A sterile, hand-held, manual instrument intended to be used to cut bandages and cloth. Typically a robust instrument, it comprises two pivoted blades provided with finger and thumb holes in the handles. The distal end of the blades may be different shapes and are usually rounded for safety; one blade may extend in front of the other and have an olive tip that is placed under the bandage. It is typically made of high-grade stainless steel and some may use carbide inserts for the cutting edge. This is a single-use device.