anything else but thread !

wefalck

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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Try looking around a fishing tackle shop. You can find some pretty fine scissors in the fly-tying section. They'll have more of a budget price tag than surgical scissors, even though they might not be quite as good quality. While you're there, hunt out the Caenis thread that is used for tying flies on the tiniest hooks. Wonderful stuff for rigging model ships.

Kind regards,

David Griffith

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"For scientific leadership, give me Scott. For swift and efficient travel give me Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton."

Thanks for the tip Wefalck. That kind of thing might be around on eBay. And I think you're probably right about that being the kind of device needed. The costliest fly tying scissors have the same kind of design. I just want to be able to trim the rigging without cutting it off in the process.

Mr. Griffith,

I've learned a lot from your book, so I appreciate the response. You're certainly right that the fly fishing sites have scissors galore. At the high end they cost $30 and come in several different brands and styles. Actually, maybe calling one of those places might help if the medical varieties are out of reach and hope the person talking actually ties flies.

I have Caenis thread in two colors. I certainly won't quibble with you on matters of accuracy and scale. However, I don't see using it. It's very hard to manipulate because of its tiny diameter: 20 Danier is really fine. I've settled on a 70 Den fly tying thread made by either Uni or Danville - both good companies. In the real world 70 Den is very fine and I might dump monofilament the next time I rig a biplane. But if I get ten feet away from Konig and I can barely see the rigging. That problem would be doubled with Caenis. I still have some 700 and 650 (whatever Airfix does) scale kits and I'll build them. But I'll rig them with the 70 Den thread. I'd do it even if the two were equally easy to work with. A model ship is hard to top for display, and I'll never be building for contests or for my camera. Better to be able to see some of the effort that goes into rigging a major project than to know in my head that it's accurate. Consider it "scale effect."

I might add that I really like your multiple filters weathering technique. I add in some armor style streaking here and there, but only because I like a more heavily weathered look. Still haven't quite figured out rust. I'm building a couple of subs now and am giving them both lessons from Spanish School armor weathering and maybe the gurus here will provide some wisdom when I post them.

Eric

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A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and will not sink with you in it.

Another option that I use is fine embroidery scissors by Gingher. (don't tell my wife I steal hers from time to time).

They might not be the surgical ones but they are designed to cut embroidery floss without fraying it. So they do the job for me.

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Gabriel

Spent another interesting afternoon web surfacing for a gizmo that may or may not help my limited modeling skills. Before today I didn't know that you can spend $600 on one pair of Swiss uber-medical micro scissors. Several of the med sites didn't list prices, but would give you a quote after registration. (Wonder if they sell to people buying things with other people's money?) Lots of them for $200. There's also an economy line of stainless steel surgical style implements that considerably less. I'm going to start with pair of Castroveijo style surgical scissors from Micro Mark and see if we can get off cheap - they also had a "nibbler" for sale and I've always wanted one of those. If that doesn't do the trick, up the ante to about $40 and get a pair from a surgical supply place. I'll report in.

Eric

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A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and will not sink with you in it.

There are actually two advantages of the surgical scissors over conventional (including the one from the fly-fishing community) scissors:

- they are sprung, so they can be used between the fingertips and allow access to rather confined spaces.

- their cutting edges are short, so that you can use the back of the cutting edge, where cutting is most effective and precise without getting entangled with the protruding tips in some other rigging.

As with some other tools I would be cautious to buy on the Internet. If the jaws don't close properly or are not properly ground, the scissors are useless and it very difficult to remedy this, even with a good workshop in the background. I would prefer to see before I buy, or to have at least the option to return unsatisfactory specimens.

BTW, thanks to David Griffith for pointing towards the Caernis threads. I used for many years Nylon-threads Nm 300/2 (about 30 den I believe) as made for repairing ladies' stockings, but these have become unavailable. Unfortunately Caernis threads seem to come only in black and white, while the other threads came in addition to black in all sorts of beige/flesh colour and greys. I found these threads very useful for bindings etc.

wefalck

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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I use tamiyas decal sissors, small, light and sharp pointed tip,and a hook for the opening them (not spring loaded though)
They are in my opinion worth the cost, but they are not "cheap"...
They are the only sissors i have used that dont rip the paper at the tip of the sissor when cutting decals.

I bought a pair of scissors a few years ago and use them occasionally when I have to reach into an area to cut a line. I think they work really well. The holes are a little small but I have small fingers so they are comfortable for me. They are a little pricey though.

Lots of nice small scissors in the makeup isle of drugstores.

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Darren (Admiral Hawk)
In the not so tropical climate of the Great White North.

The trick to scissors is in the sharpening.

I sharpen knives and scissors, and have done such for a few decades now. Drapery places sought me out so that I could sharpen their shears. Believe me when I say, they put a LOT of love and concern into their shears.

Point being, if you go through a graduated set of stones and keep a consistent angle, you can sharpen your scissors (as long as they are of a quality, semi-hard steel) that you'd be surprised as to what they will do. It ain't magical, it's only perseverance and initiative.

Hope that helps.

I've used a pair of Castroveijo (tiny surgical scissors - spring loaded) for cutting rigging ends, but they still have a stand-off, and leave a bit of annoying "nub"! I switched to using stretched sprue and attaching with a "hot" styrene glue. This not only firmly attaches the rigging to the mast, etc., it also melts off any remaining nubs. Of course, this only works when everything involved is styrene.