Nic

Nic is a brand that leads with breadth rather than a single hero pair. Instead of one flagship line everyone knows, it fields a long roster of named series across cutting, thinning, and dry work, sold through specialist scissor retailers. That can feel overwhelming at first, but it also means there’s usually a Nic model pitched at whatever specific job you’re trying to fill.

A deep catalog

The cutting side alone runs through the WX, Try, Q, XF, Queen, King, STS, SR, Pop, LXA, and JN series. Several of those come in two flavors, a cobalt version and a stainless one, so you’ll see pairings like WX Cobalt and WX Stainless, or XF Cobalt and XF Stainless. The split is the useful part: the cobalt builds lean toward harder, longer-holding edges, while the stainless versions cover more general-purpose daily cutting at a friendlier price. The Queen Cobalt series is listed by retailers as handmade.

For texturizing, the P1 and P55 series handle thinning and blending, and there’s a dedicated Dry series built for dry-cutting work, which is the kind of specialization a broad catalog can afford to offer.

Reading the steel honestly

One caveat. Nic’s material wording is generic. Model names carry “Cobalt” or “Stainless,” but no specific grade is published for either. That’s not unusual for a brand at this scale, but it means you’re buying on feel and reputation rather than a spec sheet. In use, the cobalt lines bring the extra hardness and edge retention; the stainless ones serve the everyday work.

Nic sits in the premium bracket, roughly $400 to $800 depending on series and blade length. It’s carried by Shear World and Tricut, both of which stock the full collection, and the cleanest way to pin down exact lengths, prices, and current stock is the individual model pages. For other German makers, see the Germany hub.