Or

How to test grooming equipment

After joining a few grooming Facebook pages there is regular questions about blades or scissors not performing.

Sometimes the blade gets the blame, sometimes it’s the clipper that gets the blade, sometimes it’s the dog that gets the blame, mostly it’s the sharpener who gets the blame but it’s never the boogie.

So who can we call on these moments to help sort things out. I call upon Elmo

…..but he has to be dead.

.

.

And skinned.

As then I can use his lovely long flowing fur to test scissors, thinners, chunkers and clipper blades. As then I can see if my work is up to standard before returning it to a customer.

Of course I don’t actually do the task myself so I call upon a company who is skilled in the art of Elmo trapping as they can be quite dangerous when cornered. Those who know about biology know of the phenomenon known as aposematism where poisonous animals are brightly coloured to act as a warning. So those little red sods can give a fatal bite don’t let the big eyes, cute voice and mannerisms fool you.

But Dura from the inspection team is brave and catches them himself.

I go to JLB fabric for my dead Elmo pelts with a half meter pelt being about a tenner and I think that this would be a useful addition to any groomers toolbox.

Using your Elmo pelt

Testing Scissors with your dead Elmo

As with clippers I shouldn’t have to tell you how to use them but lets not ignore the basics

Thinners and chunkers can also be tested with Elmo pelt after you have fluffed it up but I don’t have enough hands to take pictures and use thinners. If you are newish to thinners and chunkers they are just for the top layers and if you try to take big bites they will fold. Again this is very much an experience thing.

The Elmo pelt is a good way to test scissors but there is another way which can also tell you alot.

Using a single ply of tissue paper.

The way I do this is to get some cheap 2 ply toilet roll and to use my 3D printed custom bog roll holder called the >CENSORED< which has a blade for keeping the two plys separated. More expensive 3ply toilet paper is not really suitable as it is too difficult to separate the plys. The stuff you find in council toilets should be also avoided as I can’t be certain it isn’t tougher then the ice hardened drop forged case hardened blades.

The wet tissue paper test can be a slightly subjective thing but it is the standard that most sharpeners have been trained to use. I have seen some other ways of testing scissors which i found slightly eye opening and not in a good way. It isn’t something i would be doing all the time but it can be a nice sanity check when you don’t have an Elmo or a dog to hand. Obviously it can’t be used with thinners or chunkers as there is bits of the blade missing.

There is a way to test them with tissue paper but I prefer to test them on Elmo fur