Sam Villa Signature Shears 6.25″

At First Glance:
Neat handle.
A bit loose feeling – I ended up tightening it a bit more than the norm for shears.
Teflon liners in the ride area of the shears. Are they needed? Probably not.
Reasonably sharp, stayed reasonably sharp for a fairly long amount of time. (How long is fairly? It’s a reasonably long amount of time, by any fair estimate.)
They’re so offset, you’re going to clunk the thumb ring into the spine of the still blade at least once.
You barely move your thumb at all when you use these shears.
They’re heavier than most shears.
The Deets:
The steel is an unknown molybdenum alloy. I’ve asked, they won’t tell me what it is, or who manufactures the shears. The steel feels a bit softer than other shears I’ve used. (Meaning it takes a razor edge, but loses it faster)
They’ve got a leaf spring tension system. It’s not my favorite – it doesn’t loosen often, but it loosens more often than higher end tension systems. And the tension knob! (Grr! Always catching on things!)
They’re bigass shears, for people who like bigass shears.
The handle design looks silly, but it’s actually more well thought out than I had originally thought – the super-offset thumb ring is great, but the open thumb groove behind the thumb ring (which, btw, is in the exact position of where the thumb ring is on almost all regular crane handle shears) gives you excellent control if you want to open the tips of the shears just a tiny bit, or cut away from you, almost like using shears with a pivoting thumb ring.
They don’t hold a super sharp edge as long as other shears – but they’re not not-sharp. Better than Dannyco or Cricket/Centrix, not as good as high end Japanese shears.
They are fantastically “choppy” shears – meaning that there is a lot of power in the tips, you can notch cut like nobody’s business.
They have a lot of power and weight to them, so they’ll go through thicker hair or larger sections better.
They are a full convex edge. (I should hope so!)
The hollow grind is pretty deep – consequently I find these shears are a magnet for hair. It just gets sucked into the pivot point, and I end up having to clean them more often than my other shears.
The length, and weight and guillotine-like “chop” factor these shears have make them excellent for scissor over comb. Also, the extreme offset handle makes the blades open wider, which just makes scissor over comb easier too.
They’re a bit too big and bulky for detail work.

Where They Sit In My Kit:
I bring these out every time I do scissor over comb.
I bring these out every time I’m in a hurry. They let me get through more hair, quicker.
I don’t use these for slide cutting. They could probably do it, but they’re really big, and I have shears with a better edge for that.
I use these for dry cutting. Half because their edge seems to do ok with it, half because their weight and mass gives them the power for it, and half because I don’t want to dull the super sharp edge on my other shears. (Yes I know that’s three halves. Don’t nitpick!)
I use these whenever I’m going to notch cut most of a haircut.
If These Shears Were A Musician, Who Would They Be?

Predictable, fairly average quality, but still in your playlist
The Bottom Line:
Would I buy these again: Probably not – I already have one pair. I got them for the handle. I might consider it if I lost them, because I really like them for scissor over comb.
Would I recommend these: Not as a first shear, or mainstay shear. As a niche shear, or if you specifically want a bigass shear, then yeah. Beats a pair of Roc-it-Dogs.
Is it worth the price: That’s up to you – personally, I wish the craftsmanship and steel were a little higher quality. You could get a plain pair of Kasho shears for the same price made to higher standards. (But they’d be just plain, regular shears.)
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