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The short answer
Buy a pair with micro-serrated stainless blades and a published dishwasher rating, and prefer blades that come apart if the maker states it. Victorinox publishes 2.8 in blades, 8 in overall, a polyamide handle, 3.2 oz, dishwasher safe, made in Germany and a lifetime warranty - more than most of this category states. Keep them for food only. The single most common way a good pair goes blunt is being used on packaging and flower stems.
Quick picks
The whole answer, on one screen. Tap a row to jump to the full write-up. Every pick below carries a stated trade-off further down — including the one at the top.
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Product
Best for
Price
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Victorinox Multipurpose Kitchen Shears 7.6363.3
Published dishwasher safe with a lifetime warranty and a micro-serrated edge, from a maker that publishes more than most here.
No live price is verified right now, so every button here reads Check price on Amazon rather than a number we cannot stand behind. How we handle prices.
What shears are genuinely for
Not everything. A pair of kitchen shears is the right tool for a specific set of jobs, and a knife is better at the rest.
Spatchcocking poultry. Cutting out a backbone is the job shears were designed for and the one a knife does worst.
Trimming fat, skin and silverskin, where the material is slippery and a blade slides off it.
Herbs, directly into the pan. Faster than a board for chives, dill and parsley.
Cutting fins off fish and shells off shrimp.
Snipping bacon into lardons, which is far easier than chopping it.
Trussing string, pizza, pastry, dried fruit - anything sticky or awkward on a board.
What they are not for: cardboard, plastic packaging, flower stems, wire ties. Those are the jobs that dull a kitchen pair, and the fix is a second pair of household scissors in a drawer somewhere else.
The specifications that matter
Specification
Why it matters
Usually published?
Blades come apart
Decides whether they can be cleaned properly after raw chicken
Rarely
Dishwasher safe
Same reason, and the easier answer if stated
Sometimes
Micro-serration
Holds slippery skin instead of pushing it away
Usually
Overall length
Leverage - 8 in is the standard useful size
Usually
Handle material
Grip when wet and greasy, which is always
Usually
Blade steel grade
Edge retention
Almost never
Country of manufacture
Useful context, not a quality guarantee
Sometimes
Warranty
What the maker will stand behind
Sometimes
Two of the three specifications that decide how useful a pair is - blade separation and steel grade - are the two least likely to be published. That is the honest state of this category.
Victorinox does not publish whether the 7.6363.3 blades separate. It does publish dishwasher safety, which addresses the same hygiene concern by a different route. We are recording both facts rather than assuming the first from the second.
Why separating blades are worth looking for
The pivot is where raw chicken goes. It is an enclosed joint that a sponge cannot reach, it stays damp, and it is the one part of a pair of shears that a quick rinse never cleans.
Blades that come apart - usually by opening them past 90 degrees and sliding one off the other - turn the pivot into two open surfaces you can actually wash. That is the practical hygiene argument, and it is more meaningful than any claim about the steel.
The alternative is dishwasher safety, which is what Victorinox publishes. A machine cycle at temperature will reach the pivot even if a sponge will not.
What Victorinox actually publishes
Because this is the pair in our ledger, here is the full published picture rather than a summary:
Blade length: 2.8 in. Overall: 8 in.
Blade: stainless steel with a micro-serrated edge. The steel grade is not published.
Handle: polyamide. Weight: 3.2 oz.
Dishwasher: published safe.
Published extras: a screw-cap jar opener and a nutcracker in the handle.
Made in: Germany. Warranty: lifetime.
The German origin is worth a sentence. Victorinox is a Swiss company and its knives are made in Switzerland; these shears are published as made in Germany. Not a problem - German cutlery manufacture is excellent - but if you are buying the Swiss flag, buy the knives rather than the shears. The same pattern showed up in our knife set research, where Victorinox states different origins on different product pages.
Handedness, which nobody mentions
Scissors are handed. The upper blade on a right-handed pair sits on the side that lets a right hand's natural squeeze push the blades together; used left-handed, the same squeeze pushes them apart and the material slips between them.
For light work it hardly matters. For cutting through a chicken backbone it matters a great deal. Genuinely ambidextrous shears exist and are usually described as such; most "ambidextrous" claims refer to the handle shape rather than the blade geometry.
Care, which is four things
Wash and dry after raw protein, every time, in a machine if the maker publishes it as safe.
Dry them properly. A wet pivot is where rust starts even on stainless.
A drop of oil in the pivot occasionally if they start to feel gritty.
Keep a separate pair for non-food work, which is the single change that most extends the life of a good pair.
Sharpening shears is possible but awkward, because the cutting action depends on the two blades meeting at a precise angle. Most home sharpeners will make a pair worse. If a good pair goes blunt, a lifetime warranty is more useful than a whetstone - best knife sharpeners covers what those tools can and cannot do.
What we have audited
One pair, in detail. We have not audited poultry shears - the spring-loaded, curved-blade kind - or a pair with published separating blades.
