12-gauge wire cutting test

[Lynn LeFey]

Just to be clear, no, not April Fools anything. Just a test I did with some multitools on wire cutting.

I was over at a friend's house last night, and he generously donated a few feet of both 12-2 and 14-3 Romex. I did the testing with 12-2. For those that don't know, 12-2 means 2 wires plus a third for a ground, all are solid copper, of 12 gauge. They have paper sheathing around the ground, and then around all three wires, then a plastic sheath around the whole bundle.

I used a bathroom scale for force reading. I put one handle of the tool against the scale, and pressed straight down on the other until the wire cut, and watched what the weight reading was as the wire cut. Again, not lab science, but a great idea of ballpark forces involved.

Testing was done with: Husky 14-in-1 tool, Sheffield 17-in-1 tool, Sheffield 1200E, Leatherman Wingman, Leatherman Wave, and SOG Powerlock for a single wire test. Each cut was done twice to make sure i was getting a good reading.

Results in pounds of force to cut, worst to best: Sheffield 1200E at 30lb., Wingman at 28lb., Sheffield 17-in-1 at 23lb, (Tie) Husky and Wave at 20lb, Powerlock at 10lb.

In addition, the cut made by the Wingman didn't completely sever the plastic sheathing.

I did a second test, just with the SOG, Wave, and Wingman, trying to cut an entire piece of 12-2 (all 3 wires and all sheathing). The Wingman couldn't do it... at all. The Wave cut the wires, but the cutting surface wasn't big enough to cut the entire piece in one go, and needed a second snip to finish. The Powerlock could cut the entire piece in one 'bite'.

The only surprise I got in this was the Husky. It is a POS, but apparently an easy and comfortable tool for cutting wire up to 12-gauge. It did as well as the Wave, which felt cut easily after trying the others.

Here they are, pictured from worst to best going left to right, with the piece of test subject Romex crowding in the shot.

[Millhouse]

[AHB]

Interesting read Lynn.


Sent from my iPhone

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice to see a couple of underdogs out perform a big name item. I get a kick out of that kind of thing.

This kind of test really blows the marketting hype out of the water. I hope ( fingers crossed ) to test a couple of underdogs out myself with the help of my buddies at the UK meet next week. Fixed blades knives though, not multitools.

Nice one Lynn, looking forward to your next one

[tattoosteve99]

SOG had an advantage though using the gears to increase force. But none the less excellent test. Nice to see the wave faired good.

[Lynn LeFey]

I think the only conclusions I got from this were that the Wingman takes a lot of force to cut wire (which I pretty well knew). This test doesn't say anything about durability of the cutting heads, for instance.

The test also confirmed my feeling that the SOG was a vastly better cutter than anything else out there (at least that I have). I feel confident in saying that this is just going to be the case against anything because of the gearing with the SOG. EDIT: ninja'd  But, I DID get the SOG primarily for its wirecutting ability.

And, while the Husky cuts wire well, it has its own (serious) issues. I did a pretty thorough review on it here:
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,36537.0.html

On a somewhat humorous note, I'd taken my newly acquired Wave over to my friend's house last night, remembered that I wanted to ask for a few short pieces of Romex, and my friend complained that he would have to get up and go to the garage for wire cutters to cut pieces off. I handed him the Wave. He looked at me like I was an alien. I finally said, 'well, at least try them'. He went into the basement where he kept the Romex, and returned a few minutes later with the cut pieces... seemingly SHOCKED that the Wave could cut Romex. His comment was 'yeah, they actually worked pretty well'.

An additional, mostly unrelated note: The can opener on the Wave is an excellent bottle opener. That got a 'thorough scientific testing' last night as well.

[MultiMat]

Cool test Lynn 

I am always a little surprised at how well my SOG PowerAssist cuts wire , compound leverage certainly does work 

[Ashley]

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[jzmtl]

The way SOG ground their wire cutter to a knife edge will certainly go through soft metal with ease, although they'd be first to be damaged when things get hard.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I always wondered how well the SOG Compound Leverage worked and how much of it was marketing.  Good to see there's actually some solid evidence to back the theory up.

As the Mythbusters would say...



Def

[airballrad]

Glad to see the Wave isn't just sitting around being pretty.

 

[Carlos]

What is the mm^2 equivalent of 12 gauge?
I've searched a few conversion tables but got all sort of different results.

[airballrad]

What is the mm^2 equivalent of 12 gauge?
I've searched a few conversion tables but got all sort of different results.

2.053 mm

[Lynn LeFey]

Glad to see the Wave isn't just sitting around being pretty.

No way. I'll be messing around with this for a good long while. I'm thinking about making an awl bit for the bit driver just to have one more 'toy' for it.

Carlos: I'm sorry I didn't think to look up a metric conversion for American wire gauge. In other things I've written on this site I've made an effort to have english and metric measures, because I know there are folks on these boards from all over the globe, and I know >I< hate reading reviews where I have to do conversions. I'll try to be more diligent about this in the future. And Airballrad, thanks for looking that up.

[scrappy]

Thank you for the excellent thread.

[Neil]

I really want an MT with a dedicated cutting head 

I think Alan is in possession of the only decent one I'm aware of   making my own is certainly on the to do (one day) list.

Nice test, thanks for taking the time

[Lynn LeFey]

Update with a few more tools cutting the same 12-gauge wire from before.

Gerber MP400, 23 lb.
Leatherman PST, 16 lb.

I think the relatively small pivot (making the wire cutters closer to the pivot point) and long handles on the PST give it good leverage in cutting, hence the performance.

[Biru]

As a Wave fan, I'm glad of the results. 

As a Gerber carrier (at the moment), I'm wondering how badly your hand would have been pinched had you tried the test with the MP plier used normally (instead of one handle on the scale)... 

This would be an interesting test to do with the Bear/Crescent Electrician's tool. It has a dedicated plier head for electrical work.

Thanks for the post!

[jerseydevil]

As a Gerber carrier (at the moment), I'm wondering how badly your hand would have been pinched had you tried the test with the MP plier used normally (instead of one handle on the scale)... 

I've never gotten pinched by a newer Gerber like the MP400, and I use them all the time.  Maybe I'm just lucky......I wonder if the replaceable cutters on an MP600, for example, would give better results than those on the 400?

[Lynn LeFey]

I learned the joys of the handle pinch on the MP400 today while using them to hold a bolt on the PST to take it apart (removing some crud that'd been spilled into it). Pliers slipped off, and the handles chomped my palm.

[Logrus9]

I appreciate your testing, especially since I own a powerlock. Sorry you got pinched.