Wusthof WU5558 Kitchen Shears, 8", Black

These Wusthof come-apart kitchen shears are perfect to butterfly a chicken! These shears are also a useful addition to your home improvement tool kit or as a home gardening tool.PROS:Shears open and close easily for cutting. They are not at all stiff to use!The blades are short (8 ins by 0.5 ins). This ensures good leverage for making precision cuts - whether it's deboning a chicken, cutting up veggies or even outdoors as a home gardening shears!Blades are made with high-carbon stainless steel so they stay sharp longer.One blade is serrated to prevent slippage during cutting and another is smooth to ensure a clean cut.Bone notch at end of kitchen shear blade easily cuts through chicken bonesBlades meet together for smooth, precision cutting.When opened to the fullest, the blades come apart for easy cleaning.Rugged synthetic handles for either right or left handed users.These shears have steel-tooth insets in the handles to twist open bottle and jar caps.CONS:If you open the shears too far while cutting, the blades will come apart. However, to open the shears 'this far', you must be trying to cut a watermelon for the blades to come apart while in use! :)These are precision crafted shears proudly made by Wusthof knife making company of Germany. Wusthof is family owned for 7 generations and has been in the knife making business since 1813.If you are looking for a good quality pair of shears at a reasonable price, then these Wusthof Come-Apart Kitchen Shears are just the tool for your kitchen, home improvement tool kit or gardening shed!Check around for the best deal on this Wusthof Come-Apart Kitchen Shears - the price varies on AmazonHope my review was helpful ... Jeffrey A. (Jeff)

These shears solve many of today's packaging headaches, help gardeners and crafters, and may stray from the kitchen. I've ended up with three pair. Ditto to all the positive remarks from other reviewers regarding kitchen use, especially that the shears are comfortable for left-handers and for those with arthritis.The benefits of these shears make them useful for many things. The benefits include: being able to take the blades apart for thorough cleaning and sharpening; short blades that give more cutting force with less hand strength, the blades' close and reliable fit, and large finger holes, so you can use the shears with gloves on.On top of my list is their ability to get packages open, especially blister packs. If you can get a blade point in, you can cut through the top layer, if not, cut around the product through both layers. The plastic and cardboard are no match for these shears. Those plastic tabs and twisted wires that imprison children's toys? Easily snipped. How about the messy task of opening the individually packaged salmon fillet? All manner of other packages, in the kitchen and out, seem to assume you have strong, clean, sharp scissors at hand. I used to use a box-cutter for many opening tasks, but hurt myself far too often. Now I use these scissors. They work and are safer.I have a kitchen garden and am frequently running out to snip herbs for cooking. For a while I tried to keep a pair of clippers nearby, but finally realized that these kitchen shears, hanging right there on the hook, did the job just fine, plus cut a handful of chives and trimmed the thyme effectively, which the clippers didn't. I start seedlings early in little peat pots that work well, but don't really transplant into the garden as effectively as advertised, so I use these scissors to cut the pots off at transplant time without injuring the little plants.In the garden itself, I use these scissors to cut twine, open seed packets and the like, plus they can twist off the hose couplings, open liquid gardening product containers, cut small stakes to the right height, extract new items from packaging, even snip chicken wire and all while I'm wearing gloves. And if that isn't enough, they don't rust if left out in the rain.When doing craft projects, these scissors cut leather, as well as other awkward and difficult items much easier than standard scissors. They stand up to a lot of heavy use and have definitely made my life easier. If the blades get dull or nicked, I run them over my diamond steel a few times and all is well again.

I wish I had bought these sooner. I have had cheap kitchen shears that came with a knife set when I was young and broke. As the knives have worn out, I have replaced them with quality knives...but I never replaced the plastic handled kitchen shears. Just to have a "nice, complete set" and to get that ugly plastic thing out of my drawer, I ordered this set of shears. It is amazing. I didn't realize how easy I could cut items with "minimal" effort on my part. I am used to putting a lot of hand squeezing into the other shears to get them to cut cardboard, etc...but these cut tough things like they were butter. My hands are very weak, so they are especially helpful to me. If you have arthritis or weak hands, consider getting some quality shears like these. They do most of the work for you. I also used to put my other shears in the dishwasher, with the blades open, to try and get them clean...but with the pull apart design, I know that there will be no chicken germs hiding in a crack. The taking apart and putting back together of the shears is very simple. I would have expected to pay $50-$60 for these, so they are really worth the price they are sold for in my opinion. It's possible there are better ones out there, but I do know that these are good, they do what you need, and they won't make you go broke.Update (January 2012)My shears are stiff and not working well. There is a place on the blade that is wrong and the cut is hanging up on it. We are doing a major home remodel and there has been a lot of "construction work" (i.e. cutting wires, etc) and so I think it is a result of misuse, but no one is fessing up to using them on metal. Oh well, at the price they are, I'm buying a second pair and will put these in the tool chest. They work, but I have to push too hard to make them complete the cut...but it is not a fault of the scissors, but because they've been damaged.