The trick I learned to sharpen my kitchen scissors with a coffee mug

I was ready to chunk my kitchen shears in the trash last Tuesday after trying to cut through a chicken thigh. They were just mashing everything. Then my neighbor came over and saw me struggling. She grabbed a ceramic coffee mug off my counter (the cheap one from the dollar store) and ran the scissor blades along the rough unglazed ring on the bottom. Five passes each side and they cut through paper like new. Why did nobody teach me this in home ec? Has anyone else found random household stuff that works better than actual tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

black.jordan19d agoMost Upvoted

That trick with the coffee mug works because the unglazed bottom is basically the same grit as a cheap sharpening stone. I've done it with my old paring knives too, and it fixes the edge just enough to get through a tomato without squishing it. But what really changed my kitchen game was using a flat ceramic plate upside down. Just scrape the blade against the rough ring on the bottom, same as the mug trick, and it hones the edge real quick. For scissors though, I tried running the blades along a steel nail file once and it worked almost too well, made them scary sharp.

jake_chen19d ago

You know, I always thought those mug tricks were just internet hype but I was wrong.