Stranded wire cut off test

[3rdpig]

The thread in the Sog forum about the Paratool's failure at cutting stranded wire got me thinking, so I took all my current production multitools that had clean cutting edges and put them to the test.  I left out all the scissors based multitools, I inlcluded the Squirt E4 but mainly as a reference point.

The contestants
Sog Paratool
Leatherman Rebar (Replaceable cutters)
Leatherman Wave
Vic Spirit
Leatherman Skeletool
Gerber Balance
Leatherman Juice
Vic Swisstool
Leatherman Squirt E4
Gerber MP-600 (replaceable cutters)
Gerber MP-400
Gerber Legend 800 (replaceable cutters)
Sog Powerlock
Gerber Octane
Gerber Diesel

This test consisted of 3 cuts through 18 gauge stranded automotive wire.  No second chances were given unless I messed up.

How I rated
1.  Cuts completely through with clean, smooth ends.
2.  Cuts completely through with rough ends.
3.  Cuts almost completely through to the point where a second snip would finish and be usable.
4.  Doesn't cut through, requires another cut or maybe two, leaves it a mess.
5.  Total failure, complete mangulation of the wire, no amount of retries will ever get it cut.  You're better off chewing through it or banging it between two rocks.

The good
Leatherman Squirt E4 - 1.  If I had a better rating than one the Squirt E4 would have gotten it.  It cut the wire cleaner than my new pair of diagonal cutters.

Leatherman Rebar - 1.  Clean cut, no crushing or bending, almost as good as the Squirt.

Gerber Octane - 1.  Almost as good as the Rebar, but took more effort.

Leatherman Wave- 1.  About as good as the Octane, quick and clean.

Sog Powerlock - 1.  As good as the Wave and Octane, nice and clean with zero effort.

Vic Spirit - 2.  Cut through in one cut, but left rough ends.  Still usable

Gerber Legend 800 - 2.  About the same as the Spirit. Cut through in one go, but left rough ends.


The Bad
Gerber MP400 - 3.  Cut almost through with only a few strands left.  Another cut would do it.  No bending or crushing.

Gerber MP600 - 3.  Not quite as good as the 400, but almost.  Two snips would get you a usable cut.

Vic Swisstool - 4.  No bending or crushing, but it's going to take two, maybe three cuts to get through.

Leatherman Skeletool - 4.  Not quite as good as the Vic Swisstool, it's going to take 2 or 3 cuts to get the job done and it's not going to be pretty.

Gerber Diesel - 4.  Not a lot of fun, but it will get the job done.  If you've got many cuts to make you're going to want to go get a better cutter.


And the Ugly
Leatherman Juice - 5. Just give it up. Seriously, give it up.  No amount of work will get you a usable cut.

Gerber Balance - 5. Gerber should be proud, their brand new tool cuts worse than my 5 year old, beat up Juice.

Sog Paratool - 5.  Yes folks, it actually gets worse than a Gerber Balance, but it takes a 10 year old, heavily used Paratool, but apparently the new Paratool's aren't any better.

The lousy cell phone pictures

[sticktodrum]

Nice test. Thanks for posting this, it's very informative. 

[gregozedobe]

Thanks for doing that - more good info from MTo 

(damm, beaten to the punch - you have to be quick around here to be first    )

[CanadianLMfan]

Good job! I don't think they're called stranded wire cutters.

[enki_ck]

Great tests and interesting results.

I've been thinking of starting this thread too given that we had two questions regarding stranded wire cutters on multitools in about a week (one on the Paratool and one on the Wave). Nice to have a reference point now though.

I'm thinking we need more of test done by members here with the same tools though but keeping the rating system you have here. For instance my Charge (and Wave before that) cut stranded wire just fine same as yours, but Marko's two Waves had serious problems with it. Also with my Vic made multitools the story is reversed. The Spirit cutters I'd rate a 5 (and I know others have had problems with it too) and the Swisstool as one of the best. All of my Juices cut stranded wire just fine too. Also, I noticed that while the Skeletool soft wire cutters aren't the best at cutting stranded wire, if you use the hardwire notch they do much better.


Looking forward to the results we all can gather here. It would be very cool to have such a good reference point in the future. MAybe even on different thickness of stranded wire.

[3rdpig]

Enki, I tried the wire in the hard wire notch when one was available and then tested with whatever worked best.  And you're right, the Vics cut better in the hard wire notch.

