Cutting shingles

[glennster]

im suprpised nobody mentioned a shingling or roofers hammer. has a replaceable blade on the axe end. heres a link
poke here

 

[Keith True]

I have a shingle shear.Looks like a paper cutter,but the blade is real heavy duty.The deck is aluminum,and has rubber feet to sort of stay on the roof.It has an aluminum hook that swings up that you can hook to a nail to keep it on the roof.It is embossed with lines and angles to swing a shingle around to cut angles for valleys and cap.I bought it when my dad was in his late sixties,about 20 years ago.He was having a hard time cutting laminate shingles with a knife.Search shingle shear,you'll see a lot of them come up.

 

[Caryc]

If you go to your search engine and choose for it to search for "images" you'll find millions of pictures of them. Search for shingle cutter.

 

[moresmoke]

Before linoleum was a thing, that was a bundle knife used
to cut the binder twine when feeding bundles into the
thresher.

 

[wp6529]

If we're talking regular asphalt-fiberglass shingles, it is indeed score on the back side and snap. You are definitely not trying to cut all the way through, just score the back, flex away from the score which opens the gap then flex back which will finish the separation.

Does not require much pressure to score, just change utility knife blades regularly as they dull. If too arthritic to score and snap, suggest also shouldn't be wrestling all that shingle weight either.

 

[sms]

I have been using the same old tin snips/shears for 30+ years no problem. And I am a contractor did many roofs 50-60 square up to 140 square and smaller jobs too of course.

 

[sms]

Score and snap works for single layer
shingle as you said but not well on
multiple layer shingles.

 

[sms]

 

[Stephen Newell]

Different experience than I had, I started off using tin snips and wore them out within an hour. Then started using a utility knife.

 

[TimV]

Agreed, sms. We've always used a pair of snips and never had a dulling problem over many large projects like barn roofs. Not saying it's the best or only method, but it certainly is a viable one and is widely used.

 

[wp6529]

A utility knife and speed square seems to be the fastest method for me. Can even skip the speed square and use another shingle for the squaring guide but the speed square is faster to handle.

 

[sms]

I use a pair like this.

 

[flembo]

A paper cutter worked for a friend that did his large house, garage and shed before the cutter got dull. It still worked well on shingles but wouldn't cut paper anymore.

 

[Caryc]

(quoted from post at 08:06:22 06/24/23) I use a pair like this.
<img src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto157128.jpg>

Now, those I call shears. The aviation style, I call snips. It seems a lot of people call the shears, tin snips.

 

[Stephen Newell]

Me too.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Your hands are too arthritic to hold a knife but you can squeeze tin snips all day long?

 

[dhermesc]

5 years in a meat packing plant ruins your grip.

 

[Leroy]

Those would not have worked for me. Just use a knife, faster

 

[showcrop]

Instead of cutting shingles fill the gaps with plastic roof cement