Aviation Snips

(Figure 1)

Compound action shears are known throughout the industry as aviation snips or dutchman snips. These shears have serrated cutting edges and a leverage multiplication that allows relatively thick sheet metal to be cut without requiring excessive handle force. Aviation snips come in sets of three, one that cuts straight, one that cuts to the right and one that cuts to the left. The straight snips are colour coded with yellow handle, the right-hand snips have a green handle and those that cut to the left have a red handle. See figure 1 for example.