In article >, Drew Cutter >
wrote:

> I went to William Sonoma yesterday. The clerk showed me some herb
> shears. Any suggestion on brand , features the shears must have ?

I looked at the WS web site, and found nothing labeled as herb shears.
By way of google, I found 3 options. The most common was Housewares
Intnl., ranging from $13 to $27 dollars. Looked cheaply made, with
plastic strippers that look like wire strippers in the handle on the
opposite end from the steel blades.

I found an Oxo Kitchen and Herb Shears which looked like your ordinary,
scissors shaped kitchen shears, and one set that looked very funky,
where the handle is a vaguesly heart shaped rod, and the blades press
against each other overlapping, and slide inward as you compress the
handles to cut. I have tried these as garden shears, and if anything
tough gets between the blades, the blades spring apart and fail to cut.
Very poor design, but the fact that these are still made tells me that
people still buy them, so someone likes them.

Personally, I bought a nice shear at Target that looks very much like
this Henckles:

http://www.kitchenclique.com/42914-001.html

But the one at Target is branded Chefmate, not available on the web, and
was priced under $5. Like many brands of shears, if the nut comes
loose, the blades can separate and not cut. Every time I use these, I
tighten the nut to finger tight, and otherwise have no problems. I've
cut herb quite nicely with these many times.

And, since these don't look like regualr scissors, my kids don't use
them as such when they can't find their own scissors.

jt