I Snipped, Shelled, and Sliced With 10 Pairs of Kitchen Shears. These Are the Best.
Knives tend to get all the glory when it comes to kitchen cutting tasks, but I pick up kitchen shears multiple times a day, every day. I use them to snip herbs, like separating parsley leaves from their stems or chopping chives. I use them to cut chunks of meat for recipes that require bite-size pieces. And while I’m not one to break down my own meat and fish unless I’m in a bind (I usually ask my butcher), you can use kitchen shears to spatchcock a chicken, debone chicken parts, and cut through seafood shells or fins. If you have the right pair, it’s easier than you might think. Kitchen shears are good for vegetable prep, like trimming green beans, or removing the tough stems from mushrooms. You can use them to trim pie or pastry dough. And then, of course, I regularly cut all kinds of nonedible (but kitchen-related) things: fresh flowers, twine, the rubber bands placed around bundles of produce, parchment paper, packages of food, and masking tape for labeling. Kitchen shears are pretty indispensable.
Still, not all are created equal, so I set out to find the best of the best. To start: I consulted the Best in Class guide one of our contributors wrote a few years ago, and then did some additional research, pulling a handful more models from trusted brands. There are a few different styles: mostly larger pull-apart scissors, a couple of larger ones that don’t detach, and a couple of small attached ones (like the classic Joyce Chen model). I wasn’t too scientific about my selection: I simply called in whatever spoke to me.
The ones that didn’t work for me
The first thing I did was pick up, hold, and examine each pair. This gave me an initial inkling of preference. How scissors feel in your hand is important. Then, where possible, I took the two sides apart. I don’t always do this to clean — only when a task is particularly gnarly — but being able to separate with ease, as well as making sure the pieces stay in place when in use, is definitely an important consideration.
Then I used each of them to do a handful of the nonedible tasks I laid out above, testing how smoothly each pair opened and closed, as well as how easily they sliced through some of those materials. This alone allowed me to eliminate a few.
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I was surprised to find that these weren’t my favorite. I love Messermeister’s knives — and a different style of its scissors, below. While the edges are sharp, and I like the push-button mechanism that separates the sides, opening and closing them while cutting is decidedly sticky, and they feel a bit heavy in my smaller-size hand. Especially when taking price into consideration, I’d personally pass (though I did also try this similar but smaller collaboration version made with Esther Choi, which I like a bit better thanks to the size).
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Again, both of these cut fine, but I don’t love the way either feels to hold. The OXO shears are arguably worse: Like the Messermeister pair, they’re a bit sticky. But even more notably, the handle material is particularly cheap. Though I didn’t have such a negative visceral reaction to the Cangshan ones, I just found them to be somewhat clunky overall.
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I really wanted to love these. Clearly, a lot of thought went into designing them: They operate with a spring mechanism that has the blades separated when unlocked, until you press them together to cut (basically the opposite of other shears). Milk Street primarily touts their ability to tackle “big jobs” like spatchcocking a chicken, though it also says they’re precise enough to snip chives. At the end of the day, they’re supremely heavy-duty — so much so that I found them inconvenient to use, especially for smaller tasks. I did cut through chicken bones with them and broke down some cardboard boxes, too. But I found them awkward and difficult to grip. If you’re one to do a lot of butchering, I could maybe see keeping these around, but I’d never pull them out for daily tasks.
The ones I like
From there, I simply started to use the remaining ones in the course of my everyday cooking. I cut chunks of steak for stir-fry and fried rice and snipped long strips of bacon for carbonara. I trimmed herbs, shelled shrimp, separated big grape clusters into smaller ones, and cut slices of kale directly into a simmering pot of soup. All along, I took care to alternate between the scissors and to notice when I began regularly gravitating toward any in particular.
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I’ve used Joyce Chen’s classic scissors for years, and they work incredibly well. They’re sharp enough to handle tougher tasks, and they last a decently long time. I was, in fact, surprised to find that I liked another Messermeister pair in the same style better, which is the reason Joyce Chen’s got relegated to this section. The blades here are shorter (but not to the point where I found them to be more precise), the handle is not quite as comfortable, and the open-and-close movement isn’t quite as smooth. I will say these are all details I clocked when directly comparing, and they were not particularly noticeable when using the Joyce Chen pair on its own.
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These are one of two pairs I tested that don’t come apart. I like them, but slightly prefer the Zwilling pair I detail below. Side by side, these are just not as smooth and lightweight — though I certainly wouldn’t be mad to have them in my arsenal.
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I think it’s nice that these come in two sizes, and they both work very well. I’m especially a fan of the smaller ones, which are somewhat of a hybrid between a classic bigger style and the small-bladed, large-handled Joyce Chen and Messermeister models. If you have more petite hands, that pair fits well.
The ones I love
Finally, I spent even more time cooking with my few favorites, the true standouts — all of which I love for different reasons and will keep in rotation.
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These don’t come apart for cleaning, but they’ve become my own go-to for a lot of those nonedible tasks I mentioned up top. They’re really sharp, lightweight, and comfortable — and honestly, I’ve just found myself reaching for them a bunch on instinct. And they’re cheap, so I won’t care if they degrade over time (a definite eventual outcome with tasks like breaking down boxes, which I do a lot of).
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This is the pair that I felt had a slight edge over the Joyce Chen shears. The handles are rounder and plumper, such that they’re comfortable to hold. The blades are a tad longer, which helps cut quickly — though they’re still small enough to be exacting when necessary. And they maneuver especially smoothly, with no resistance whatsoever.
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These are my true favorites. The blade length is right around the same size as the smaller Misen. The handle, however, is longer, thanks to an opening in the middle with steel-tooth insets to twist off bottle and jar caps. They’re an incredibly durable pair, the only one on this list made entirely from stainless steel. All the others have plastic handles. Still, they’re not as heavy or bulky as I anticipated. Indeed, they’re quite elegant-looking. I love the way they feel in my hand and the way they cut: confidently and precisely.
More kitchen tools we love
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A bench scraper for lifting up the bits you've cut.
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Strip your greens before you snip them.
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A solid but lightweight cutting board for prep work.
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