I'm a sucker for Knipex!

[james butler]

the rest of the edge is fine so i can live with it, but once the damage is done on an expensive set of cutters their basically scrap.
so if your carefull with them and they should last for ages.
i think my problem was that steel brake line is harder than you think

 

[brightspark]

knipex snips are hard enough to cut piano wire and pushbike brake cable without damage anything larger and u trash them

 

[Jetex]

and the damaged cutters
right in the root of the cut where you expect to cut every thing.

If the Knipex cutters are not hard enough to cut through piano wire then what is the point to purchase these expensive ones?, you can get the same end result with £1.50 market stall cutters. Also you could argue that this is a manufacturing defect in that they have not made them strong enough, they did not harden the cutting edge sufficiently to stop this happening.

With some tools it is worth to purchase good quality ones but for something like pliers and cutters it is not. As long as they are reasonably well made with no slop in the joints then they should serve you well.

 

[Turbo]

Where I worked we had to repair stainless steel wire conveyor belting. This involved cutting & weaving it, some of it was 3.2mm thick & it work hardened so cutting it was a chore. We needed something that could cut the belt but have fine enough jaws to go between the belt links.

We tried all kinds of side cutters but always came back to the Knipex 8" 1000v insulated cutters - they were the only ones that could cut the hard wire without chipping the jaws. The only time they had to be replaced was when some twit borrowed them & used the tips to cut some belt, that usually resulted in the tips breaking off, followed by lots of shouting!

I still have a pair of them, they fell into my pocket when we were all made redundant & they closed the factory

Another good side cutter are Bahco, I have had a pair for over 10 years with regular use & still as sharp as ever.

 

[brightspark]

If the Knipex cutters are not hard enough to cut through piano wire then what is the point to purchase these expensive ones?, you can get the same end result with £1.50 market stall cutters. Also you could argue that this is a manufacturing defect in that they have not made them strong enough, they did not harden the cutting edge sufficiently to stop this happening.

With some tools it is worth to purchase good quality ones but for something like pliers and cutters it is not. As long as they are reasonably well made with no slop in the joints then they should serve you well.

knipex are designed to cut piano wire all all day long and decent pliers are a must .cheap rubbish may be ok for diy but no use when u use them 7 days a week every week cutting hundreds of cables . if u blindfolded me I can tell crap snips without looking just by how they feel and cut

 

[Ashley Burton]

knipex are designed to cut piano wire all all day long and decent pliers are a must .cheap rubbish may be ok for diy but no use when u use them 7 days a week every week cutting hundreds of cables . if u blindfolded me I can tell crap snips without looking just by how they feel and cut

This is the reason I thought I had bought some quality Knipex cutters!

I have some budget Draper ones for lightweight use.

 

[Jetex]

knipex are designed to cut piano wire all all day long and decent pliers are a must .cheap rubbish may be ok for diy but no use when u use them 7 days a week every week cutting hundreds of cables . if u blindfolded me I can tell crap snips without looking just by how they feel and cut

So I wonder what steel brake line is made from if it is harder than piano wire and caused that damage to James Butlers Knipex wire cutters, seems that they were not up to the job.

I am all for good quality tools where it counts but with a pair of those pliers or that size of wire cutters then the advantage of a premium brand is small. I find that you only need precision pliers and cutters with electronics and jewellery making type work. For the size of those knipex most wire cutters will do.

I have have a lot of plier and wire cutter tools because I am a bit of a tool hoarder, including a few knipex, maybe you are right, I don't use the same ones every day so they never have a chance to wear out.

 

[Richard.]

Different cutters different jobs. You wouldn’t/shouldn’t use small electrical cutters to start cutting nails in the same respect a 200mm pair of bolt cutters are no use for fine wires.
It’s not that one is harder than the other it’s that one is a lot sharper than the other. A very sharp edge on a piece of steel will blunt quickly despite how hard it might be because the contact point is tiny. Higher leverage cutters have a slightly flatter edge. They cope for much longer on harder materials. They don’t cut as sharp or as clean so you get longer handles and the pivotal point changes to give you the power needed with the flatter edge. Imo a standard 5” side cutter from any brand is designed to cut soft wires. They are too sharp for hard steels. Cheap cutters are soft and will fail even with soft wires over time.

