8 Best Kitchen Shears of 2026

It costs about the same as the multi-packs here, and for that you get one pair with a 4.7-inch blade on an 8.73-inch body — a longer cutting edge than the OXO all-purpose offers, and long enough to take a chicken breast in one squeeze rather than two sawing passes.

This is the pair we point to when someone wants a single set and no deliberation. The soft-grip handle stays comfortable through a long prep, the micro-serrated edge holds skin steady instead of letting it slide toward the tip, and the frame is ambidextrous, so it doesn’t matter which hand you cut with.

KitchenAid lists it as dishwasher safe and then recommends hand washing, and the second instruction is the one to follow — the soft handle is what suffers in a hot cycle, and a minute with a towel before it goes back in the drawer is the habit worth building. The included sheath matters too: this is a sharp pair with no lock, so loose in a drawer it’s a hazard.

Two pairs for about the same money as the single KitchenAid is the obvious pitch, but what sold us is the weight. At 3.2 ounces the iBayam shears are the lightest full-size pair here, and that tells when you’re portioning a whole chicken into eight pieces.

The two handle colors earn their keep. Assign black to raw meat and aqua to packaging, tape and garden twine, and you stop reaching for the pair that was just on chicken. Both come with blade covers, and there’s a one-year replacement with a limited lifetime warranty behind the set.

The straight edge is the other thing that separates it from the serrated pairs: it slices herbs and paper cleanly where micro-serrations bruise. What it doesn’t do is grip wet chicken skin, so if poultry is the main job, look at the KitchenAid or the OXO instead.

Fit is the caveat. The 8.5-inch frame and wide finger holes suit bigger hands; smaller hands will find them a stretch, and the compact Henckels below is the better answer for that. As a two-pair set for a busy kitchen, it still covers more situations than one pair at the same money.

These are not the pair for snipping herbs or opening a bag of coffee. The OXO spring-loaded shears are a specialist tool for breaking down birds, and judged on that job they’re the strongest here: a 9.6-inch frame, 4.75 inches of curved micro-serrated blade, and a notch near the pivot that catches a bone and holds it while the blades close.

The spring changes how the work feels. Each cut reopens the blades for you, so a long session over a chicken doesn’t become a thumb workout, and the leverage means you’re not squeezing as hard on every stroke. We came away understanding why a pair like this exists at all — it does something the all-purpose shears in this group simply can’t.

The spring is also the part to watch. It’s a wear item, and a shear that stops springing still cuts but loses the whole reason you paid the premium. Wash it by hand, dry at the pivot, and keep the blades closed with the tab at the back between jobs; the blades separate for a proper clean after raw poultry.

Raw chicken on the board, a bunch of cilantro waiting, and one pair of shears that has to do both jobs: that’s the problem the Astercook set solves. Three pairs in three colors let you keep one for meat, one for vegetables and herbs, one for packaging and the toolbox, and the mid-recipe wash disappears.

What surprised us is how close they come to the singles on feel. The 8.86-inch frame and 4.33-inch blades sit between the compact pairs and the long poultry shears, the soft handle material suits either hand, and the blades meet cleanly from tip to pivot on all three. They’re serrated, so they grip rather than slide, and each pair comes with a cover.

Three identical pairs is the trade-off: you get redundancy, not range. There’s no curved seafood blade and no spring assist in this box, so if you want one pair for shrimp or one for spatchcocking, the OMdar or the OXO poultry shears are the better calls. If what you want is a clean pair always within reach, this is the set.

If every pair you’ve owned has felt like a stretch, start here. The Henckels kitchen scissors run a compact frame with a 3-inch blade and tighter finger openings than the rest of this group — the kind of fit that makes snipping chives over a plate or trimming fat off a breast feel controlled rather than clumsy.

Small doesn’t mean flimsy. The steel is corrosion resistant, the blades meet with no slop at the pivot, and the serrated center section of the handle cracks nuts and opens bottles, which is a genuinely useful bit of extra on a pair this size.

Where it gives something up is leverage. Three inches of blade is lovely for herbs and fiddly trimming and not much use on a chicken backbone — that’s the long OXO poultry shears’ territory. And the compact grip that makes it right for smaller hands is the same reason bigger hands should take the iBayam set instead.

There’s no plastic anywhere on the LIVINGO. The handles and blades are forged stainless steel, which removes the failure that ends a lot of kitchen shears: a plastic handle that cracks after enough hot dishwasher cycles.

It’s also the heaviest pair here at 5.93 ounces, and that weight does work — the shear sits in your hand and the blade carries through a cut without you leaning on it. The trade-off is real: all-metal handles have no cushioning, so a long session over a pile of vegetables leaves your palm aware of the tool.

The blade is 2.6 inches, detaches at the pivot for cleaning, and the frame is dishwasher safe. The handle packs a can opener, bottle opener and nutcracker, which is more gadgetry than a shear needs, but none of it gets in the way of the grip.

Buy it if you’re hard on tools or you’ve already lost a pair to a cracked handle. It won’t win a comfort contest and the short blade makes it a poor choice for poultry, but it’s the pair here least likely to be undone by a hot cycle.

The third pair in the OMdar box is the reason to look at it. Alongside two 8.3-inch all-purpose shears there’s a small curved seafood shear, and the curve is the point: it follows the line of a shrimp shell when you’re deveining, which a straight blade can’t do well.

The big pairs use 2.5 mm blade stock and take chicken joints and packaging without complaint. The handles are ambidextrous, the set is dishwasher safe, and there’s a one-time free replacement behind it if something breaks — the kind of cover that makes a budget set easier to say yes to.

The handles are where this set is weakest. The plastic is the part that can crack under heavy, repeated pressure, and the little curved pair feels lighter and less refined than the two big ones. If you’re buying three pairs mainly for the kitchen, the Astercook trio is better matched; the OMdar earns its place when shrimp and fish are regulars on your counter.