The 5 Best Kitchen Shears of 2025, Tested & Reviewed

A selection of kitchen shears arranged on a flat surface — Serious Eats / Madeline Muzzi

In This Article

The Winners, at a Glance
The Tests
What We Learned
The Criteria
Our Favorite Kitchen Shears
The Competition
FAQs

Straight to the Point

One of our favorite pairs of kitchen shears is from Cangshan. They excelled at snipping delicate chives and easily separated chicken bones. We also like the sharp, durable set from Shun.

If you asked 10 chefs, they’d almost certainly agree that a solid chef’s knife is the most important tool in the kitchen. An eight-inch blade is a versatile workhorse that can accomplish any task, and there’s no replacing its role in the kitchen. If you can only have one tool for cutting, choose a chef’s knife. If you can have two, consider a pair of kitchen shears.

Kitchen shears can accomplish almost as many tasks as a solid chef’s knife—they can dice herbs, trim veggies, and even break down poultry. In some cases, kitchen shears require a little less artistry. Spatchcocking a chicken with a chef’s knife isn’t necessarily hard, but using a solid pair of shears makes it downright easy.

I put 10 kitchen shears to the test to find a safe, reliable pair that will make your life a little simpler.

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Kitchen Shears

Cangshan 9-inch Heavy-Duty Come-Apart Kitchen Shears

Credit: Amazon

$20 at Amazon

The Cangshan heavy-duty kitchen shears sailed through all of my tests. Of all of the products that I tried, this set delivered the most power. Spatchcocking a chicken was no harder than cutting through a piece of paper. This model’s heavy stainless steel construction felt high-quality.

Another Great Set of Kitchen Shears

Shun Cutlery Multi-Purpose Shears

Credit: Amazon

$60 at Amazon View on Kaiusa.com

The Shun shears have been a Serious Eats favorite for years. We love the comfortable handles, sharp blades, and numerous bonus functions. (This set also sports a nutcracker, jar opener, bone notch, bottle opener, and two screwdriver tips.)

The Best Comfortable Kitchen Shears

OXO Good Grips Kitchen and Herb Scissors

Credit: Amazon

$22 at Amazon $15 at Target $22 at Home Depot

I loved the OXO Good Grips Kitchen Shears’ large, comfortable handles—they’re slightly cushioned and feel plush in the hand. This set’s micro-serrated blades reduced slipping and enabled precise cuts.

The Best Kitchen Shears for Snipping Herbs

Miyabi Kitchen Shears

Credit: Amazon

$40 at Amazon $40 at Sur La Table

The Miyabi Shears deliver an exceptionally smooth cutting experience. The fluid blade action and sharp tip make this set well-suited to precision trimming. They slid easily through parchment paper and deboned a chicken with just a little bit of muscle.

Editor's Pick

Misen Kitchen Scissors

Credit: Amazon

$29

$24 at Amazon View on Misen.com

Senior editor Grace Kelly has been using these scissors from Misen for a few years now, and they're still sharp. "I reach for this slim pair when I'm doing precise tasks, like cutting parchment into rounds, mincing chives, or trimming parsley leaves off stalks," she says. The handles are coated in silicone, which keeps them nice and grippy, even when slicing through slippery things like chicken skin.

The Tests

Hands using kitchen shears to cut a whole raw chicken on a cutting board — A good pair of kitchen shears should be able to slice through tough and delicate foods alike.
Serious Eats / Madeline Muzzi

Chive Trimming Test: I used each pair of shears to snip 10 chives into two-millimeter pieces. After trimming, I evaluated the cuts, checking for any rough edges.
Parchment Paper Test: I cut a 10-inch wide square of parchment paper with each pair of shears by sliding the blade through the sheet. After cutting, I checked for clean edges and took note of any tears.
Spatchcocking Test: I followed these steps to spatchcock a chicken with the top-performing shears, observing how well each set could handle tough cuts through bones and tendons.
General Use and Care Tests: I handled the shears and observed overall comfort and maneuverability. After testing, I washed each set according to the manufacturer's instructions, checking for ease of maintenance and signs of wear.

What We Learned

Bigger Handles Were Better

a person holding the shun shears — Bigger handles made for less stress on the hands.
Serious Eats

Kitchen shears are intended for both heavy-duty and delicate tasks. During testing, I found that spacious handles made it easier to slice through tough materials. A small handle might suffice for light-weight tasks like snipping twine or dicing herbs, but when it’s time to spatchcock a chicken, you need a firm grip.

The J.A. Henckels Pull-Apart Kitchen Shears sported the smallest handles—the opening measured just 2.5 inches long and one inch wide. User experience may vary slightly depending on hand size, but for me, this was only enough space to accommodate three fingers up to the knuckle. The Joyce Chen and Kershaw shears were only slightly larger.

I preferred handles with enough room to fit three to four fingers without too much smushing. The OXO Good Grips offered the most space—the 2.75 by 1.5-inch opening was large enough to wrap three fingers completely around the handle. This model also featured a slightly cushioned design for extra comfort. The Cangshan and Miyabi also included sizable handles.

