Wire cutter face-off video

[Smaug]

I don't know how many others frequently cut wire with their MTs, but it is one of my top uses. After experiencing the MP600's dismal performance, I decided to put some of my favorites to the test.

This test focused on copper electrical wire, rather than bailing wire, fence wire, or tougher wires.

Believe it or not, the killer wire is finely-stranded, but thick gauge wire! This kind of wire crippled the mighty Wave. The SOGs cut it without any drama. The MP400 did surprisingly well too.

[Marcellus]

The SOGs  performance is no surprise
The Wave' s performance is however
The SAK Pliers  is pair of mechanical fingers basically

Thanks for taking the time to put that together   

[AimlessWanderer]

Interesting results. Leatherman tend to have the worst main gripping area, but I expected a better performance from them on the wire cutters. Wire cutting is not something I do a lot of, and even when I had the boat I used the cutters on my wire stripper rather than multitools, but reading online you get the impression they should perform a lot better than demonstrated here.

Spirit was no surprise really, as the stranded wire cutting performance is one of the very few limitations of the tool, and does get mentioned fairly regularly. The scissors would probably handle the thinner stranded cables though.

As a point of reference, what gauge system are you referring to for the cables? AWG? If so, 10G would be 5mm CSA and 20G would be 1mm CSA. Sound about right?

[Smaug]

As a point of reference, what gauge system are you referring to for the cables? AWG? If so, 10G would be 5mm CSA

Yeah "10 gauge" is short for 10 American Wire Gauge. (AWG) According to this chart, 5 sq. mm is about 10 AWG.

and 20G would be 1mm CSA. Sound about right?

About 0.67 sq. mm, I guess.

By the way, 'CSA' stands for Canadian Standards Association; it's not related to wire size. I bet you were recalling seeing that on some wire at some point... They're the main competitor to UL in the USA.

Over there, your wire certifiers are different than ours here. Occasionally, I see wire that's certified to UL, CSA, AND some international standards. But not frequently.

[AimlessWanderer]

As a point of reference, what gauge system are you referring to for the cables? AWG? If so, 10G would be 5mm CSA

Yeah "10 gauge" is short for 10 American Wire Gauge. (AWG) According to this chart, 5 sq. mm is about 10 AWG.

and 20G would be 1mm CSA. Sound about right?

About 0.67 sq. mm, I guess.

By the way, 'CSA' stands for Canadian Standards Association; it's not related to wire size. I bet you were recalling seeing that on some wire at some point... They're the main competitor to UL in the USA.

Over there, your wire certifiers are different than ours here. Occasionally, I see wire that's certified to UL, CSA, AND some international standards. But not frequently.

CSA = Cross Sectional Area  sorry for the confusion