KB Shears

The KB line of scissors is made of Hitachi Steel. Hitachi Metals [https://www.hitachi-metals.co.jp/e/yss/index.html] and Aichi [https://www.aichi-steel.co.jp/ENGLISH/about/location.html] are the top quality specialty steel manufacturers that gave Japanese steel its reputation as “Number 1 Specialty Steel” in the world. Aichi was established in 1940 and Hitachi in 1956.

Beware if some overseas companies that print “Hitachi” on their shears that are not made of Hitachi steel. There are ways of finding fraudulent companies that claim to use Hitachi Metals. The easiest way, but not the surest way, is the price; high quality steel is costly to manufacture. However, buyers beware of companies that unnecessarily tremendously overcharge for salon shears. Hitachi and Aichi are the best manufacturers of Japanese Steel. Beware of “Super Japanese Steel” and “High Molybdenum” Japanese steel; they are neither Hitachi nor Aichi and sometimes priced at double the cost.

Handles

(First number before hyphen)
Example: C10-675D

C10 is the handle. It drops the index finger inline to the ring finger.
C10S the top blade handle is same but a swivel is added to the thumb.
C11 is an opposing handle; the thumb and finger are in opposition.
C15 is an opposing handle but has finger rests on both finger and thumb rings. It can be flipped to use either way.
C20 is a slightly offset handle; the thumb is slightly forward from the ring finger.
C30 is a slight crane handle. It bends downward from the blade. With this curve downward the stylists elbow will be closer to their side, resting their deltoid, with the scissor level. The crane handle was made to relieve fatigue and pain. This does not apply to all stylists because they don’t all cut the same.
C40 is slightly different with finger ring higher
Note: The C20, C30 and C40 have only slight differences.
C55 The bumper, or silencer, which is usually located at the finger ring, is moved to the center of the handle. Some stylists like the fell of this style better but it is definitely not the most popular.
C55S is a C55 with a swivel.
C60 is a barber handle used for cutting over comb
C61 is also a barber handle with modified finger/thumb rings

Blades

Shears are offered in different sizes from 5” to 7” There are a few shorter and longer but very uncommon. Following the handle number is a hyphen, then the scissor length.

C60-700 is a 7” scissor. The size is measured from the bottom of the finger ring to the tip of the scissor. If there is a finger rest extending from the ring finger it is not part of the measured scissor length.

Cutting

All other blades are all around cutting blades. They are highly rated wet/dry cutters. A specialized dry cutter has a serrated edge on the finger blade to hold dry hair while the thumb blade cuts. Above has none of these yet. But Washi does and I will carry it.

The D blade slide cuts better than any other blade on the market because of its innovative engineering. It is a specialty slide cutting blade. All blades can slide cut but the edge holds longer on this one for stylists who slide cut a lot.

Thinners/Blenders

6027NW
6” with 27 teeth the teeth are thin at the tip of the blade with each tooth widening slightly until the last one at the hilt. Hence, NW represents narrow to wide. The tip thins at 7% and the hilt at 35%. This leaves no cut line like other thinners. There is no other thinner on the market like this as this is patented. 6330NW 6 1/4 ” with 30 teeth from narrow to wide.

When thinners or blenders were introduced the difference was the amount of teeth on the blade. The NW blade has evolved a thinner/blender into one. It is the first of its kind. This one scissor can replace two as well as offer creativity seen in the youtube video.