Rather than admit to a “tie-flying” gear fetish we’ll file it under, “Singlebarbed blows his cash and takes his lumps” category.  Acting on a tip on one of the myriad angling forums, I did some research on surgical scissors available from the World’s Biggest Fly shop, eBay.

Despite the hundreds of listings there’s really only four vendors that offer the bulk of the scissors, and their prices made me take note. Surgical grade for $9.00 (plus $6.00 shipping), that’s a mighty far cry from the $100 – $250 range of the tungsten carbide iris scissors offered from the normal surgical supply houses.

I ordered four sets from two of the vendors; stainless “supercut” Iris, 4.5″ length, serrated blades and 4.5″ Tungsten carbide Iris, standard straight edge, getting both a straight and a semicurved from each vendor.

The scissors are from Pakistan, are stainless steel – with blades that cut all along their length – so they’re better than cheap scissors, perhaps comparable to Dr. Slick’s in quality.

Serrated blades are very finely scored, almost invisible to the eye – likely they’re laser cut. Milling marks were visible on almost all sides of the scissors, so they’re ground into tolerance – rather than made to exacting specs.

These are nice serviceable scissors, but order them from the vendor’s web site not from eBay, the postage saved will allow you to buy a couple extra. The vendor Xcelinnovative has a website under the name Surgical123.com, the other vendor Instruments.Net does not appear to have a web portal.

In short, these aren’t the “good stuff” – but they’re useful.

The issue is the size of the finger holes, they’re too small for my meaty hands, (Note the illustration outlining the difference) I’ll stick with the Milex German Stainless scissors – as Krauts have big hands and bigger holes, making it much less fatiguing to use for hours on end.

These may be really useful for those clubs sponsoring fly tying classes, the eBay vendors sell sets of three for $18 (includes postage), add $10 to the price of the class and the students get a nice serviceable pair of scissors for cheap.

I did spy a neat  set of Iris “nips” that bear investigating, Iris scissors in a spring-loaded form, these should work well with tiers that  keep scissors in hand at all times. Labeled the “Noyes Iris Scissors” – and looking mighty tasty. (also $9.00)

I couldn’t help but do a little research on the design and found a site dedicated to a million different flavors. I’m still puzzling over what looks best, as the number of blade styles is staggering.

For the conspicuous consumer that prefers bamboo rods, you can get them in Titanium for only $635.00. Yes, each.

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