• Any tool that can cut steel can cut softer metals like copper.copper cable image by Witold Krasowski from Fotolia.com
  
  Metal working cutting tools date back to the bronze age, which was one step later than the stone age. Over the centuries, tools have been developed to work with the softer metals such as copper and aluminum. These tools have been further refined to cut harder metals, such as steel. Tools today have evolved to a point where any metal can be cut with the same tool, even some extremely hard metals like tempered steel or titanium.
  
  

Hacksaw

• The traditional hacksaw can be used to cut copper and aluminum. There are some things to look out for, however. Make sure the teeth are pointed away from the handle, and make sure the blade is sharp. If the blade is worn, replace it with a new blade. Save the old blade, since a scraper can be made out of it to burnish copper and aluminum.
  
  

Tin snips

• These look like large scissors, and they can be used for cutting copper sheet and aluminum sheet. Some tin snips have force-multiplying handles, which act as a compound lever, increasing the cutting force on the jaws. Furthermore, snips are available with angled blades, allowing you to cut left or right curves easier.
  
  

Tubing cutters

• Since copper tubing is very commonly used in plumbing, tubing cutters have been developed. These look like a C-clamp, but have a cutting wheel on the solid jaw, and rollers on the movable jaw. The cutter is tightened down on the tube and as it is rotated, the cutter bites into the copper or aluminum tube, leaving a smooth cut. A built in reamer is attached to the tool, to clean out the bur left behind. This tool is not recommended for steel. For that, switch to a hardened cutting wheel.
  
  

Tubing bender

• Since copper and aluminum are soft metals, trying to bend a tube by hand will produce a kink instead of a smooth bend. A tubing bender overcomes this by having a radius part on one handle, and a smooth part on the other handle. When the handles are brought together, a smooth radius bend is left on the tube.
  
  

Files and file cards

• Files have hardened ridges cut into them, allowing them to cut just about any metal softer than the file. When cutting copper and aluminum, the teeth clog very easily. therefore a steel brush called a file card is used.This brush has hardened steel bristles and it is scraped across the file tho clean out the clogs.
  
  

Wire stripper and cutter

• Most house wiring is copper, and a special tool has been designed to strip the insulation off without nicking the soft copper wire, and a cutter is built in to cut the wire to length. This tool looks like a small tin snip, except that there are round grooves cut into the jaws. The wire with insulation is placed in the grooves, and the handles are squeezed together. The wire falls into the grooves, and it is not nicked because of the space created by the grooves. To cut the wire, slide it to the cutting part, near the handle. Bruce P. Konen and others patented a wire cutter and stripper in 2001 with ergonomic handles, to ease hand pressure.