2021-12-19. Let's face it, the actual cooking of food is pretty easy. What's difficult and time consuming is all the prep work. That's why having the proper tools will make your task much easier, and totally worth it! This is why the tool industry is so lucrative. Ask any mechanic, whether they fix cars, boats, bicycles, or appliances, there's a different tool for practically every task to be done. The culinary world is no exception to this and food preparation has it's tools to make life easier. Starting home cooks usually don't have the knife skills to be efficient, and a good set of kitchen shears can save both time and effort for something we do several times a day. But just like a mechanics tools, even something like kitchen shears can come specialized and have one for every type of job. Before you go making that investment, there are three things I think you need to consider: Purpose. Know what you want to accomplish. Are you looking for a pair of shears for a specific task? Or are you looking for something more versatile that can cover a range of tasks? Design. Probably the most important of your considerations, this covers everything from size, shape, materials, quality, features, durability, craftmanship, etc. Maintenance. Nobody wants something that's high maintenance, especially for something that will be used frequently, but you also want something that is maintainable. For example, can the blades be sharpened if they get dull? Are the blades adjustable to ensure blade to blade contact? Over the past summer, we started an herb and vegetable garden, and needed a good pair of herb snips to ensure clean cuts without bruising leaves. This was to be a dedicated pair that would serve no other purpose. I had narrowed my essential needs down to three things: 1) adjustable blades to ensure blade to blade contact. 2) stay sharp blades. 3) quality blade for durability. These herb snips by Mercer seemed to have checked all my boxes, so decided to give them a try. While it may not be the same quality as those you will find in high end professional kitchens, I didn't need to them to be. These snips have an adjustable blade via a nut that you can tighten. The handle can accommodate both left and right handed people, and the micro serrated edges usually will keep shears sharper longer. The blades are made with High Carbon Japanese Stainless Steel, but I'm not sure what the significance of mentioning Japan is without divulging the process they used to forge the steel. Iron based metals like steel are subject to oxidation, so just exposure to air will corrode the metal over time. Adding carbon to steel strengthens it greatly; however, doesn't do much in terms of preventing rust and corrosion, especially when exposed to moisture. Stainless steel is the addition of chromium to the metal. Chromium is inoxidizable, so provides excellent protection against rust and corrosion. Mercer is a company that's been around for decades, and they claim to stand behind their products. The benefit of this is customer service and warranty. If anything goes wrong, they're a phone call or an email away. So far, I've not been able to find any fault with these snips. I have been using them for a few weeks now, and am happing with its performance. The only notable I'd like to point out is that the product description states that these snips are also good for shellfish and small game birds. Shellfish is a bit ambiguous, and they're probably referring to things like shrimp rather than crab or lobster. Also, the video they provided is misleading in my opinion. In it, you do see them cut lobster, and it also shows that they blades can be separated easily, but those are different shears in the video and not these snips. To me, that video is not relevant to the product and misleading. Personally, I will only be using these snips for my herbs, but felt that I should point this out as an FYI.