Blade Alignment Is Key

Hands using kitchen scissors to cut chives on a wooden cutting board — If the blades aren't aligned neatly, it's difficult to make precision cuts.
Serious Eats / Madeline Muzzi

Knives rely on a single sharp blade to make precise cuts. Scissors and shears, on the other hand, use two blades; clean cutting requires proper alignment. When you open and close a set of shears, the blades slide past each other. Cutting occurs at the point where the blades meet. If they aren’t perfectly straight, herbs (or paper, or ribbon, etc.) will bend between the blades instead of being sheared off. All of the products that I tested delivered clean cuts near the base, the point closest to the connection. Models with proper alignment, like the Cangshan, Joyce Chen, OXO, and Miyabi, also delivered precision snips at the furthest end. Others, including the KitchenAid All Purpose Kitchen Shears, failed to cut delicate chives with the tip of the blade.

Detachable Shears Make for Easy Cleanup

Kitchen shears with black handles on a marble surface — Shears that don't come apart were more difficult to clean.
Serious Eats / Madeline Muzzi

If you’re using kitchen shears for a heavy-duty job like spatchcocking a chicken, deep cleaning is essential—leftover residue could lead to dangerous bacterial growth. Standard shears have a few nooks and crannies that can be hard to reach. During testing, I found that come-apart models, like the Cangshan, Oxo, Kershaw, and Shun, were easier to clean. These products are designed to separate at the connection point when fully open and snap back together after cleaning. Taking the blades apart eliminates the risk of leaving trapped food bits in the sticky connection points or between closed blades.

Longer Blades Aren’t Always More Powerful

a person snipping chives with scissors — Short blades required less force than longer ones, which tired my hands.
Serious Eats / Madeline Muzzi

Picture a pair of bolt cutters. These tools use extra-long handles and short, thick blades to generate serious force—enough to cut through a chain link fence. The same physical principles apply when you use a pair of kitchen shears. When you cut, you’re applying force with the handles. The closer you are to the pivot point (or fulcrum, if you please), the greater the resulting cutting power.

During the spatchcocking test, I found that shears with longer handles and relatively short blades were the most effective. The Cangshan shears were the most powerful by far. This model’s five-inch handles and 3.5-inch blade crunched through chicken bones as easily as they snipped chives. Products with longer blades fared significantly worse. The Shun shears look similar to the Cangshan model at first glance, but the Shun’s four-inch blade and 4.5-inch handles couldn’t generate enough power to break down a bird comfortably.

What's the Difference Between Poultry Shears and Kitchen Shears?

Person using Williams Sonoma poultry shears to cut into a whole raw chicken on a cutting board — Poultry shears often have curved, serrated blades for ultimate bone-crunching ability.
Serious Eats / Ashlee Redger

Poultry shears are designed to cut through and around chicken, duck, or turkey bones. These specialized shears have curved, serrated blades and a spring-loaded handle that provides extra cutting power. Kitchen shears are a more all-purpose tool. They have straight blades, often with micro-serrations, and are well-suited to a wide variety of kitchen tasks, such as cutting herbs and slicing open packaging. A good pair of kitchen shears can also handle cutting through small bones.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Pair of Kitchen Shears

Hands using kitchen shears to cut a chicken with labeled features such as sharpness short blade and roomy handles — Serious Eats / Madeline Muzzi

Look for a pair of stainless steel shears with large, comfortable handles. A relatively short, compact blade will help make heavy-duty tasks more manageable and less taxing on the hands. For easy maintenance, choose separable shears that come apart for thorough cleaning. Obviously, they should be sharp enough to cleanly snip, but also have the heft and torque to tackle larger projects, such as spatchcocking a chicken.

Our Favorite Kitchen Shears

The Best Kitchen Shears

Cangshan 9-inch Heavy-Duty Come-Apart Kitchen Shears

Credit: Amazon

$20 at Amazon

What we liked: The Changshan Heavy-Duty Kitchen Shears were by far the most powerful pair that I tested. The large, long handles and three-inch blade made crunching through chicken bones as simple as slicing open an envelope. This was also the heaviest product that I tested by over two ounces—it felt sturdy and satisfying in the hand. In addition to generating more force, the shorter blades granted more control—the tip of the blade is never far from your hand, making it easy to maneuver. The blades come apart for thorough cleaning and snap back together with ease. As a bonus, these shears include an herb stripper, nut cracker, and bottle opener.

What we didn’t like: I searched hard for flaws, but these shears didn’t leave much to complain about. For the sake of a well-rounded review, I’ll note that they come apart very easily and might separate if you drop them onto a cutting board. Of course, they're designed to come apart, and putting them back together isn’t challenging.

Credit: Serious Eats
Credit: Serious Eats
Credit: Serious Eats
Credit: Serious Eats
Credit: Serious Eats

Key Specs

Material: Stainless steel and plastic
Weight: 8.5 ounces
Blade length: 3 inches
Bonus features: Bottle opener, nut cracker, herb stripper