Each write-up below gives the published specs, what the pan is genuinely good at, what it costs you, and who should skip it. The trade-off line is there on the top pick too — a recommendation with no downside is an advertisement.
Top pick · Best kitchen shearsSpecs read September 3, 2026
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Victorinox Multipurpose Kitchen Shears 7.6363.3
Published dishwasher safe with a lifetime warranty and a micro-serrated edge, from a maker that publishes more than most here.
Best for: Spatchcocking, opening packaging, and the herb-and-string work a knife does badly
Published specifications for the Victorinox Fibrox Chef's Knife Extra Wide, 8 in
Blade length
7.9 in
Overall length
13.4 in
Weight
6.4 oz
Handle
Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)
Edge
Straight edge
Blade steel
Not published by Victorinox
Hardness (HRC)
Not published
Dishwasher
Yes (Victorinox published)
Made in
Switzerland
Warranty
Lifetime
Good
Swiss manufacture and a lifetime warranty, both published
6.4 oz is light for an 8 in chef's knife, which matters over a long prep session
Published dishwasher safe, which almost no premium knife maker will say
Not good
No published steel grade and no published hardness figure
A stamped blade with no bolster - it will not feel like a forged German knife
The TPE handle is grippy and unlovely
The trade-off. Victorinox publishes the handle material, the weight and the country - and not the steel grade or the hardness. You are buying a reputation on that point, not a number.
Skip this if. You want a forged knife with a bolster and heft. This is a stamped blade with a plastic handle and it feels like one.
Published specifications for the Victorinox Fibrox 8-Piece Block Set
Pieces
4 in paring, 6 in boning, 8 in chef's, 8 in bread, 10 in slicing, 10 in sharpening steel, kitchen shear, block
Handles
Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)
Dishwasher
Knives published dishwasher safe
Certification
NSF approved, published on the set listing
Country of origin
Listed as United States for the set; the individual Fibrox chef's knife is published as Switzerland
Blade steel
Not published
Warranty
Not published on the set page
Good
An NSF mark is a real third-party standard rather than a marketing badge
The piece list is genuinely useful - no steak knives padding the count
Includes a sharpening steel, which most block sets treat as an upsell
Not good
Country of origin on the set page disagrees with the individual knife page
No published blade steel and no warranty terms on the set listing
A block takes counter space, and most cooks use two of these eight knives
The trade-off. Victorinox lists the set country as United States while publishing Switzerland for the individual Fibrox chef's knife - a documentation inconsistency worth knowing if you buy on origin.
Skip this if. You only ever reach for one knife. Two good knives and a sharpening steel cost far less than any block set.
Published specifications for the John Boos Chop-N-Slice Reversible Maple Board, 16 x 10 in
Dimensions
16 x 10 x 1-1/4 in
Sizes offered
16 x 10, 18 x 12 and 20 x 14 in
Wood
Northern Hard Rock Maple
Grain
Edge grain construction
Reversible
Yes, with finger grip cutouts
Finish
Oil finish
Weight
6 lb
Dishwasher
Not published
Care
Linked to a general block-care page rather than published on the product page
Made in
USA with domestic and imported materials
Warranty
A warranty policy exists; its terms are not published on the product page
Good
Edge grain maple is kind to a knife edge in a way glass and bamboo are not
Reversible, so raw and cooked can have a side each
Finger cutouts, which is what makes a 6 lb board liftable with wet hands
Not good
No published dishwasher guidance, and wood boards should not go in one regardless
Care instructions are linked rather than published on the product page
6 lb is heavy to move to a sink, which is how boards stop getting cleaned properly
The trade-off. Wood needs oiling and must never go in a dishwasher, and John Boos does not publish care guidance on the product page itself.
Skip this if. You want to sanitize a board in a dishwasher after raw chicken. Buy a thin plastic board for that job and keep this one for everything else.
A micro-serrated stainless pair with published dishwasher safety and, ideally, blades that come apart. Victorinox publishes 2.8 inch blades, 8 inches overall, a polyamide handle, dishwasher safety and a lifetime warranty, which is more than most of this category states.
›Should kitchen shears come apart?
It is the single most useful feature, because the pivot is where raw chicken collects and a sponge cannot reach it. Published dishwasher safety addresses the same problem a different way, and is easier to verify before buying.
›Can kitchen shears go in the dishwasher?
Only if the maker publishes it. Victorinox publishes its multipurpose shears as dishwasher safe. Where a maker says nothing, wash by hand and dry the pivot thoroughly, because that is where rust starts.
›What should you not cut with kitchen shears?
Cardboard, plastic packaging, wire ties and flower stems. Those jobs are what dulls a good pair, and the fix is keeping a cheap pair of household scissors somewhere else entirely.
›Can you sharpen kitchen shears?
With difficulty. Shears cut because two blades meet at a precise angle, and most home sharpeners disturb that geometry and make the pair worse. A lifetime warranty is a more practical answer than a whetstone.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of these. Follow them and check our arithmetic — that is the point.
