Sheep shears
The sheep shears is an ironing scissors and an old hand tools from the everyday farm life. It is used to shear sheep and consists of a U-shaped piece of metal, the legs of which are forged into blades. It cuts by pressing the two blade arms together with one hand for cutting and then opening them up again for the next cut by relaxing the hand muscles. So the scissors are ready to cut again. These scissors are rarely used today. Nowadays, shearing is carried out more efficiently with electrically operated shearing devices.
Scissors as heraldic figure
The sheep shears but has many arms as a common figure in the Heraldry arrived. Of the scissors, it is the most common in the coat of arms. It differs little from the cloth scissors. The tailor's scissors are a different basic type of scissors than articulated scissors and can be distinguished from the others in the coat of arms. Scissors can be found in many craftsmen and guild coats of arms.
Web links
- Sheep Shears (Heraldry) in the Heraldry Wiki
- Cloth scissors (Heraldry) in the Heraldry Wiki