Bumpers or silencers are found in most scissors and shears used in the pet and beauty industry. Their purpose is to cushion the closing of the shear to make it easier on the hand. Without them, the tips will overlap, the shears will make a clicking sound and the cutting hand will be stressed. Bumpers come in six styles that I know of, and possibly more. The most common is the soft rubber or soft plastic style with a pull-through tail. Second most common today is the screw-on bumper as seen on many high-end shears and now quite a few low end shears as well. The old-fashioned, hard plastic bumper, typically found in German type scissors can fit between the finger holes or between the shanks. It is typically cylinder shaped with a protrusion that fits exactly into the drilled hole. I rarely see these, now. They were more common in the past. Since most of our business is with the Japanese style shears, we rarely replace these and do not sell these bumpers, although I keep a few in stock. The last two are extremely rare. There is a ball or cylinder type bumper with no tail or protrusions. These are hard to install and easy to dislodge. The older Yasaka had the cylinder type which fit snugly in a cylinder hole and the ball type was in our old Bonika Apprentice Shear and other German style shears with a small crater that held a round rubber ball which was glued in. The last style is found in European type shears and the old USA made Supercut scissors where the bumper, if you can call it that, is a screw type mechanism with no cushion and screws looser or tighter depending on the amount of cross you want at the tip of the blades. Installation of the two most common bumpers I deal with, the screw on and the rubber tail bumpers is quiet easy. The screw on bumper is just that. Try to get a selection of various size screws on bumpers. Use Loctite® blue to hold the bumper on if there is a problem with it backing out. If you are stuck with no screw-on bumper to fit, often you can install a rubber tail bumper with an extremely skinny tail. The tail can also be shaved down with a razor blade to make it thinner. Many US stylists actually prefer the feel of a rubber bumper over the screw-on bumper. Replacing a rubber tail bumper involves the following steps:
Finally, if a particular stylist or shear continues to loose bumpers, become an investigative detective. Causes could be a bad alignment of the handles, a rough area at the hole that cuts through the bumper, a hole drilled at an angle (a manufacturer’s defect), or shears stored in an extremely hot and dry location. Written by Bonnie Megowan of Bonika Shears. Published in ON THE EDGE October 2007. Bumpers as well as screws, washers and other scissor repair parts as well as training DVD’s, sharpening equipment and more are available from Bonika Shears. Call 1-888-290-3393 or go to www.scimechsharpening.com. |
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