Shear Delight!

An essential tool for the sculptor working in metal is a device which will cut up sheet metal like scissors cut up paper. New metal shears arrived today and their addition to the studio armoury was blippable.

The old shears packed up last Friday. They still worked but there were some odd burning-like smells coming from the base and same fairly large sparks coming through the vents. And the switch had gone so it couldn't be switched off. If we had a health and safety officer, he or she would be apoplectic and rightly so.

We estimated that it was about 35 years old and cost more than the car we bought around the same time! Given its sterling service over the years and our interest in growing older, we decided it needed to be replaced. After all, we have moved on with our cars.

I looked for various ways of making the new shears photographically interesting.. I failed. This as a record of its first cut. 'Like a knife through butter', the sculptor said.