Hold-down for shears, in particular billet shears

The invention relates to a hold-down for shears, in particular billet shears for cutting off bar and section material with a blade slide which can be actuated by means of crank or eccentric drive. The hold-down consists of a hold-down piston (6) which can be acted upon by pressure oil and is mounted displaceably in the vertical direction in a hold-down cylinder (5) fastened to the frame (1) of the shears. The hold-down cylinder (5) is in turn attached via a cam-controlled non-return valve (8) to a hydraulic accumulator (7) with low oil pressure. To reduce the springing of the hold-down, an additional piston (11) operable as a function of the relative movement between blade slide (3) and hold-down piston (6) and having a substantially smaller piston area is arranged according to the invention in a further cylinder bore which in turn is connected via oil bores (17, 18) to the hold-down cylinder (5) as well as to a pressure-stabilising system.