Cold Stamping (冷間プレス)
Description
Cold stamping presses scissor blanks from steel sheet at room temperature for high-volume production. Learn how this affordable process affects blade quality and price.
Cold Stamping (冷間プレス / reikan puresu)
Quick look
- Process: Blanks cut from flat-rolled steel sheet using high-pressure dies at room temperature.
- Key benefit: Fast, repeatable, low per-unit cost — ideal for high-volume production.
- Cost position: Mid-range to economy. Significantly cheaper than forging per unit.
- Where used: Standard method for Chinese OEM factories, Pakistani export production, and most mid-range global brands.
Why it matters
Cold stamping is how the majority of the world’s professional scissors are made. A hydraulic or mechanical press punches scissor-shaped blanks from sheet steel in seconds — no heating, no hammer, no individual shaping. The economics are compelling: a single stamping line can produce thousands of blanks per shift with minimal operator skill.
The trade-off is metallurgical. Because the steel is not heated and worked, the grain structure stays exactly as it was in the rolled sheet. There is no refinement, no realignment, no compression of the microstructure. The blank is shaped but not strengthened by the forming process itself. Final performance depends entirely on the quality of the starting sheet steel and the subsequent heat treatment.
How it works
- Sheet preparation: Flat-rolled steel coil or plate (typically 2-4 mm thick) is fed into the press.
- Blanking: A high-tonnage press drives a hardened die through the sheet, cutting out the scissor profile in a single stroke.
- Secondary forming: If the design includes offset handles or curved shanks, additional press operations bend the blank to shape.
- Deburring: Rough edges left by the die are ground or tumbled smooth.
- Heat treatment: The stamped blank proceeds to hardening and tempering — this step is critical, because it is the only opportunity to improve the metal’s mechanical properties.
Trade-offs
- Pros: Low cost, high speed, excellent dimensional consistency, minimal material waste (nested blanking layouts), easy to scale.
- Cons: No grain refinement, lower fatigue strength than forged blanks, limited to shapes achievable from flat sheet, higher reliance on heat treatment to compensate.
Where you will find stamped scissors
Most scissors priced under $200 at retail are stamped. This includes the bulk of salon-supply-chain brands, student kits, barber starter sets, and private-label lines. Many are perfectly functional tools — especially when paired with quality steel and competent heat treatment — but they will not match the edge longevity or fatigue life of a well-forged equivalent from the same alloy.
What to ask a manufacturer
If a brand does not mention forging, the scissors are almost certainly stamped. That is not automatically a negative — a well-treated stamped VG-10 blank can outperform a poorly treated forged one. The question to ask is not “stamped or forged?” in isolation, but “what steel, what heat treatment, and what final inspection?”
Sources
| Related processes: Hot Forging | Investment Casting | Heat Treatment |