The Wolff STAT Tool

I get a large number of requests for information on this new tool for adjusting tension on clipper blades without having to take the blade all the way apart. I thought a video would be more clear than just a write up. Here is how the Wolff clipper blade tension adjusting STAT Tool works. It's simple to use, will speed up adding tension to blades when sharpening clipper blades, and works great. If you'd like to purchase this tool call Wolff at 800-888-3832. The part number is WCL0001 and the price is just $24.10. See how it works below:



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The Wolff STAT Tool

Wolff’s New Clipper Blade Tensioning Device

I wrote an article in the January Issue of On The Edge about Wolff's new Spring Tension Adjusting Tool for Clipper Blades (STAT for short). This tool will allow you to add tension to a clipper blade’s spring without having to take the whole clipper blade apart. Here’s some info about it:

The New Wolff Stat Tool

The T-Bar design of the tool allows you to apply force with little effort. It also has a ramp built into the end to use to force the spring back up to replace the cutter blade. Here’s a run down on how it works:

How to Use the New Wolff Stat Tool

Start by slipping the cutter out of the clipper blade (See the picture below). On occasion the blade guide will pop off when you do this. If it does, be sure to put it back on the spring before you replace the cutter when you’re done.


Once you have slipped your cutter out, use the STAT Tool to torque the right side of the clipper blade spring downward as shown in this picture below. Be sure to seat the spring all the way into the slot! You don't want to twist the bifurcated end of the tool out of shape.


Once you’ve twisted the first side of the spring downward, flip the blade around and do the same to the other side of the clipper blade spring.


Now that you’ve added your tension, use the ramp built into the end of the STAT Tool to lift the spring up so the cutter can be replaced into the blade.


That’s it. Pretty simple. And actually it can be even simpler. One of the sharpeners that purchased the Tool already just slips the cutter to one side of the spring and then adds a little tension, then he slips it back the other way to add more to the other side. Even faster!

This is a great time saving tool. I'll be shooting a video about it soon, so keep an eye out for it.

If you'd like to order a STAT Tool from Wolff. The price is just $22.95 and the part number is WCL0001. Give them a ring at 800-888-3832.

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Hate Sales Prospecting?

Hate sales prospecting? Change your attitude. How you start your day has a great impact on how the day goes. I've finished a write up on this topic today over at Interaction Sells, my sales blog. Go take a look and see how you can improve your sales prospecting by changing your view of it. Click here to view the post.

Image: marchbox

The First 2011 Wolff Show

Wolff has scheduled their first show for the 2011 season. It will be held on Saturday May 7th and Sunday May 8th at the Crown Plaza Park Central Suites in Dallas, Texas.

The show times will be 9am - 6pm on Saturday, and 9am - 3pm on Sunday. There will also be a separate vendor room that will be open each day so you can spend time with a number of our supporting vendors. The price to attend is just $89.00 if you sign up by March 24th, and then $109 thereafter. The price includes access to all seminars and the vendor room.

Speakers will be Bob Schiessl, Bruce Nihart, and myself. We will be touching on all aspects of sharpening shears and clipper blades, business growth, and increasing sales.

Seating will be limited to just 50, so sign up right away to get the discount $89 dollar rate and your seat. If you have any questions, give Wolff a call at 800-888-3832. Looking forward to seeing many of you at the show!

Nebraska Blades and the Hira-To®

Wolff just announced on the Hira-To® Blog that Nebraska Blades is now carrying the Wolff's newest scissors sharpening unit. To view the post, click here.

How Shears are Made

Great video showing how shears are made! Note all the hand work that goes into a pair of shears along with the automation. Many beauty shears require even more hand work. Videos like this dispel many of the myths and rumors that shears have twists "purposely" worked into their edges and "specific" edge radius. While all shears have some form of edge radius, most don't have an "exact" edge radius because of the hand work. The same holds true for twisted edges. This too is due to the hand work and will vary from shear to shear. Questions? Shoot me an email at otenews@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the video. I think National Geographic did a wonderful job. I've worked many of these machines myself at some of the companies that manufacture shears for Wolff Industries.



