Kojirō

We spoke with Nigel Waterworth of the infamous Kojiro brand to find out more about their wonderful range of Japanese-inspired scissors.

Kojirō was formed as a family business drawing in the experience, knowledge and skill of a family that had collectively over 100yrs experience in the grooming industry as pet groomers, award-winning competition grooming, grooming tutors and with a respected professional Sharpener and Scissor Smith.

This experience and knowledge of the industry led us to want to bring a difference to the UK scissor market, although there were the usual ‘big brands’, the majority of the market was swamped with affordable but relatively low-quality scissors. We wanted to develop a range of unique scissors that combined exceptional quality, durability and performance with affordability.

We knew they had to be manufactured using genuine Japanese steel, acknowledged Worldwide as the finest possible blade steel. We insisted on being able to certify the provenance of the steel as too often we saw scissors being sold as ‘Japanese steel’ when it was obviously untrue. Every shipment of Kojirō scissors comes with a certificate of authenticity which even documents which batch number and furnace the Japanese steel originates from. Our new Empress range and all subsequent ranges will even be stamped with a unique number allowing us to trace every single scissor back to its origin.

This attention to detail is vitally important to us in order to guarantee the quality and exclusivity of our scissors. We use a single highly experienced manufacturer, known as one of the finest quality manufacturers of beauty scissors in the World, to produce and hand finish our unique designs. We insist on using fine quality and even rare and exquisite steels such as VG-1 Gold in our scissors, this gives edge retention, corrosion resistance and lightweight making Kojirō scissors stand out as unique exclusive and special, even amongst the ‘Big Brands’.

They are manufactured by experienced craftsmen and women with an attention to detail and finish which is second to none. Kojirō scissors can always be immediately recognised for their super smooth action and beautiful finishes. Each scissor is finished by hand and incorporates techniques and technology not seen in grooming scissors previously.

Our popular Shogun and Imperial Shogun range uses a Teflon rideline pivot insert to further improve the smoothness of the action and reduce friction. Our new Empress range and all future styles in design and development incorporate two Teflon inserts ensuring a performance and precision unrivalled in the Industry. Our commitment to producing this affordable, yet exclusive quality is proven by the number of Top UK groomers who have already chosen and invested in a pair of Kojirō scissors.

Our scissors are designed uniquely based on what we believe can compliment your individual skills as a groomer. Then to provide you with performance, durability, comfort and reliability, not just how ‘pretty’ or ‘cheap’ we can produce them.

They are exclusive, individual, specialist scissors of the highest quality that you can be confident in investing in, owning and using for years to come. Usually, it takes at least a couple or more prototypes before we’re all happy with a particular design and we won’t put it into production until we all agree it’s the best we can achieve, so Yes, we are a little more expensive, but there are many reasons for this and we believe if you try

Kojirō’s you will appreciate exactly why.

We have recently introduced our ‘Keystone’ range, the Kojirō Seiko aimed at groomers on a tight budget and Student Groomers, even these ‘budget’ scissors have a quality and refinement usually only seen in mid and high-range scissors, our total commitment extends to every sector of the grooming industry whether beginners or Championship Class.

All our designs start with renowned Scissor Smith and Sharpener Nigel Waterworth, he works from a basic design style and adds or subtracts design elements based on his experience repairing and sharpening quality scissors, trying to eliminate design flaws and improving or specifying enhanced pivot mechanisms, blade geometry and utilising far better quality

Japanese steels than most other brands and manufacturers. Then it’s down to Georgia and Madison to test prototypes In a real-world environment where we look at comfort, reliability, scissor action and precision. Finally, we get to a design we’re all happy to put into production.

That’s why more and more Groomers everywhere are choosing Kojirō, it’s about skill, attention to detail, performance and a quality that compliments your talents.

Later this year we are expanding our range to include other unique grooming products that we believe can bring value, and quality and improve sustainability whilst lessening the environmental impact. The Kojirō brand will continue to grow as we expand with plans to distribute our unique, high-quality range into Europe and the US markets.