The reason I bought this wire cutter was because I needed a hand tool for cutting Extruded Polystyrene (the blue insulation type) for the purpose of creating miniature terrain. The wire cutter worked for this purpose exactly as I needed. It took a little bit of learning but I find it sort of similar to separating clay with a wire just a little slower and with a nice hissing sound to it. Obviously I will probably look for a more advanced tool later on, but for my starting endeavor this is what I need.