When I am tying salmon flies including Speys and Dees, I like to have at my immediate disposal four tools for cutting materials (actually five -- a filleting knife with which to destroy a fly).

Three of the four tools are scissors. One pair of scissors is used for heavy cutting and has long blades. It is made by Thompson and has ice tempered blades.

Scissor number two is a high quality German pair that has very fine points for more precise cutting.

The third pair is a cuticle scissors (hereafter referred to as a "Cute"). GET ONE if you've never used one.

I bought three pairs of Cutes at the local pharmacy and they are made by Revlon. Get the smallest model - the blades on mine are about a quarter of an inch long.

The Cute's small blade and its shovel-like shape gives it the ability to cut stubs right next to the tie-in point. So far, I've found nothing that can cut as close as a Cute.

Unfortunately, today's Cutes aren't nearly as good as those of yesteryear. One of my family Cutes that is over 40 years old and that has never been sharpened puts the Revlon ones to shame.

The three aforementioned Cutes became dull after about a year - I tend to be really rough with scissors so their loss of keen edges didn't surprise me. However, instead of tossing them out I decided to see if they were worth sharpening. I decided to try and have them sharpened (at a cost of $6.00 per pair).

I never knew what "sharp" was until I got those Cutes back! They also seem to stay sharper -- I used one for over a year before I took it in for another session of sharpening.

So, if you have a decent pair of scissors you've been using for a long time, think about having it professionally sharpened.

Now, what's the fourth tool I use for cutting material? It's my "light saber", but that's another story...

Snip, Snip!