The premise of these compound action metal cutting shears is that not only can they cut tough materials like cardboard, leather, and various sheet metals to a certain thickness, but due to the compound leverage mechanisms, you can exert more force with less effort, and thus, use them longer with less hand fatigue/injury afterward. But they will still wear down your hands if you don't use gloves.Besides that, the snips are excellent. The sharp thick serrated jaws eat up all sorts of tough materials and keep on going. I used these to cut up some scrap sheet metal and screwed that sheet metal onto some dimensional lumber to make a firepit cover. Other than making sure each cut is deliberate, because all metal shears will wander from a straight line unless you the operator self correct the cutting line, its easy enough that it is enjoyable to snip metal.The bright yellow and black handles make these easy to locate if I drop them, and include a metal safety latch to make sure one does not get cut on the open blades accidentally. Overall, 16 dollars is a fine price to get shears like these, though I have seen options of similar or better quality as low as ten dollars on the marketplace, and I recommend these, they do their job well.