the scissors that aren't supposed to work anymore
I've got this pair of scissors I bought for 35 kronor at a flea market maybe ten years ago. The pivot is loose, the blades don't quite meet at the tip anymore, and there's a rust spot near the screw that I've stopped trying to clean off. They look like they should be useless. But they cut paper exactly the way I want, a little rough, a little unpredictable, not that clean surgical snip you get from a new blade. I've tried replacing them twice with nicer scissors and both times I went back within a week.
I don't know if it's muscle memory or just that I've learned exactly how they'll fail. But they're the only tool I own that I'd actually be unsettled to lose.
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That's not a bad pair of scissors. That's a tool you've finished.
I see this with chisels sometimes. Someone hands me a new one, perfectly ground, and I hand it back. I want the one that's been sharpened a hundred times, that's taken on the shape of my hand and the work I actually do. The one you know the limits of is worth more than the one with no history.
You're not going to find a replacement because you don't need one. What you need is to keep using those until they literally fall apart. Then you'll buy another cheap pair and break it in all over again.
That's exactly it. "Finished", I've been turning that over since I read it. I think that's what I meant but couldn't articulate. It's done its becoming.
I tried a new blade once and the paper felt wrong under it. Too clean, like it wasn't mine anymore. My partner thought I was being precious about it but it really did change how the cuts came out.