The Great British MTO cable tie scissors test

[nate j]

Diagonal cutting pliers are best for this, your fingers will thank me.

Agreed, which is why we desperately need a keychain-size MT with diagonal cutting pliers.

[Blackbeard]

Diagonal cutting pliers are best for this, your fingers will thank me.

Agreed, which is why we desperately need a keychain-size MT with diagonal cutting pliers.

I think Gerber or sog has a full size one, but than no regular pliers which kinda makes it too specialized and might as well just use the dykes

[nate j]

Diagonal cutting pliers are best for this, your fingers will thank me.

Agreed, which is why we desperately need a keychain-size MT with diagonal cutting pliers.

I think Gerber or sog has a full size one, but than no regular pliers which kinda makes it too specialized and might as well just use the dykes

If I had the choice of LM Squirts with main tool options of pliers, scissors, or diagonal cutting pliers, I would probably take the diagonal cutting pliers.

[Steinar]

Are there pliers available where you have a "gripping" surface close to the joint and cutters close to the tip, as opposed to how "all" allround pliers are built (with wire cutters close to the joint and a gripping surface close to the tip)?

[Cupboard]

Diagonal cutting pliers are best for this, your fingers will thank me.

Agreed, which is why we desperately need a keychain-size MT with diagonal cutting pliers.

I think Gerber or sog has a full size one, but than no regular pliers which kinda makes it too specialized and might as well just use the dykes

If I had the choice of LM Squirts with main tool options of pliers, scissors, or diagonal cutting pliers, I would probably take the diagonal cutting pliers.

I'd buy one. Hell, I'd buy more than one!

Are there pliers available where you have a "gripping" surface close to the joint and cutters close to the tip, as opposed to how "all" allround pliers are built (with wire cutters close to the joint and a gripping surface close to the tip)?

That's an interesting concept, I can't think of anything myself offhand. Would you get in to trouble with there being too much torsion on the cutting tips if you twisted them though?

[Rs217]

Very nice! For the record: did you use Style CS or PS?

[nate j]

Are there pliers available where you have a "gripping" surface close to the joint and cutters close to the tip, as opposed to how "all" allround pliers are built (with wire cutters close to the joint and a gripping surface close to the tip)?

That's an interesting concept, I can't think of anything myself offhand. Would you get in to trouble with there being too much torsion on the cutting tips if you twisted them though?

I think the two reasons they aren't built that way are (1) you would lose the needle-nose/flat gripping pliers function, although you could keep the regular/nut-and-bolt pliers function, and (2) having the wire cutters close to the joint maximizes the available mechanical advantage for cutting wire (this is the same reason the hard wire cutters, when present, are always closer to the joint than the regular wire cutters).

[Sparky415]

Nice test and write up Mr Cupboard 

[Cupboard]

Very nice! For the record: did you use Style CS or PS?

Both

Thanks Mr Sparky!

[Lynn LeFey]

When i was in IT, I found the Crosscut perfectly capable for those times when I needed to do a large number of zip-tie cuts in one day. This meant, for me, a diagonal cutter MT would have been really useful about 1 in 100 days. But on that day, a good pair of scissors got the job done without too much hand injury, and was MUCH more useful on the other 99 days for any number of other cutting tasks.

I think we all agree that MTs are compromises, and for my needs, I don't see the point of a diagonal cutter head on one. Of course, everyone's needs vary.

[Cupboard]

for me, the scissors on my little Vic Manager do all the scissoring that I need 99% of the time, and it would be a bit silly to carry a scissors based MT just for cable ties. I wouldn't want to use a scissors MT on cables (though I suppose I could?) so they really would just be for cable ties.

A decent side cutter MT could do cable ties, wire, metal cable ties etc and would be more versatile *for me*. Cable ties are in the middle ground of being able to be cut by both heavy duty cutting tools and lighter duty cutting tools. Good options exist for cable ties downwards (like your Cross Cut) but options don't really exist for cable ties upwards.