And I realize that two almost identical tools could work very differently, specially on something as thin as 18 gauge wire.  The tightness of the plier joint could play a big role here, and I've had two identical models where one has been overly tight and one loose.  The loser ones, like the Paratool, just folded the wire over and didn't cut a single strand.  The Balance didn't fold, but it also didn't cut a single strand.

And one thing I didn't mention, the large cutting area on the Rebar and Powerlock made multiple cuts easy as no careful lining up was necessary.  And I expect they'd do larger gauge wire easily as well.  In contrast the very small area on the Swisstool made it rather difficult.

[Mr. Whippy]

Excellent test

I agree about the Squirt.  For smaller gauge wire, the Squirt E4 is excellent.  Wire stripping too

[Magic Bus]

Great test, thanks  In my own little test, my new Swisstool cut similar stranded wire with ease using the soft wire notch.

[Zed]

Great test  I'm going to do a similar test on bicycle brake cables 

[victordomingos]

Great test  I'm going to do a similar test on bicycle brake cables 

Nice test. Thanks.

One of these days I may test a Leatherman Style PS on bicycle brake cables. Will it cut?

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice test. Thanks for the info 3rdpig  It does leave questions with me though ...

Of the items that scored 3 or worse in your test, a large percentage have got scissors. If the scissors can handle the task comfortably (considering this is fairly thin cable here), then the tool doesn't fail IMO. Would you be willing to repeat the tests using the scissors on the various tools?

It may also be that whilst the wire cutters performed badly on stranded wire, they may work very well on other stuff. Any chance of trying a paperclip or thicker core (non-stranded) cable, so we can see if they are better suited for other stuff, or just plain abysmal?

 

[Zed]

Great test  I'm going to do a similar test on bicycle brake cables 

Nice test. Thanks.

One of these days I may test a Leatherman Style PS on bicycle brake cables. Will it cut?

Doubtful  ive tried the old and new wave on bicycle cables and its usually a bit of a challenge,usually i find old dumped bikes and remove parts so cutting cables can be handy,i will try a test 

Just thought one problem could be the wire cutter cross instead of inline ,

[styx]

Very interesting results. And I can agree that the Spirit could have better performance although I am a bit surprised by the lower performance of the Swisstool.
SOG and LM not much of a surprise though

[3rdpig]

Nice test. Thanks for the info 3rdpig  It does leave questions with me though ...

Of the items that scored 3 or worse in your test, a large percentage have got scissors. If the scissors can handle the task comfortably (considering this is fairly thin cable here), then the tool doesn't fail IMO. Would you be willing to repeat the tests using the scissors on the various tools?

It may also be that whilst the wire cutters performed badly on stranded wire, they may work very well on other stuff. Any chance of trying a paperclip or thicker core (non-stranded) cable, so we can see if they are better suited for other stuff, or just plain abysmal?

 

For really small wire, 22 gauge and smaller I'd go right to the scissors, but getting up to 18 gauge and larger I hesitate to use the scissors for a couple of reasons.  The first is if I bugger up the scissors using them for a task they weren't meant for, they won't work when I need them for a task they were meant for.  Secondly I've found the scissors that don't have the slight serrations tend to push the wire out the end of the scissors.  And for wire 14 gauge and up, they're just not going to do it well at all.

But sure, I'll repeat the test using the scissors later today, should be interesting.  I'll toss in a few I didn't before, mainly a couple of SAK models.

I don't think there's ever a multitool I've owned that I haven't cut coat hanger and paper clip sized wire with and they all worked fine on it, even the Juice.  Although I don't know about the Paratool, my old one tends to like to fold when using the cutters on anything tough. Which is the reason I stopped using Paratools, just too many tasks made them fold.

[scrappy]

Anyone use the stranded wire cutters on the back side of the surge? Wonder how they would compare.

[Nhoj]

You're all scaring me with this talk of cutting metal wire with scissors. Scary!
Also my Leatherman wave has a fairly loose plier head and cuts stranded wire AWFULLY!

[3rdpig]

Stranded wire cut off test #2 - The Rise of the Scissors

First off, I fully expected every tool here but two, the Royal Crest knock off and the Vic Rambler to cut the wire easily, and I expected those to to fail totally.  Boy was I surprised!