Interested in learning more about sharpening and the machines I use? Visit this post:
http://jimsharp.blogspot.com/2008/11/scissor-sharpening-machines-and.html

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Some Wolff Close Outs

Wolff has put two of their industrial style shears on close out, the Silky and the Cozic. Both are excellent shears and are great for gifts. Here's a couple of pictures and a link:

Silky
Cozic

Click here to view the Close Out Page on the Wolff website.

Lucky Hare's New Website

Just a heads up that George Harris, owner of Lucky Hare Shears, just redesigned his website. It's a nice clean site that's easy to navigate. To take a look, click on the link below:
http://www.luckyhareshears.com/

If you decide to take a peek, be sure to check out his scissor care page. If you're interested in the Lucky Hare line, give George a call (He's a super nice guy), or give Wolff a call. It's one of the top lines they carry.

Improve Yourself as a Sharpener

A Quick Easy Way to Improve Yourself as a Sharpener
What's one way you can improve yourself as a Sharpener? Education. One good place to go to get a little education that will not only make you look smart to your stylists and groomers, but will provide you with information that will allow you to help them too is Andis' YouTube Channel. Here you will find a number of videos on blade care, clipper care, and more. The info you'll find here is great for everyday conversations you have with customers as a Sharpener and good for finding ideas for classes you may be teaching if you speak at beauty or grooming schools.

Here is Andis' latest video:



Having trouble viewing this video via email? Click here.

Here is a link to Andis' YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/andisonvideo

OH MY!!! Not Good!

Okay. Here is the flipside of inside work. Bad inside work is just as bad, if not worse, than no inside work. Glen received these from a sharpener that picked them up from a new customer. He sent them in for two reasons:

1. To show us.

2. To see if ANTHING could be done to at least make them workable.

In this case, we had to tell this sharpener these shears were dead in the water.

Not Sure What's Wrong Here? Let Me Point Out a Few Issues:

1. Way overworked in the ride area behind the screw.

2. Way too much pressure at the tip. This and set mostly caused the wipe out at the tip.

3. Not sure what happened to the set, but bad set is PART of the reason for the wavy inside ride line.

What Should You Do If You Run Into a Shear Like This in the Field?

I strongly suggest you click on the link below and hit the blue button!!!!!
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

(For a better look at this shear. Click on the image above to enlarge)

Sharpening Repair on a Left Hand Beauty Shear

Well, the videos are up and here is the post I promised. I had a heck of a time with this pair of scissors. Quite a bit of inside work needed to be done, and the angles were all wrong. We got 'em fixed up pretty darn good though and it only took 3 YouTube videos to chronicle some of the sharpening. :) Let's have a look:

Before we start, if you're getting this via email and can't see the videos, click here.

Video 1: Sharpening the First Scissor Blade on the Hira-To®



Video 2: Finishing the Sharpening on the Hira-To® and Starting the Second Scissor Blade on the Ookami Gold®



Video 3: Finishing Up on the Ookami Gold® and Testing the Shear



In the videos you see I had to put a LOT of time into working the inside of the shear to reestablish a good inside ride line. In the future I need to do a video that really focuses on this.

I hope these videos help. If you have any questions please feel free to call me or email me, my contact info is in the sidebar on the right. Good sharpening! :)

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Getting That Lefty Repair Video Ready

I've been working on the Lefty Repair Video I mentioned on Jim Sharp yesterday. I have it all edited and I'm in the process of formatting it for YouTube. I hope to have it up on the Blog either tomorrow or Monday.

In the meantime though, I'd like you to review a video I uploaded to the Wolff YouTube Channel last year showing how to use the Wolff Convexing Clamp on the Ookami Gold® Sharpening system. You'll want to watch this because it goes into a little deeper detail on what I will be showing in the Ookami® convexing part of this upcoming video.



Can't view video? Click here.

New Website Training

David, Ryan, and I spent some time with our buddies at WorthWhile doing some Joomla and Wordpress training. This is all prep for a new website Wolff will be rolling out to promote the industrial shears they sell to the composites market. I'll let you know when the site is up and running and would like to know what you think of it. Be on the look out.

I also shot a new video the other day showing a repair I did on a true left hand beauty shear using the different Wolff sharpening units. That will be up sometime this weekend after I edit it.

The New Kenchii Website!