[Rs217]

Very nice! For the record: did you use Style CS or PS?

Both

Thanks Mr Sparky!

The Style PS scissors cut through cable ties??? I'm shocked 

[detron]

Great info,  thank you for doing this! 

[Cupboard]

The Style PS scissors cut through cable ties??? I'm shocked 

They were remarkably good for what they are. I wouldn't want to use them day in, day out for the purpose but if you have to they can do, and better than a lot of others.

[Rs217]

The Style PS scissors cut through cable ties??? I'm shocked 

They were remarkably good for what they are. I wouldn't want to use them day in, day out for the purpose but if you have to they can do, and better than a lot of others.

I'm still completely floored.

[3rdpig]

When i was in IT, I found the Crosscut perfectly capable for those times when I needed to do a large number of zip-tie cuts in one day. This meant, for me, a diagonal cutter MT would have been really useful about 1 in 100 days. But on that day, a good pair of scissors got the job done without too much hand injury, and was MUCH more useful on the other 99 days for any number of other cutting tasks.

I think we all agree that MTs are compromises, and for my needs, I don't see the point of a diagonal cutter head on one. Of course, everyone's needs vary.

I think the most cable ties I ever cut in one day doing IT work has been about 20.  I did the first 5 or 6 with the scissors on a Wave, then decided it was time for another cup of coffee, and on the way back from the coffee pot I grabbed my side cutters.

Many years ago I was completely rewiring an old Jeep and I tried using the scissors on my Super Tinker to cut off the ends of the new ties.  I think I made about 3 before, once again, I needed a cup of coffee and on the way back got some side cutters.

Funny how coffee and side cutters go together like that. 

[Cupboard]

I had some fat 9mm ties to cut yesterday, got half way through one of them with my Spirit then grabbed a nearby pair of big scissors. That did the job eventually but was hard work. Did beat having to change out of one set of clothes, get to a pair of side cutters, wash them, change and go back to cut the tie though!

[Lynn LeFey]

The Style PS scissors cut through cable ties??? I'm shocked 

They were remarkably good for what they are. I wouldn't want to use them day in, day out for the purpose but if you have to they can do, and better than a lot of others.

I'm still completely floored.

When i tested the small Leatherman fold-out style scissors (on my Squirt PS4 and Style PS), side-by-side with brand new Vic 58mm scissors (on both a Classic and Rambler), they all performed identically. Both LM and Vics are shockingly good, particularly at cutting fairly thick/robust material. My only real knock on both is when cutting something like paper, you have to make a jillion cuts to get through, due to the short blades. Also, many repeated cuttings with either becomes painful on the thumb.

3rdpig... the scissors on the Crosscut/Micra/Style CS are WAY more comfortable for cutting multiple ties since the pressure is spread out across the palm and all fingers. I'd say probably ANY scissors-based MT, like the Mini-Suspension S would be the same, though I haven't tested it personally.

[Cupboard]

 

I would second that ^^

[3rdpig]

3rdpig... the scissors on the Crosscut/Micra/Style CS are WAY more comfortable for cutting multiple ties since the pressure is spread out across the palm and all fingers. I'd say probably ANY scissors-based MT, like the Mini-Suspension S would be the same, though I haven't tested it personally.

I've never used a Style, and I gave my last Micra away a few weeks ago (at one point I think I must have had 12 or 15 of them, I keep winning those ebay auctions where they pair a Micra up with the tool you really want) and I have a Squirt S4 on my keyring.  I also have a Gerber Splice, but the evil little thing destroys fingernails and the edges of the tool are as sharp as the blades.

I've found all the scissors based multi tools to have good scissors, at least for the tasks I use them for, but until recently I didn't carry one with me since it's just another layer of redundancy.

[CanadianLMfan]

Why doesn't Wenger make most of their knives 91mm like Victorinox?

[bmot]

Why doesn't Wenger make most of their knives 91mm like Victorinox?

Probably, somewhere in history, they chose a size, being 85mm.

[stealth007s]

I actually like the 85mm format