Mitre shears

Mitre shears, sometimes known as mitre cutters, angled shears, or angled cutters, are hand tools specifically designed for making mitre cuts in thin stock materials. They consist of a sharp cutting blade and an anvil base, which they cut against. The anvil will usually be marked for specific angles relative to the blade and have wings set at 45-degrees for quick repetitive cuts. 

Mitre shears are commonly used to create precise mitre corners for things such as dowels, smoke seals, picture frames, weather seals and other similar applications. They remove the need to use a mitre box, where the stock must be held as you saw it, or a mitre saw, which is an expensive piece of equipment, when cutting thinner pieces of material. 

What is a mitre cut? 

Mitre cuts are angled cuts made on the face of two structures that will be joined to create a corner. This corner will then be called a mitre joint. A true mitre joint is a 90-degree angled corner, this requires two pieces to be cut at 45-degree angles so they join at 90-degrees. However, a mitre joint can also be made from other angles of cut.

The angle of the mitre cut will always be half the angle the finished corner will be. This means, for example, a 60-degree corner will be produced from two 30-degree edges. Different angles may be needed for different applications. 

What can mitre shears cut? 

Mitre shears from Trend are top quality and can be used to cut stock made of things such as PVC, leather, wood, and rubber. They are designed to complement some of their routing products by being ideally suited to the delicate work of modelling building and for trimming doll’s house mouldings. They are also commonly used with various window and door seals, decorative trim strips, sealing strips used in tiling, wooden battens, and other similar materials. 

Features of Trend mitre shears 

Trend currently produce two quality hand mitre shears. They are both able to be used in the right or left hand and have soft grip handles for comfort. They have an anvil with wings at 45-degrees and engraved lines that indicate 45, 60, 75, and 90-degrees on both sides. They also have a locking lever which is a safety feature that enables the sharp blade to be locked against the anvil when it is not being used. 

Mitre shears with chrome vanadium blade

These mitre shears come with a tough chrome vanadium blade that can be replaced using an 8mm A/F spanner when needed. This blade should be particularly long lasting, reducing the need for tool time, although these blades are more expensive than standard trapezoidal blades. These shears can cut stock up to 10mm thick at 90-degrees. For 45-degree cuts, the maximum thickness is 15mm and 35mm wide.

Mitre shears with replaceable trapezoidal blade

These shears use standard sized trapezoidal blades that screw into the shears and come supplied with one blade. These blades are easy to replace and typically inexpensive to buy, but they will not last as long as chrome vanadium blades, which usually makes them more suited to occasional use as the blade will need to be replaced more often. These shears can cut stock up to 7.5mm thick at 90-degrees and 75mm thick and 35mm wide at 45-degrees.

Spare parts

The chrome vanadium blades are available from Trend as a spare part when they need to be replaced, and a replacement anvil is available that is compatible with both of Trends mitre shears. Trapezoidal blades will be available separately.