Kitchen shears review and compare

01.Introduction

Test results for 16 pairs of kitchen shears priced $10 to $160

Some kitchen jobs are too tough for ordinary scissors. Cutting up raw chicken needs not just power to snip through meat, gristle and bone, but also non-slip handles for when your hands get greasy. Trimming woody flower stems takes a reasonable amount of force and cutting power, not to mention sharp well-aligned blades for a clean cut. A good pair of multipurpose shears can handle these tough jobs but still neatly cut paper or herbs.

There are two main types: straight-bladed multipurpose shears and poultry shears with curved blades, intended to allow easier cutting around bones and hard-to-reach places. Either is sometimes available as ‘pull-apart’, where the two blades separate for easy cleaning (seven of the tested models can do this).

Our test results were surprising. None of the poultry shears outperformed the best straight-bladed shears at cutting chicken or indeed overall.

Brands tested

Straight-blade shears

• Cuisena Kitchen Shears 949667
• Cuisena Kitchen Scissors 949668
• Homemaker Everyday Kitchen Shears
• Messermeister Kitchen Take-Apart Scissor DN2070
• Messermeister Utility Take-Apart Shear DN1070
• Mundial All Purpose Take Apart 0666
• Oxo Good Grips Kitchen & Herb Scissors 1072121
• Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Scissors 31181 (A)
• Victorinox 7.6375
• Victorinox Super Schere 7.6363
• Wiltshire Kitchen Shears Laser Edge LASE9809
• Wiltshire Kitchen Shear Resolution W1153
• Wüsthof Pull Apart Shears 5558
• Zwilling J.A. Henckels Twin Multipurpose 43967-000
• Zwilling J.A. Henckels Twin Select 41471-000
• Zyliss Multi Purpose Shears 30374

Poultry shears

• Fiskars Functional Form Poultry Shear 85-9975
• Mundial Poultry Shears 321-10
• Victorinox Poultry Shears 7.6343
• Victorinox Poultry Shears 7.6350