The Best Australian Hairdressing Scissor Brands

Two models: local manufacture and Japanese production

Australian scissor brands run on two manufacturing models. Some build the scissors in Australia: blades cut, ground, and assembled locally from imported steel. K5 International in Wollert, Victoria and Tru-Blu in Morwell, Victoria both list Australia as the country of manufacture, and Tru-Blu adds individual handcrafting with a serial number on every pair.

Others design locally and build in Japan. OBU in Port Melbourne, exclusive shears in Watsonia North, and SHEAR GENIUS in Lake Wendouree specify and warrant their own models while Japanese workshops produce to that spec: the brand sets the steel grade, the edge type, and the design. It is a common structure across the professional scissor industry.

For the buyer, the manufacturing model matters less than the specification on the page. Steel grade, edge type, hardness, and size decide how a pair cuts. Both models can produce a scissor that performs to a professional standard, and both can fall short if the specification is weak. The picks below give the specification and the manufacturing location side by side.

The six picks

1. K5 International Silver (guide price around $60). K5 International’s entry-level Australian-made offset pair: Japanese 440C blades, a convex edge, and lengths of 5.5, 6.0, and 6.5 inch. Silver chrome finish, eco-friendly packaging. At this price it earns its keep as a student pair, a first professional scissor, or a backup, from a Wollert, VIC company. Available from K5 International direct and through Scissor City in New Zealand.

2. OBU Minarai Centurion (around $140). The apprentice-tier scissor from OBU in Port Melbourne, made in Japan. Silver Minarai steel at 59 to 60 HRC with a convex edge and offset handle, 45 grams on the scale. The Minarai collection is built for apprentice stylists and backup duty, with hand-adjustable tension and a lifetime quality guarantee behind it.

3. exclusive shears DYM-57 (around $250). A VG-1 steel cutting scissor at 5.7 inch, made in Japan for exclusive shears of Watsonia North, Victoria. VG-1, also known as V Gold 1, is a Japanese stainless grade at 58 to 60 HRC suited to everyday salon cutting. The kit arrives with a scissor case, cleaning cloth, oil pen, and tension key, and the warranty runs three years minimum.

4. Tru-Blu Phoenix (around $350). Tru-Blu’s individually handcrafted cutting scissor, made in Morwell, Victoria: Hitachi 440C blades on Hitachi 304 marine-grade stainless handles. The double-mountain blade geometry carries a torsional twist toward the tips, hollow ground, a profile the product page notes as designed to reduce hair pushing during wet cutting. Sizes are 5.5 and 6.0 inch, and every pair carries its own serial number. Available from Tru-Blu direct and through Spencer Scissors in the UK.

5. SHEAR GENIUS Cosmos (around $400). The professional ATS-314 cutting shear from SHEAR GENIUS in Lake Wendouree, Victoria, made in Japan. Cobalt steel enriched with molybdenum and vanadium, a hand-honed convex edge, a micro-polished ride line, and a sculpted offset handle at 6.0 inch. A lifetime guarantee rounds out the package.

6. The Scissor Shop Kura Cutting (guide price around $56). A 6.0 inch convex-blade offset scissor from The Scissor Shop, a direct-to-consumer brand founded in 2019 on the Sunshine Coast, QLD. The brand describes the pair as hand-balanced. The lowest price on this page and the simplest buying path of the six.

How we chose

Each pick lists its steel grade and country of manufacture on its product page. Two are Australian-manufactured (K5 International Silver, Tru-Blu Phoenix), three are Australian-owned with Japanese production (OBU Minarai Centurion, exclusive shears DYM-57, SHEAR GENIUS Cosmos), and the Kura Cutting comes from a Sunshine Coast, QLD direct-to-consumer brand. Guide prices move; confirm current figures on each product page before buying.

Further into the Australian catalogue

The full Osaka range, from the A5 Barber at around $135 through to the ATS-314 CR at around $471, comes from a Sydney brand with Japanese production at multiple price tiers. The UK scissor brands roundup covers the comparable British industry, and the Japanese brands by tier roundup maps Japanese production across every price tier.

Manufacturing regions reference →