Best Kitchen Shears

I was “evaluation day” years old when I spatchcocked a chicken for the very first time. Because of my lack of experience, you could say this entire kitchen evaluation was out of my comfort zone. So here’s what I learned: It’s not easy to cut through a chicken’s ribs to remove the entire spine, a process called spatchcocking, but I got better at it as this review went along. My first time was challenging, and I learned that other shears caused pain or discomfort in my hands while the iBayam shears (the first pair I tried) did not. 

All three of CR’s evaluators said the iBayam shears felt nice in their hands, were easy to use, and didn’t require the user to grip too hard. These provide “nice force transmission, [I’m] able to cut through chicken backbone with one hand,” says Paul Hope, senior writer at Consumer Reports and a classically trained chef, who also evaluated each pair.

After each subsequent scissor review, I wistfully thought back to these. They stand out for two key reasons. "The ultra soft handles supported my hands every step of the way. Even really small hands fit inside the handles well," according to evaluator Ginger Cowles, a managing editor at Consumer Reports.

Second, there are two shears in a pack, which means you could conveniently color code one pair for poultry/meat and the other for pizza/other uses. Or if one fails, you already have a backup.

While it can be helpful that the shears come with plastic sheaths to cover the blades in case they fall into a child’s hands, it could be difficult to clean inside the sheath as the scissors age. There also isn’t a cover for the hinge where the two blades connect, which could mean scratches on some counter/table surfaces, Cowles says. 

This pair, which the brand touts as ambidextrous, does not come apart for easy cleaning. I’d learn that’s a nice feature to have as I continued to evaluate each pair. Even still, their comfort was unmatched by any of the others, so they’re our top choice for a variety of hands.

I found working with the Oxo Good Grips model to be swift and easy—if you’re the parent of a preteen like I am, you might dub them "Swiftie."

It did require effort to cut through a chicken’s ribs, as it did with the other pairs, but I didn’t have to use two hands to get it done nor did I experience pain. It was easy for me to cut through chicken, herbs, and parchment paper with this pair, and my effort level was pretty low all around. 

This wasn’t the case for other evaluators across the board. “All six pairs were fairly similar, and the Oxo was the biggest outlier for me,” Hope says, adding that he found these quite dull and a struggle to use with both heavy and lighter tasks.

“I was stunned that the option I own in my own house was actually my least favorite,” he says. “While I found the handle particularly comfortable, I really struggled with force transmission, particularly with rosemary and chicken.” This was the lone pair of the group that required Hope to use both hands to cut through chicken backbone—he held the shears with his primary (right) hand and used his left to help clamp down. “I’m someone with a lot of hand strength and a strong grip and was really surprised at how much effort heavier tasks required,” he says.

Despite that, these shears received high comfort marks by all. Cowles and I found them easy to use, and the handle’s contours fit our hands nicely. My hands felt supported (not slippery) during tasks. I think that was due to the pockets within the handles that soften your grip. The blades also separate for easy cleaning. This is a great feature because you can easily prevent debris from collecting at the joints. The Oxo Good Grips have a built-in herb stripper, which I hoped would be a game-changer, but when I used it to strip rosemary, it wasn’t easier than just snipping it. 

While all evaluators found the handles to be comfortable, their lack of force transmission in the pro’s hand may mean they’re not a home run for every type of hand. Additionally, the price makes them not as much of a bargain as the iBayam.

These seemed to me like a fine pair of kitchen shears. My hand never ached while using them, and my long fingers fit within the handles just fine. Note the repeating word here: fine. This pair didn’t receive especially high or low marks. Cowles even ranked them right on a par with the Oxo Good Grips. Hope found the space in the KitchenAid’s handle to be comparable to iBayam and Oxo.

Evaluators had mixed feedback on the handles. Overall they fit nicely in the hand, but for some they were slippery when hands were wet or caused pressure points during use, which could be uncomfortable. “These still feel a little more difficult to use than I think they should, based on my past experience,” Cowles says.

“Overall, these provided what felt like the most space for my fingers, but they felt less sharp than some others, resulting in frustration with parchment paper in particular,” Hope says. “Despite the additional finger room, I can’t say they felt particularly more comfortable than other options after a few cuts.”

While cutting through the ribs of the chicken, I had to use both hands to get the scissors to cut through one portion of bone. This was the first time in the review process that I had to do this. On the upside, they didn’t cause me to feel any pain.

These KitchenAid shears are an inexpensive choice. They don’t come apart for easy cleaning, but they do come with a blade-covering sheath. If you want a basic pair of shears on hand in the kitchen and don’t need two pairs, these could be a utilitarian option for you.

If the first pair of kitchen shears eased me into this review process like a jovial episode of "Nailed It," the second pair I evaluated, the J.A. Henckels, dropped me into a heart-pounding episode of "The Bear." 

There were no soft, inviting handles here. The Henckels had a hard, severe feel. They’re “heavy-duty break resistant,” according to the packaging, and you can feel that strength in your hands. 

Cowles found the holes in the handles to be too cramped. “They made my hand hurt while cutting chicken,” she says. “The grip holes are quite small (I have small hands) and don’t offer any space for maneuvering. I did not care for these.”

