I own four (count 'em, four!) pairs of these shears, purchased from other vendors, but am posting a review here to add my voice to the chorus of admiration for this product.I purchased these shears for use in the kitchen, even though they lacked what I thought was the critical feature of take-apart capability, because I was unable to find kitchen shears that otherwise fit the bill. I subsequently found shears that do come apart for cleaning that I prefer to use in the kitchen, but these shears still remain in constant use in many areas of the house.I keep one pair in my knife block to use in cutting open packaging in the kitchen when food contamination is not an issue; the shears' sharply pointed blade tips make them excellent for dealing with plastic packaging of all types. I keep a pair in my bedroom nightstand, a pair in my desk, and a pair in my car. (It's amazing how often I use them in the car!) I plan to buy another pair to keep in the garage.The shears are sized for general kitchen use, being neither too large nor too small, and are amazingly lightweight. The handles are extremely comfortable in my average woman-sized hands; they fit either the right or left hand. The blades are sharp and tough; they have a Rockwell hardness score of 55. (See info @ [...].) The blade action is extremely smooth and the sharp blade tips make the shears useful for a myriad of kitchen tasks. Unfortunately, the danger involved in cleaning these bad boys without being able to separate the blades, and the extreme caution I prefer to take with regard to contamination, rule out general kitchen use for me. But if you're less squeamish than I am on these subjects, go for it.I own a pair of Shun kitchen shears for meat/poultry trimming and feel that they're the only shears to use for that purpose (see my review at Shun Kitchen Shears), but the Victorinox shears would be excellent for all other jobs in the kitchen or anywhere else in the house, garage, office, shop, RV, etc. They're available from Amazon on their 4-for-3 promotion if you can think of as many uses for them as I did.