I have some electrical side cutters but they're damaged at the end, got a lot of wiring to do so this time wont buy the cheapest, on ebay they range from £2 to £25, advice please...
I have some Piergiacomi side cutters, strippers and flat nosed pliers for my 'best' tools, reasonable price without going to Lindstrom or Knipex extremes (I notice the brand seems to have Chinese copies now).
The ones I have are are suitable for up to 2.5mm cables, much nicer than the Lidaldi specials or random 40 y/o tools, which can now be abused for SWA and medium sized bolts.
The Lidl set - side cutters, pliers and wire stripper with the red and yellow handles, are actually pretty good. Got a set to put in the car toolkit - so likely to get abused. But have stood up very well. Cutting things like split pins and so on. So should have a decent life when used for copper only.
Reasonably decent VDE rated set of cutters are usually in the £20+ range. However some of the CPC duratool branded hand tools are surprisingly decent for the money:
Yep made to look kinda-VDE rated, when they're not
The pliers and needle(ish) nosed are actually OK, I found the cutters closed with a bit of a gap and the strippers fairly wonky when closed down for small wires.
I don't remember what I've used mine on, but the cutters are pretty mashed up
I like my KWB ones although I cannot for the life of me remember where they came from or what they cost.
Knipex.
I have the 74 08 200 ones but some people find them too heavy duty for smaller cables eg alarm cable.
Buggered if I can find them on the Knipex site all I an find are the 74
06 200 which are chrome plated.ordered the cpc ones thanks
I can attest to the quality of the Knipex 74-160 that I was 'gifted' by my boss when I took "The Golden Handshake" from BT back in '92 since they somehow miraculously survived my son's usage of them to cut bicycle spokes (and other, similarly tough items no wire cutters should ever have to face).
Since they were my favourite weapon of choice for trimming my finger and toe nails, I hid them away and lied to my son that I had lost them. The ruse worked. I still keep them hidden away to this day and they still look as good as the day they were issued in spite of all the abuse meted out by my son.
I've got these:
I use them most days and they're lasting well. The hole for cutting
3.5mm screws is very handy.
I'd never heard of Solingen until last week, now it seems to be on my radar for everything that German that has blades ...
Hope you enjoy them. I cannot find them on CPC.
Have 2 pair of Lindstrom 8160 for over 40 years originally from Philips factory. Probably used every day.
IIRC saying Solingen is about like saying Sheffield. It's a town, not a manufacturer.
That said I have a Solingen kitchen knife ~40 years old that's still fine.
An
I'd say there is less different between expensive and cheaper tools today than 40 years ago.
My mother's dress-making shears are Solingen and I used them to cut carpet . They didn't suffer at all and still work perfectly. I love the 'scissor' sound that they make.
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