The contestents
Leatherman Squirt S4
Leatherman Wave
Leatherman Juice XE6
Vic Spirit
Vic Rambler
Vic Cybertool 34
Wenger Handyman
Royal Crest SAK knock off
Gerber Freehand
Gerber Legend 800
Gerber Balance
Gerber Splice
Gerber MP400
Gerber Diesel
Gerber Fit
Sog Powerlock

How I rated
The rules are the same as before but with one minor addition, pain.
1.  Cuts completely through with clean, smooth ends and no pain.
2.  Cuts completely through with rough ends or slight pain.
3.  Cuts almost completely through to the point where a second snip would finish and be usable and/or hurts too much.
4.  Doesn't cut through, requires another cut or maybe two, leaves it a mess or hurts like the devil to do.
5.  Total failure, complete mangulation of the wire, no amount of retries will ever get it cut.  You're better off chewing through it or banging it between two rocks.  And pass the bandages, please.  I won't be using that thumb for at least a week.

The Good
Squirt S4 - 1.  Once again Leatherman has the gold standard.  The Squirt cut cleanly and easily with no sticking or ragged ends and zero pain.

Gerber Freehand - 1.  Almost as good as the Squirt, quick, clean with minimal effort.  And the nice thumb pad removed any pain.

Gerber MP400 - 1.  Almost as good as the Squirt.  The Fiskars branded scissors made easy work with minimal effort and discomfort.

Gerber Legend 800 - 1.  Clean, easy and only slight discomfort.

Gerber Diesel - 2.  Clean and fairly easy, but minor pain from an edge that shouldn't be sharp but is.

Leatherman Wave - 2.  It took a little effort, but cut cleanly and without much discomfort.

Leatherman Juice XE6 - 2.  Again, some effort but cut cleanly and a half a dozen cuts won't bother you.

Vic Cybertool 34 - 2.  What can I say?  The Vic scissors cut cleanly but required a little effort.

Gerber Balance - 2.  Required some effort but cut cleanly and evenly.

Vic Spirit - 2.  Cut cleanly with some effort, but the small opening means you're not doing much thicker wire than this, but is that a bad thing?

Wenger Handyman - 2. I almost gave the Wenger a 3, because the ends were a little rough and the scissors had to be opened manually after each cut, then I remembered, this is wire, not paper.

The Bad

Vic Rambler - 3.  I hesitated even adding such a small tool, but what the heck.  The Rambler cut the wire cleanly, but damn it took a lot of thumb pressure and it hurt.  I've got big, strong hands but I'd throw in the towel before I'd use the Rambler to cut wire other than in an emergency.

Royal Crest SAK knockoff - 4.  It cut the wire through fairly cleanly, but it took care to hold it just right or it would fold the wire, the scissors over traveled with every cut and had to be manually worked back around.  I'm guessing a dozen cuts and they'd break.  Still, better than chewing through the wire.

The Ugly

Gerber Fit - 5.  This annoys me no end, because after adding a clip to this tool and having it become one of my favorites I now find it's got lousy scissors. Damn you Gerber!  It totally failed to cut the wire, cutting about 1/4 of the strands with each cut and folding the wire over.  It would take a minimum of 3 or 4 cuts to get through and it would be a bloody mess.  And it took too much effort and it hurt.

Gerber Splice - 5.  I honestly expected this evil little thing to be as good as the Squirt, but once again it proves to me that the sharpest edge on the nasty thing is the outside edges and corners.  Total failure. 

The Sog Powerlock - 5. If there was a way to give the Powerlock scissors a negative number, I would.  They failed even harder than the Fit.  Not a single strand cut, folded the wire over and locked the scissors up.  Completely and totally useless for cutting wire (and just about everything else that's not paper).  No amount of hacking at it will get you through wire.  Thankfully the wire cutters in the plier head cuts the wire well.

The Hopefully Sharper Cell Phone Pics

[ironraven]

All that sounds about right. But I like nice pair of toenail clippers for this kind of thing

[victordomingos]

All that sounds about right. But I like nice pair of toenail clippers for this kind of thing

Nail clippers are an essential tool in any electrician's pocket :-)

[3rdpig]

Nail clippers, really?  Are you two yanking my chain?   

Sheesh, the things you learn on the internet.  Any particular brand of toenail clippers?

[victordomingos]

Nail clippers, really?  Are you two yanking my chain?   

