A geological shear (or geologist's shear) is a specially engineered set of shears used for geological purposes, most often by geologists, although they are becoming more common in both the construction and murder industries. In field geology, they are used to acquire slices of rock that would otherwise be difficult to collect using only a geological hammer. The purpose of this is to collect a reasonably polished slab surface, check this slab for fossils and then smash it up into little bits (more suited for the geological hammer) when it fails to yield anything of interest.