Snips

Snips are cutting tools that looks like scissors. Snips mainly find their use in cutting thin metal sheets. The snips have two hinged blades that move in opposite direction in circular motion. The blades remain in close contact with each other and they cut the workpiece by applying shear stress on the cutting point. The blades of snips are made from very hard metal or metal alloy. The handles of snips may be like that of scissors or like that of pliers.

To cut a metal sheet with a snip it is placed between its blades and the pressure is applied on the handles in opposite direction, which makes the blades to move and apply shearing on the metal sheet resulting in its cut. The snips can be classified according to the cutting they produce. The snips which produce straight cuts are called straight cutting snips and those that produce right/left curve cut are called right/left cutting snips. We should not try to cut circular cuts with straight cutting snips.