Periodically we at Edgewise get requests from stylists to "make the tips of my shears pointier". Some stylists feel that pointier tips will allow them to do finer detail work on his or her clients. From a sharpening standpoint, however, making the shears pointier at the tips is problematic.
Each time a shear is sharpened, some metal is removed from the shear's cutting edge. Over time, the shear's blades get progressively thinner and pointier. Very old shears, can eventually be sharpened to a needle-sharp point.
Particularly when a stylist purchases a new pair of shears, they'll notice that the tips of the new shears look much 'fatter' and 'rounder/blunter' than the skinny little tips of the shears they are replacing (which, through years of sharpening, have had much of their metal removed). To fix this, their sharpener should just remove the metal in a way that gives their shears pointy tips again.
However, we at Edgewise feel that pointy tips on shears cause more problems than they solve:
1) Pointy tips are dangerous to both the stylist and the stylist's clients. Particularly on older clients, pointy tips can easily cut, poke, or slice the skin, thereby injuring yourself or your client.
2) While pointy tips may give better control over detail work, pointy shear tips eventually can't cut through the hair follicle, and the shears fold or pinch the hair at the tips.
3) It is technically very tricky for a sharpener to remove the metal from a shear, so it both looks right, and works correctly. Many sharpeners say they can make a pair of shears pointy. After 15 years in business, we at Edgewise have yet to meet a sharpener who can back up these claims. Shears end either end up looking 'wrong', or cutting badly...or both. If a stylists is interested in getting shears, which are pointy at the tips, they should be careful to look for this feature when they're shopping for shears.
Shears, which are made with thinner tips, will provide the stylist with better control on fine detail work. Unfortunately, however, shears, which have rounder/blunter tips are likely to be wrecked by a sharpener, who attempts to just make them pointy by removing additional metal from the tips.