Sheesh, the things you learn on the internet.  Any particular brand of toenail clippers?

Actually I know nothing about it, but I am also willing to learn. :-)

[Lynn LeFey]

3rdpig, I'm cross-linking your post on scissors vs. stranded wire in my Scissors Test thread, because this here is some excellent testing. 
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,36798.msg786549.html#msg786549

Thank you for testing both the plier head and scissors on stranded wire. As you (and others) may have guessed, I like testing threads.

[AimlessWanderer]

The Splice was a surprise, I expected better from that. Unfortunately I'm not surprised with the Fit. It's not up to Gerber's usual standard on the scissors for some reason. The Squirt and Juice both surprised me in how well they did, and as I recall the Squirt did quite well in Cupboard's test on tie wraps too  It does however show that the tools will indeed do the biz on stranded wire, even if the wire cutters on the pliers prefer more solid media, and another reason why scissors should be more common on tools.

Many thanks for this 3rdpig - some excellent info there buddy 

[3rdpig]

3rdpig, I'm cross-linking your post on scissors vs. stranded wire in my Scissors Test thread, because this here is some excellent testing. 
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,36798.msg786549.html#msg786549

Thank you for testing both the plier head and scissors on stranded wire. As you (and others) may have guessed, I like testing threads.

Thanks for doing that Lynn, I like testing threads too and I enjoyed your scissors test.

The Splice was a surprise, I expected better from that. Unfortunately I'm not surprised with the Fit. It's not up to Gerber's usual standard on the scissors for some reason. The Squirt and Juice both surprised me in how well they did, and as I recall the Squirt did quite well in Cupboard's test on tie wraps too  It does however show that the tools will indeed do the biz on stranded wire, even if the wire cutters on the pliers prefer more solid media, and another reason why scissors should be more common on tools.

Many thanks for this 3rdpig - some excellent info there buddy 

The poor performance of the Splice surprised me too, I've always considered Gerber to be the best at scissors, but that's probably based on the excellent scissors on the MP400.  Same with the Fit, which as I indicated in my post not only surprised me, but annoys me since I've been carrying it instead of my Cybertool but will have to do some more testing with it before I continue that practice, scissors are just too important to me on work days and I can't rely on the tiny scissors on my Rambler to do the kind of cutting I'd expect from the scissors on the Fit, Cybertool or Balance.

Glad to be of service!   

[CanadianLMfan]

How could the Splice fail?

[gafftapegreenia]

Never had any problems cutting stranded wire with the tools I've carried, those being a Leatherman Blast, Core, SOG PPP and Bear Jaws Electrician.

While I carry a PPP these days, I do like the Leatherman better for stranded wire. The hard wire notch can easily strip wire if you use the right amount of pressure.

[Goatlord666]

Man that was bordering on scholastic.  Great test!  And the pictures with the comparisons are top notch! The octane surprised me.

Sent from my Cruize W280 using Tapatalk now Free

[victordomingos]

Great test  I'm going to do a similar test on bicycle brake cables 

Nice test. Thanks.

One of these days I may test a Leatherman Style PS on bicycle brake cables. Will it cut?

Doubtful  ive tried the old and new wave on bicycle cables and its usually a bit of a challenge,usually i find old dumped bikes and remove parts so cutting cables can be handy,i will try a test 

Just thought one problem could be the wire cutter cross instead of inline ,

I tested today the LM Style PS on cutting a bicycle cable and as expected I had no luck. The pliers slipped and were no able at all to cut the cable. :-(

With paperclips and electrical (copper) wire, I had no problems with this tool.

[ironraven]

On the question of brand of toe nail clippers, anything reasonably beefy, but I wouldn't use them to take on something heavier than 18ga (or 22ga stainless!). They are also my favorite way of cutting zip ties.

It was a habit I got into in college, working in the electronics lab- small, cheap enough that if someone stole them I'd cuss, glare and replace, and there is no excuse for not putting the small, very conductive tool in your pocket where it can't short anything.

[dks]

I sometimes have to cut reasonably thick (2mm ish)  stranded steel wire, used for washing lines.
For that I use my ST300.
Even though the pliers head will just shred the wire, at the oposite side of the pliers head, between the handles and very close to the handles pivot point there is a deticated stranded wire cutter.
That works well and cuts the stranded wire cleanly.

That feature is available in other LM models too.