I just discovered the Japanese company Kai Scissors thanks to Dan Provost, via Studio Neat's Gazette newsletter:

I feel like I won Christmas this year by basically giving everyone I know a pair of Kai Scissors. Scissors are one of those tools that you might not think to have a great version of, but once you do, it's a little improvement to your life every time you use them. I personally opted for the 9-inch professional shears. Cutting with them is like a little dose of heroin.

After doing some research of my own, I like what I see with these guys' products.

For example, those 9-inch shears Dan mentioned? They're $65 scissors that have a perfect 5-star rating on Amazon with 43 reviews. Not a single complaint about price in the bunch, either. Their other scissors on Amazon also have stellar (heh) ratings. As someone who writes about gear every day and thus spends a lot of time looking at Amazon, I'm impressed. These are clearly scissors that are well worth spending the extra money on.

They've got a couple of old YouTube videos that cover their 5000 series and 7000 series shears respectively, which together make up the bulk of their primary product line. Check 'em out:

If you're looking for some really nice scissors, head over to kaiscissors.com to check out their product line, or you can buy any of them from Amazon if you like. Thanks to Dan Provost for bringing these to my attention!

• Also worth mentioning if you're into high-quality scissors: General Purpose / Desk Scissors by Ernest Wright and Son Ltd