Featured Help identifying vintage sewing shears

Hi all!

I recently acquired a pair of small sewing (I think) shears from an abandoned Chateau in France! They are not very detailed, definitely made of steel, and have a marking which seems to say "C.S. Bolo" on them.

I have searched the internet for a few hours and cannot find any information when I plug in CS Bolo other than "bolo" means machete in Filipino.

Any info or advice in identifying these would be great! Thanks!

 

Welcome!
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Please ALWAYS do this and please go to edit and fix these photos before the edit option closes. >>>
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Thanks for the tip on enlarging images!

 

These are clothing shears:



On average, about 8-10 inches long. My grandmother was a dressmaker, she had a pair just like them, which I inherited.

What you have look more like thread-snips. Or if the blades are curved, then nail scissors (for trimming finger + toenails). They were likely used for cutting off thread, or cutting open freshly-sewn buttonholes.

 

I have these by Wiss.

 

So do I! Wiss made loads of scissors and shears for various applications.

What we need is a clear, clean photograph of the markings on the scissors. Without that we don't have a chance of IDing them.

 

Had these since....'73.

 

looks like more after Bolo....

if you try to find Catsup ...by googling Cats....well...

 

Try Ketchup then.

 

not if you google Ketch....

 

With the short blades & heavy construction, they look like kitchen utility scissors to me. Way more power there than is need to snip thread; blades too short for fabric shears.

This is what is usually meant by 'sewing scissors':

 

Must be the time of night, but the notion that this is a thread about sewing scissors just struck me as very funny.

 

Welcome Annah.
I was wondering if they have something to do with carpet weaving/knotting. They use smallish shears to cut any tufts that stick out.
These are Turkish carpet making tools:

 

Somehow I can more easily imagine a French chateau having good kitchen shears than Turkish carpet weaver's scissors.

 

The lady of the house whiled her time away making dainty carpets.
Carpet making used to be popular here in the 60s, that's where I remember the small shears from. I could only find the Turkish set, but didn't spend much time looking.

 

Hi and welcome Annah.
I don't think anyone asked how long these scissors are. Also, there seems to be another letter after the 2nd "O" in Bolo...if there isn't, the placement of the "C.S." above seems off, I would expect it to be centered over the letters below and unless there are letters missing, it isn't.
Another clue to the purpose of these scissors would be the serrations on the outer blade (see 2nd photo). As Bronwen said, these may be kitchen shears and the serrations utilized to strip the florets off parsley...I dunno, just thinking out loud here.

 

A search for 'vintage poultry shears' shows ones that are different from these, with curved blades, one of them serrated. (Many of the images that come up for 'vintage secateurs' are the same ones.) Those produced by searching for 'vintage kitchen utility shears' are a better match, but of course that's a present day interpretation of their intended use.

Shears designed for cutting something lying flat on a table allow the lower blade to get right down to the surface while positioning the hand so that material does not have to be lifted up to accommodate it & long blades to reduce the number of cuts needed & help keep the line straight.

No matter overall size, the ratio of blade length to handle says to me these were designed for something that wasn't cut so easily.

 

No matter overall size, the ratio of blade length to handle says to me these were designed for something that wasn't cut so easily.

Also.....the extremely thick blades..!!!

 

Since I had already mentioned heavy duty construction in post #11, left it out here.

 

I'm just adding to the preponderance of like minded information.....