I looked at the centaur tailgate shear, but I am not seeing how the thing works. does the steel go between the cutouts?
Tail Gate Shear-Centaur Forge

Edited May 3, 200917 yr by steve sells
relocated thread Hi-jack

it works like when you start to tear a sheet of paper between your fingers. The slots fit the bar stock and when rotated in opposite directions, the stock sheers.

Here's a picture of how it works:

brianbrazealblacksmith, along with many others, you are such a valuable asset to I Forge Iron.
Thank you for all of your help!
Ted Throckmorton

You are very welcome, Ted T.
The tailgate sheer can be purchased from Lee Green at the Shoein' shop in Yucaipa, Calif. Lee is the one who has been manufacturing this tool for quite some time.
Brian
Hi Ted, this is Karen. I wanted to say that to truly promote blacksmithing one must share and give credit to those who have shared with you, thanks for the nice words.

Brian,

Thanks for the pictures it really helped visualize the action. How thick is the plate? I guess the plate has to to be thicker than the largest thickness it will shear?

Brian

Lee's shear is 1/2" thick and it is sized for the most common sizes of stock for making horseshoes [1/4",5/16", and 3/8"]. I have made ones in other peoples shops that will sheer 1/8"-3/4", and ,yes, it had to be proportionally thicker. But for $50, Lee's is a great deal, and I will double up 1/8" in the 1/4" slot and 3/16" in the 3/8" slot and let my kids have a ball cutting my stock.

Thankyou for your information Glenn and Brian.

What steel and heat-treatment would you recommend if I were to build a sheer or mild steel? As I recall Bealer recommends a plain 1% carbon with a straw temper (roughly 60RC).

This is not a sheer like scissors; it wrings the material off. It does need to be tough but not necessarily that hard. I''ve made one out of 1"x 3" mild steel and super quenched it and it held up fine. If I were going to make another one, I'd probably use leaf spring which I can get at the suspension shop[5/8"x3"and 4"] , and it's annealed drops. After machineing I'd harden in oil then temper blue.