Recommendation? Buy this old shear?

[JTknives]

I have the option to buy an old Edwards no. 20 (I think) shear for $75. He was asking $100, I offered $50 and he came back at $75. He says it has 4” jaws but I’m not sure on that. Is it worth buying and does it have any practical use in the shop. I have been looking for a big shear to chop up 15n20 big this is all I have found.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I can't see the jaws in the photo. What shape are they in? It is a pretty cool old tool in any case.

Have you considered making a set of shearing dies for your press?

 

[12345678910]

It's lying outside in the dirt. He didn't care enough about it to bring it inside. I wouldn't pay too much

 

[Drew Riley]

If you can get it cleaned up and functional, I’d say that’s a good price.

 

[joedhiggins]

Yeah. I would. They have an immense amount of sutting force. You can use it to hot cut as well. I can't see the photo, so I am unsure of the quality, but, if it looks like it will still have clean and workable mating surfaces, it should be quite useful.

 

[Lieblad]

Great shears.
They will distort workpiece right near the cut. But usually not a problem if the material is going into a forge.
If its decent shape at that price I would buy it. You probably find It useful.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

IIRC, those are ratchet shears and while they have lots of force, are slow. I think a single pull shear would work better for shearing your 15N20 ... or a hydraulic shear.

For someone with your love of building things, it wouldn't be hard to take some 3/4" D2 and a few bars/plates of 1" mild steel and make a simple hydraulic shear. An air-over bottle jack with a foot pedal would be enough to power it. Or, build it as a "die" to fit your existing press's lower die mount.

I still would get that Edwards shear, sandblast it clean, then paint it red.

 

[Don Hanson III]

I have one similar but looks to be larger & it wont cut hardened 15N20 very well. Only tried a couple times and it's probably dull, but it's just not the right tool for shearing 15N20.

 

[JTknives]

This one has hardened replaceable jaws and ftom the research weighs 200-300lbs

 

[Don Hanson III]

Mine weighs that or more, has 14" long jaws (blades). It will cut 1.5" wide 15N20 strips to length no problem. But it will not shear strips off 10-12" wide 15N20 blade saw blades.