I really had to use my muscles to cut through bone, and the hard plastic handles made my fingers ache while sectioning the chicken’s wings, cutting through skin and joints to separate the drumette, wingette, and wingtip. If I was a stronger person with stronger hands, would this feel different? Likely. If I had professional experience spatchcocking chickens, would my hands be more used to this motion? Definitely.

Enter Hope, who ranked this pair just below his top pick, which you’ll learn about later, due to their comfortable feel and ease of use. “Less space for fingers than iBayam, KitchenAid, or Oxo, but great force transmission, and I’d say this was the pair that best handled a broad cross-section of tasks, specifically basil, parchment, and chicken,” he says.

That great force transmission could be why professionals gravitate toward this brand. Even Booker, the chef, says that he has Henckels’ knives in his arsenal. Made with micro-serrated corrosion-resistant stainless steel, they’re wicked sharp—so sharp that I had to be careful with each cut of parchment paper not to slice lines into my wooden countertop. Cowles says that she liked the plastic cover over the joint where the two blades connect, which protects surfaces while you work. There’s also a built-in tool to open jar lids and unscrew caps, plus a nutcracker in the center. The take-apart feature is definitely a great design detail. Simply open them really wide and they break into two pieces right in your hand for easy cleaning.

Priced less than some other models, it’s nice to know the Henckels can slice through many kitchen tasks, but given that the pro liked this pair better than the novices, they’re likely best suited for the more experienced.

The pain I experience while using some kitchen shears in this evaluation is similar to the pain I feel when I struggle to open a jar of pasta sauce. Both of these things prompt a weird dance in my kitchen to shake off the hand ache.

There was definitely a jig during my Shun evaluation, especially after I cut through the first side of a chicken’s ribs. I really had to use my whole body, engaging my muscles throughout my hand and arm to complete the tasks. I struggled to section the wings, working through the pain with each cut. 

Hope, as you may have expected, did not have the same experience. In fact, he ranked this pair his top choice among the six for ease of use, beating out the Henckels by a narrow margin. “The Shun pair wasn’t actually the most comfortable in my hand but was still my favorite,” he says. “It seemed so razor sharp, and offered stellar force transmission, so even though the handle wasn’t as comfy as, say, the KitchenAid set, the actual ease of cutting was enough to offset that.”

My fingers didn’t feel as steady in the grip of the Shun as they did in other pairs. I had to work harder with these to cut the rosemary, and the herb seemed to fly in different directions with each clip through the tough stems. I even felt discomfort and pressure in my index finger as I was cutting through the chives, while I didn’t with any other pair. “I had to use two hands the entire time I was cutting through the backbone of the chicken,” Cowles says. “The handles make them appear as if they are going to do a good job and look a little bit stylish at the same time, but they do not.”

I liked that the Shun—which clearly states on the packaging that they’re made for both lefties and righties—came apart for easy cleaning. With other built-in features like a jar-lifter, screwdriver, nutcracker, and bottle opener, they are certainly multifunctional, but for me the comfort I craved just wasn’t there. 

Hope says the handles of this pair provided the least room for his fingers, but the exceptional sharpness and great force transmission made up for that. “If anything, the smaller grip made me think I’d need extra force, but they were razor sharp, and seemed to channel force so well that even with less hand-to-handle contact, most tasks were easy,” he says.

If you’re a master in the kitchen searching for something ultra sharp, the Shun definitely brings that to the table, but with the higher price, they are in an elite category all their own. 

The novices who participated in this kitchen shear evaluation had no love for this German-made pair of shears. It shouldn’t be surprising by now that the former chef felt differently, especially in regard to comfort. 

“Really nice all-around choice that seemed to do well with both fine and heavy tasks,” Hope says. “For many, I could see these being the Goldilocks pair, adept at different tasks, comfy, with decent force transmission.” 

The Wüsthof kitchen shears felt like a powerful tool to me—one I wasn’t fully prepared to drive. While I was getting better at spatchcocking when I tried these, I had to use a lot of effort to section the wings, specifically putting all my body weight into cutting at the joints. The process was hard and I felt discomfort, mainly in my ring finger, which prompted me to rank them second to last in the list of six. Cowles ranked these the worst of all six pairs she tried. “While cutting out a backbone, the blades slipped, and they do not cut without extreme pressure from both hands,” she says. 

The Wüsthof stood out among all the rest because of one simple design tweak. “The biggest limitation I noticed on the Wüsthof (which was otherwise great) was that it had the shortest blades,” says Hope. “That can help avoid biting off more than you can cut, but it also means you need to make more total cuts when working through a chicken, etc.”

This in itself forces you to slow down, which could be good for an inexperienced cook like myself. The shorter blades mean that their force is more concentrated, so in some applications, you wouldn’t need to exert as much force to make a cut, Hope says. Still, when there were three stems of rosemary to cut through in the herb portion of the evaluation, I found that I had to work slightly harder to cut through them with this pair; that wasn’t my experience with the others. 

Overall, comfort and ease of use do not come standard with the Wüsthof. Even Hope, who embraces tough scissors, thought there were better pairs on this list. Evaluators also said the shears were slippery and not contoured to the shape of the hand. On a positive note, these do come apart for easy cleaning, and the center of the handles serve as a bottle opener.