Types and Uses of Shears

You have several different families of tools in your box, and one of those would be shears.

Shears use two blades passing each other to cut material. There are several different types of shears out there. Depending on what they cut and how they cut it, determines how they’re made.

Fabric shears are good for upholstery work since they’re a lot more heavy duty than regular scissors. There are also specialized shears within fabric shears to cut leather or nippers to cut threads. Then there are shears specific for cutting cable.

• Ron Covell’s Tips for Using Aviation Snips

If sheet metal is what you’re looking to cut, power shears are the ones you want. If you’re looking to get even more intricate, you need the tin snips which are fairly common. They are actually made to make straight cuts. There are different colored handle snips that indicate which turn they are designed for.

Finally, the stomp shear is the biggest (and coolest!) in the shop. It’s foot operated – hence the name- and will certainly get the job done…