No (Not Usually!)
– Sharpening clipper blades is not like sharpening Knives which have 1 cutting edge. Clipper blades have 2 cutting edges which move past each other and must be in close contact to work properly.
– However DIY sharpening on a flat stone rounds down the tips of your clipper blade so the face becomes convex and when you put these convex surfaces together the teeth of the clipper blade are splayed apart and do not cut.
– Please do not sharpen your own clipper blades as it may be difficult or impossible to restore them to working order.
The cutting teeth of your clipper blades need to be in close contact to work well.
To achieve this we sharpen each clipper blade with a slight hollow so that the tips of each blade slightly point into each other. This gives very good contact between the cutting teeth so the blades will work well.
DIY sharpening on a flat stone rounds down the tips of your clipper blades making the face convex. When these convex blades are put together the cutting teeth are splayed apart and will not work.
Why not sharpen them Flat?
You might think a flat surface would be best, however DIY flat sharpening produces convex and not flat surfaces and professionally flat sharpened clipper blades can perform inconsistently. Practically a small hollow is most reliable.
Why Hollow?
If you put 2 concave (hollow) surfaces together the edges are touching and there is a gap in the middle. As the teeth are at the edges of your clipper blades then a small hollow does work well.
Conversely if you put 2 convex surfaces together the middle is touching and the gap is at the edge. If you sharpen your clipper blade like this then the teeth are splayed apart and your clipper blade will not work.
Sometimes you can buy new clipper blades or have them professionally sharpened and they don’t cut.
– This comes from inaccurate sharpening rather than bluntness.
– Inaccurate sharpening usually has 2 types; blade surfaces that are convex and blade surfaces that are too concave.
– Professionally sharpened blades have hollow or concave inside faces which gives the teeth good contact. However if the hollow is too deep (side to side) there is a gap in the middle between the blades and it wont work well.
– DIY sharpening on a flat stone usually produces a convex surface that will not work as the teeth are splayed apart.
– At SL Service we check each blade we sharpen to ensure it has an accurate small hollow which guarantees you the best clipping performance. 😇
We sharpen and return clipper blades in 24 Hours from when we receive them.
If you post your clipper blade on Monday, we will email when it arrives which could be Tuesday. If your clipper blade arrives on Tuesday then it will be returned on Wednesday and so could be back with you on Thursday.
– 90% of first 1st class post arrives next day but it is not a Guaranteed next day service.
– We post items 5 days per week from Monday to Friday.
It is rare for items to be lost in the UK Post.
Very occasionally customers jiffy bags, envelopes and boxes have split open and arrive with us with some contents missing. (2 times in 2021)
– If your clipper blades can knock together the teeth can be damaged.
– Items posted Royal Mail Signed For have tracking for when delivered and are insured for up to £50.
– So far in 2021 no items sent by us are missing though a few have arrived late.
For Clipper Blades you can roll them up in padding and packing them in a card box. This is very quick and gives great protection.
For Clippers you can use a card box with the clipper wrapped in padding. Remove the blades from the clipper and wrap these in padding also. 
An easy way to pack Scissors is to use a cardboard box and place scissors between layers of padding. This is easy to do and stops them knocking together.
If your parcel is under 2KG Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed is only £4 👍
Post Your items to us:
SL Service
45 Westfield Crescent
Market Weighton, York
YO43 3EL
You can post clipper batteries in the UK though there are some rules:
– Batteries should be wrapped individually within your parcel to prevent short circuits or damage.
– Wrap each battery individually in bubble wrap and package these within a cardboard box.
Royal Mail
– You can post a used clipper battery with Royal Mail if you include a “device” which is either the clipper or the charger.
– New batteries can be posted without a device.
– Under 2Kg Royal Mail Signed For postage costs £4.10
UPS
– You can post a clipper battery alone with UPS.
– Alkali batteries (NiCd or NiMh): wrap each battery individually in layers of bubble wrap and send in a cardboard box. (eg Andis AGR, Lister Liberty Classic, Heiniger Cordless and Liveryman Whisper)
– Lithium Batteries: wrap each battery with bubble wrap, send in a box and attach the label “Lithium Ion Batteries — forbidden aboard passenger aircraft.” (eg Heiniger Saphir, Oster 3000, Aesculap CL)
see – https://www.ups.com/gb/en/help-center/packaging-and-supplies/special-care-shipments/batteries.page
No (Not Usually!)
– Sharpening scissors blades is not like sharpening knives which have 1 sharp edge. Scissors have 2 edges which slide past each other and these need to be in close contact to cut well.
– Scissors need both sharp cutting edges and correctly maintained inside faces to work well.