Wowzers! Holy Smokes! Great Day in the Mornin'! Stellar work! These, among others, were some of the exclamatory statements I made when I logged onto Kenchii's newly designed website today. Eye catching, easy navigation, and great info makes this site a visual masterpiece that begs to be viewed. You've gotta see this! Here's the site address. Go look and let me know what you think!
https://www.kenchii.com/

Sharp Edges Practice Shears Sale

Sharp Edges is selling a set of 11 Practice shears for $100 for a limited time. Give them a call at 217-422-0911. Be sure you tell them you heard about this on Jim Sharp! Act now, the sale will only last as long as supplies do.

Google Boost

A question I get often from professional sharpeners is how can I advertise my local sharpening service effectively on search engines like Google. Well, it looks like a good answer has made an appearance. In this recent post on Mashable, Jolie O'Dell shares a write up she did for American Express OPEN Forum about Google Boost*; Google's new locally targeted, location-based marketing program. This looks like an excellent option for local sharpener to promote their websites.

If you have a website for your business I suggest you give this post a once over and see if this new Google program will work for you. Here is the link to that post on Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/11/10/google-boost/

If you don't have a website for your business, we should talk. There are many benefits to having a site that I'd be glad to go over with you. Call me at 864-381-8697.

Image: Mashable

*Jim Sharp is in no way affiliated with Google Boost or Mashable. This post is informational only.

Kenchii Holiday Sale!!

It's time for the holidays and Kenchii has put together a few discounted packages to celebrate. The prices listed below are the sales price for the Stylist. As a sharpener, you will get a special discount. I can't list that discount here, so give me or Wolff a call at 800-888-3832 to find out what your discount is. You also MUST be listed in Wolff's database as a sharpener to get the discounted price. If you are a stylist, and not a sharpener, give me a call at 864-381-8697 and I'll see if I can hook you up with a sharpener in your area that is selling this great line of shears. Here are the fliers and few descriptions:

Click on the Picture to Enlarge

The first kit is the Kenchii® Evolution Kit. The Evolution is a beautiful shear that normally sells for $448.00. From now until December 20th Kenchii® is offering this shear, plus a Kenchii® Swivel Razor and a 10-Pack of razor blades for just $298.00. Code: KEEV122010

You'll also see Kenchii® has their Future Starter Kit on sale. This kit normally sells for $405.00, but is on sale right now for just $249.00. It's a great deal for students and stylists alike. It also comes with a 10-Pack of razor blades that usually isn't included in the kit. Code: FSK122010

Click on the Picture to Enlarge

Above you'll see Kenchii® is offering their Matrix Shear with one of their top selling pouches. Shears and case together normally cost $480.00 to $510.00. Right now you get both for just $400.00. The Matrix is one of Kenchii's hottest sellers. Code: KEMA122010

Next in line is their K7 Even & Orka Deal. Both are dynamite shears, and if bought individually, would sell for $1000.00. Until the 20th they are on sale as a package for just $550.00. The K7 is a great shear, and the Orka is phenomenal. I can't say enough about the thinner, I sold one to my stylist and she swears it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. This is a great deal! Code: KEK7122010

Their are two other coupons listed above, so click on the flier to take a better look. When you call Wolff to order, be sure you have your coupon code handy. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you.

Disappointing News

I have some disappointing news. Wolff's supplier for the LF Series Practice Beauty Shears has dried up. Wolff does have other practice shears they've replaced the LF Series Shears with for now to be sent out with machines, but they are no where near the quality of the old ones.

Wolff is on the hunt to find a suitable replacement if they can. I'll let you know what we find in the future, but for now; Wolff Practice Shears should not be sold as usable shears to your customers.

At The NBTSG

Keep an eye on my Twitter Feed for updates:
twitter.com/jimsharp

Business in the New Normal

I think Professor Jeff Cornwall hits the nail on the head in his August 16th post titled Survival Strategies the New Normal. He starts the article out saying:

Even the optimists are saying that we have at least two more years of economic stagnation. Other experts are warning of a possible double-dip recession.

There is even growing talk in some circles of America experiencing a "lost decade" in its economy. That refers to the 10-plus dismal years of economic doldrums suffered by Japan in the 1990s.

Recent employment and bank lending rate data seem to support a prolonged recession for small businesses.

So what does this "new normal" in our economy mean for entrepreneurs?

To read on, click here and jump down to the 5th paragraph. Professor Cornwall gives some good advice to anyone who is in or starting a new small business. Take a few moments and read the rest of his post.