a lower blade 54 is attached to forward end 42 of lower ram block 40 lower blade 54 is at a lower elevation than upper blade 18 as illustrated in fig2 lower blade 54 slides under upper blade 18 when shearing an upper edge 56 of lower blade 54 is at a slightly lower elevation than lower edge 24 of upper blade 18 lower blade 54 has a lower edge 58 that is closer to lower block forward end 42 than the upper edge 56 a face 60 extends between lower edge 58 and upper edge 56 and is thus inclined relative to forward end 42 as illustrated in fig2 in this example the inclination of lower blade face 60 is the same as the inclination of upper blade face 20 lower blade face 60 also recesses or converges to a central area that is closer to lower block forward end 42 that the outboard ends 62 of lower blade 54 as shown in fig1 the length of lower blade 54 from one outboard end 62 to the other is the same as the length of upper blade 18 from one outboard end 26 to the other referring to fig3 which shows the bottom of.