Question About a Shear

[Jack Olsen]

I picked up this Dreiss & Klump straight shear a while back, and the handle bends slightly. I can straighten it pretty easily. But I've never seen one to know if this is part of the design or not.

Any metal cutters out there know if it should be straight or bent?

 

[rwhite692]

I would not try to straighten that (cast iron) handle. the effort may be met with an unpleasant surprise (crack!).

I believe that the handle was manufactured that way because you have to stand a bit to the left of the throat of it in order to view your cut line and see what you are doing.

 

[PT Doc]

I was going to say the same, so that you can see a bit better but that is pure speculation on my part. What are you going to cut with the shear?

 

[rlitman]

There's no way I can imagine that handle to be cast iron. It is way too long and thin, and would have snapped a long time ago. I'd venture to guess that it is forged steel. A spark test will tell you the difference very easily.

I can see why the handle of an offset shear such as a Beverly would work bent like this, but I'm not sure why it would be in a straight shear like this.