 

[Jetex]

You are defiantly right, different cutters for different jobs. I do not think that I would use that style of cutter for hard piano wire. Best to use a bypass cutter or a small cut off wheel for very hard or piano wire.

 

[Jetex]

Those Knipex cutters of James Butler are the 1000v electricians wire cutter so maybe they are only really designed for cutting copper wires and not hard steel wire.

 

[Ashley Burton]

All tools have they're purpose. Its when people use the wrong tool for the job intended that they don't get the result they expected.

 

[Robotstar5]

Different cutters different jobs. You wouldn’t/shouldn’t use small electrical cutters to start cutting nails in the same respect a 200mm pair of bolt cutters are no use for fine wires. .....

I've had a go a couple of guys for using my cutters for the wrong job, I had a pair of small sharp Lindstrom snips for electronic work which I caught someone trying to use on 6mm cable and another time someone used my cable shears (copper only) to cut a steel Bowden cable and knackered the blades and they wondered why I was upset!.

 

[Richard.]

I've had a go a couple of guys for using my cutters for the wrong job, I had a pair of small sharp Lindstrom snips for electronic work which I caught someone trying to use on 6mm cable and another time someone used my cable shears (copper only) to cut a steel Bowden cable and knackered the blades and they wondered why I was upset!.

I know mate. Be very different if it had been paid for from there own pocket. Some people are just numptys and assume because it’s got a cutting edge that gives them the right the put what they like between the jaws. Best one is when they do buy them themselves and think there is something wrong with them when stainless mig wire marks the sharp edges on the tiny fine wire cutters ha ha. “There supposed to be 60hrc” well yes but they are razor sharp or “were” as the case may be.

 

[Richard.]

Those Knipex cutters of James Butler are the 1000v electricians wire cutter so maybe they are only really designed for cutting copper wires and not hard steel wire.

Exactly
They are electrical cutters. They will be very hard but they will also be very sharp.

 

[Ashley Burton]

I've had a go a couple of guys for using my cutters for the wrong job, I had a pair of small sharp Lindstrom snips for electronic work which I caught someone trying to use on 6mm cable and another time someone used my cable shears (copper only) to cut a steel Bowden cable and knackered the blades and they wondered why I was upset!.

One of the reasons I don't lend people tools

 

[Robotstar5]

One of the reasons I don't lend people tools

I certainly wouldn't lend them, but had no option when they "borrow" something from my toolbox while my back's turned

 

[Ashley Burton]

I certainly wouldn't lend them, but had no option when they "borrow" something from my toolbox while my back's turned

Yeah thats another sore subject when people don't ask to borrow things first!

 

[Richard.]

These are my most used pairs. Cover practically everything I need.
Gedore bolt cutters. M5 soft bolts, single and double ear clips, 4mm subarc wire nails, screws etc. If it fits in the jaws it usually cuts effortlessly.
Snap On 7” high leverage cutters. Mig and tig wires to 2.4mm small nails and pins they have a flat on the edges they are not sharp so harder wires won’t dent them but they don’t cut soft wires too well. They leave a squashed edge rather than a clean cut.
Knipex 6” all copper wires and very small (1mm max mig tig wires ) not stainless these have sharp edges.
4” snap on wire cutters. Very sharp edges. Very close tolerance on meet up. Fine copper wires only. Mig or tig wires will reck them quite quickly.

 

[james butler]

Those Knipex cutters of James Butler are the 1000v electricians wire cutter so maybe they are only really designed for cutting copper wires and not hard steel wire.

agreed and i have the proof

annoyingly at the time i was using bolt cutters to cut the pipe out but at one point i couldn't get them in close enough to cut out one section hence the use of the snips which i regret now.
but like i said no chance snap on will change them so make sure you select the right ones for the job if and when you buy some.

 

[Jetex]

If you are cutting hard wires it may be best not to use cutters at all. A lot of pliers have an edge cutter for that purpose.

this pair also have a little slot to give another cutting position