Choosing a Style of Fly Tying Scissors

The right fly tying scissors depend on what you cut most. A 4-inch all-purpose pair covers everyday thread and feather work; fine arrow or micro-tip scissors help with small flies; and longer hair scissors are useful for deer hair and bucktail. Serrated blades can grip slick synthetics, while spring snips make quick thread trims easy. Most tyers can start with one all-purpose pair and add a dedicated hair scissor if they begin tying with bulky materials.

Walk into the scissors aisle, real or online, and the choice can feel endless. But underneath the finishes and brand names, each pair is designed around particular cuts and materials. Start with what is in your vise and the materials you reach for most; that will narrow the options quickly.

Scissors work as levers around a pivot, and that helps explain many of the design choices in this guide. In simple terms, the farther a material sits from the pivot, the less cutting force the blades can apply for the same squeeze. At roughly the midpoint of the blade, the available force is about half what it is near the pivot.

That is why short-bladed, long-handled scissors can feel powerful, while fine arrow and micro-tip points are made for precision. Tough materials such as heavy mono or a clump of bucktail are easier to cut deeper in the blades, closer to the pivot. Some scissors also have a notch near the pivot for wire. Forcing a fine tip through a material it was not designed to cut can damage it. Every pair below makes a different trade-off between leverage, reach and precision.

Most of what you cut at the bench is thread tags, hackle, feather tips and quills. That calls for an all-purpose pair: usually about 4" long with straight blades and a balance of point and power. Most tyers reach for these more than anything else on the bench.

• Dr. Slick All Purpose Scissors 4": gold loops, a serrated blade, straight or curved.
• Loon Outdoors Ergo All Purpose Scissors 4": ergonomic handles, stainless blades hand-honed in the USA.
• Rambler KAI 4" Fly Tying Scissors: Japanese stainless steel, in straight, bent and curved versions.
• Dr. Slick ECO All Purpose Scissors 4" and the J. Stockard Stainless Steel Scissors 3.5": quality alternatives at a better price, ideal as a second pair for rough work.

Tiny flies need cuts made right at the hook: trimming hackle on a size 20 dry, snipping thread tags at the eye, cleaning up a nymph head. That is the job of arrow and micro-tip scissors, about 3.5" long with narrow blades that taper to fine points.

• Dr. Slick Arrow Scissors 3 1/2": narrow, serrated, straight or curved.
• Dr. Slick MicroTip Arrow Scissors 3 1/2": an even finer point, best for small patterns.
• Loon Outdoors Ergo Arrow Point Scissors 3.5": the Ergo handle with an arrow point.
• SMHAEN Tungsten Carbide Blue Midge Scissors: 4" with a micro tip for the smallest flies, or a curved iris version.

Cutting a thick clump of hair cleanly takes force, so hair scissors are often longer, with sturdier blades that can take a full bunch deeper in the jaws. Keeping a dedicated pair for hair can help preserve its edge for that job. If you are working with hair, our guide to hair stacking pairs well with this one.

• Dr. Slick Hair Scissors 4 1/2": serrated, straight or curved.
• Loon Outdoors Ergo Curved Hair Scissors: 4.5", one smooth and one serrated blade, enlarged finger holes.
• Loon Outdoors Ergo Prime Scissors with Precision Peg: 5" or 6" with broad blades for big materials and big flies, plus a removable peg for control.

Shaping is different from cutting. Curved blades can make it easier to trim a rounded deer-hair head, shape a foam body or reach around a finished fly to clip a stray fiber. Curved versions are available in several styles in this guide.

• Renomed FlyTier Curved Scissors: a 0.8" curved blade that pairs one serrated edge with one razor edge. Renomed has made hand-made scissors since 1981.
• Loon Outdoors Ergo Curved Hair Scissors: the curved option when the material is hair.
• Curved versions of the Dr. Slick All Purpose, Arrow and Hair scissors, and the Rambler KAI 4", are all available.

