Abstract: An appliance for cutting or otherwise deforming rod-shaped workpieces, e.g. wires, has an elongate tool body with an intermediate portion to which an actuating member or handle is pivotally connected at a first fulcrum. An extremity of the tool body, extending beyond that first fulcrum, carries a first jaw and terminates in a tip to which an arm carrying a coacting second jaw is articulated at a second fulcrum. The opposite end of the arm is rigid with or hinged to an arcuate rack, centered on the second fulcrum, whose teeth are engageable by a stepping pawl on the handle to drive the jaws closer together when the handle is swung in a predetermined sense relative to the tool body.