These things are awesome. Not fancy, nothing crazy, but a solid and reliable pair of nippers. The main portion is sharp and holds up well with soft materials like copper, silver, gold, especially when annealed. For snipping harder materials like heavily forged brass or steel broach wire, there’s a section at the base of the blades that functions like a beefier shear. I don’t know if that’s what it’s for per se, but it sure works great. Bought two, probably going to get some more just to have floating around!