A tenon breaking out its mortise is a familiar example of shear along the grain, while the shoving off of the tenon itself would be shear across the grain.

The use of wood for pins or tree-nails involves resistance to shear across the grain.

Another common instance of the latter is where the steel edge of the eye of an axe or hammer tends to cut off the handle.

In Fig.

10 the action of the wooden strut tends to shear off along the grain the portion _AB_ of the wooden tie rod, and it is essential that the length of this portion be great enough to guard against it.Fig.11 shows characteristic failures in shear along the grain.
[Footnote 8: Shear should not be confused with ordinary cutting or incision.] [Illustration: FIG.