Some synthetic fibers and flash can slip between smooth blades. Serrated or micro-serrated blades may help grip them through the cut. If you are unsure, try a few strands with smooth and serrated scissors side by side; you will quickly see which works better with that material. Soft natural fibers such as CDC often cut cleanly with a sharp, smooth edge.

• Kopter Precision Straight Blade Microserrated Edge Thin Point Scissors: 1" micro-serrated blades and thin tips, handcrafted in Italy and well suited to streamers.
• Loon Outdoors Razor Scissors: one serrated and one plain blade, so they grip synthetics and still release cleanly, in 4" and 5".
• Rambler KAI Professional Fly Tying Scissors: available with serrated blades, in 4" and 6".

For the full story on blade grinds and serrations, read Everything You Need To Know About Fly Tying Scissors.

If one session takes you from CDC to bucktail, a pair whose feel you can change helps. Razor scissors add a tension knob or nut at the pivot, so you can tighten the blades for bulk work or loosen them for a lighter touch, and tighten them again as they wear in.

• Dr. Slick Razor All Purpose Scissors 4": 440 grade steel and an adjustable knurled nut.
• Dr. Slick Black Widow All Purpose Razor Scissor 4": a bent shaft and raised loops you can slip your fingers into without sliding the scissors across the bench.
• Loon Outdoors Razor Scissors: a knurled tension knob for adjusting to specific jobs.

When you are tying a dozen of the same fly, picking up and putting down looped scissors adds up. Spring scissors and thread snips have no finger loops: a spring opens the blades and you squeeze to cut, so they can stay in your hand while you tie.

• Rambler KAI Thread Snip Fly Tying Scissors: 4 3/4" overall with replaceable blades, made in Japan.
• Dr. Slick Spring Scissors 4": squeeze the spring arms to cut; serrated blade.
• Semperfli 6 Finger Scissors: sits in the palm with the eye around the middle finger.
• Umpqua Dreamstream+ Squizzor 4.5": a narrow squeeze-action design with short, micro-serrated blades.

If you cut hard-wearing materials often, or tie for long sessions, edge retention may matter to you. Tungsten carbide is a very hard compound of tungsten and carbon, not a steel, and scissors made with it are designed to hold an edge longer. Like any cutting edge, they still need care and may eventually need sharpening.

• Dr. Slick Tungsten Carbide All Purpose Scissors 4": black loops, unserrated, very hard and very sharp.
• SMHAEN tungsten carbide scissors: color coded so you grab the right pair fast. Red for regular, all-purpose and hair, such as the Red Straight; blue for midge; green for larger, heavier work, such as the Green Large Straight.

Sometimes you do not want a clean cut at all. A blunt line across a wing or a streamer profile looks unnatural. Thinning and tapering shears carry teeth on one blade, so each cut removes only some of the fibers and leaves a soft, tapered edge.

• Dr. Slick Open Loop Scissor 4": the thinning version, with malleable loops you can bend to fit your fingers.
• Loon Outdoors Ergo Prime Tapering Shears 7": one toothed blade, one plain, for tapering without visible lines.

Whatever you choose first, keep one inexpensive pair for the jobs that ruin good scissors.

• Keep fine tips away from wire, lead and heavy mono. Use a beater pair, or cut deep at the base of the blades where the leverage is.
• Give each pair a job. A hair scissor used only on hair stays sharp for hair.
• Store them dry and protected. Keep scissors in a case or tool stand rather than loose in a tackle box, away from adhesives and resins, and wipe the blades before putting them away.
• Adjust before you replace. On razor scissors, a quick turn of the tension knob often brings back a clean cut.
• Resharpen good scissors. Caleb Snead of Rambler explains why quality scissors are designed to be resharpened in our interview, What Makes For A Good Pair Of Fly Tying Scissors?

When they start folding or chewing material instead of cutting it, and adjusting the tension or resharpening no longer helps. Good scissors can often be resharpened; inexpensive ones are usually simpler to replace.

There you have it. Good scissors will not tie the fly for you, but the right pair can make each cut feel easier. In short, a good pair is going to make you a better tyer.. Choose for the materials you cut most, look after the tips, and they will be ready for plenty of flies to come.