Patent ID: 8632047

Claim:
A pair of shear blades to be provided in a ram blowout preventer for cutting a tubular, the pair of shear blades, comprising: a first ram shear blade having a forward end and a rearward end, a recessed cutting surface extending rearward from the forward end, the recessed cutting surface having a rearwardly curved central region, the entire recessed cutting surface having is cutting edge; and a second ram shear blade configured to shear the tubular in concert with the first ram shear blade, the second ram shear blade having a forward end, a rearward end, a top, a bottom, opposite side edges that are parallel to each other, each of the side edges extending from the top to the bottom and from the rearward end to the forward end, a forward extending cutting surface on the forward end of the second ram shear blade with two lateral cutting surfaces extending forward from and joining the side edges, each of the lateral cutting surfaces being in a single plane, the lateral cutting surfaces converging toward each other and intersecting at a central apex, the entire forward extending cutting surface having a cutting edge flush with a plane containing the bottom.