– Using a knife sharpener removes metal from the inside face of scissor blades which means the 2 cutting edges no longer meet and the scissors wont cut. If much metal is removed with a knife sharpener we cannot correct this and the scissors will not work again.
History
The original A5 Clipper & A5 Blade were patented and manufactured by John Oster, a Swedish immigrant to the USA, in 1960 (US2928171A) and are similar to an earlier 1939 John Oster design (US2182597A). By the mid 1980’s Oster, Andis and Moser all made popular clippers which took A5 blades and sold A5 clipper blades to go with them. Nowadays A5 blades are the standard snap on clipper blade and most brands sell A5 type clippers and blades to go with them. A newer version of John Oster’s original 1960’s A5 clipper can still be bought today and most the components are compatible with the original 1960’s version.
Design
A5 blades are a type of clipper blade which “snap off” your clipper in one piece without unscrewing them so you can easily remove blades and swap them to any A5 compatible clipper.
A5 blades have a bracket on the back which has 2 small “wings” at the sides of a central a backplate.
A5 compatible clippers have a spike on a hinged bracket which the A5 blade slots onto and rotates back onto the clipper head. On A5 animal grooming clippers the A5 blade locks into place with a small latch mechanism.
Cutting Lengths
– Dog grooming A5 clipper blades have a range of cutting lengths numbered: #50 cuts 0.1mm, #40 cuts 0.25mm, #30 cuts 0.5mm, #15 cuts 1mm, #10 cuts 1.5mm, #7 cuts 3mm, #5 cuts 6mm, #4 cuts #12mm, #3 cuts 16mm and 3/4″ cuts 19mm.
– Barbers & hair dressing A5 clipper blades are numbered differently: #00000 (0.1mm), #0000 (0.25mm), #000 (0.5mm), #0A (1.2mm), #1 (2.4mm), #1A (3.2mm), #1 1/2 (4mm), #2 (6.3mm), #3 1/2 (9.5mm), #3 3/4 (13mm)
Cutting Width
– Standard A5 blades the cutting teeth are around 45mm wide
– Narrow “Toe” A5 blades are around 15mm wide
– Wide A5 blades are wider than normal and around 65mm wide.
Ceramic A5 Blades
Ceramic A5 Blades are normal A5 blades with a Ceramic cutter part fitted. Ceramic cutters are supposed to stay sharp for longer and heat up less during use.
We can fit a new ceramic cutter to your normal width A5 blades as part of clipper blade sharpening and this costs £2 extra. See: Ceramic Clipper Blade Sharpening.
Ceramic cutters are only for normal width A5 blades and not the narrow toe blades or wide A5 blades.
The picture below shows the back of a A5 Toe Clipper Blade and you can see the 2 wings on the sides of the central bracket which sits in the middle of the wider tension spring. 
Ceramic blades work the same as normal clipper blades but the smaller part called the cutter, is made from ceramic instead of metal.
Why are some clipper blades ceramic ?
– Ceramic usually stays sharp longer than metal.
– Ceramic does not heat up as much as metal so the blade runs cooler.
What are the disadvantages of ceramic clipper blades ?
– Ceramic clipper blades are harder to re sharpen so sharpening usually costs more.
– Metal initially performs better though ceramic stays sharp for longer.
– Ceramic is brittle and easily damaged.
Which blades can be ceramic ?
– Normal width A5 clipper blades.
– Some small trimmer blades like Liveryman Element and Classic.
– Some Wahl hair clipper blades.
– Andis Outliner and Slimline Pro.
– Occasionally Heiniger style horse clipper blades have a ceramic part.
Ceramic parts are challenging for a general sharpener to sharpen to a high standard so we fit a new ceramic part instead.
Clipper made for horse are larger than normal clippers and so take bigger clipper blades.
There are 4 types of full size horse clipper blades:
1) Lister type.
2) Wolseley & Liveryman type.
3) Heiniger type.
4) Hauptner type.
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Post your items to us:
SL Service
45 Westfield Crescent
Market Weighton, York
YO43 3EL
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Firstly try quitting the browser and restart your computer before trying our website again.
2) Clear the browser cookies or try with another web browser.
You can clear cookies usually under privacy, manage website data, in your browser settings.
Its useful to have more than one web browser installed on your computer so if a website does not work in one browser then you can try again with another. Popular browsers are Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, OSX Safari and Mozilla Firefox.
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– You should not post “bladed items” at the post office as defined by the offensive weapons act 2019.
– Clipper blades are not “bladed items” as they don’t have sharp edges or a sharp point which can cause injury.
– To avoid a discussion about what a “bladed item” is you can avoid the term “clipper blade” and call it a “clipper” or a “hair clipper” or something similar.
– Also do wrap your clipper blades in padding and ideally package them in a card box.