Plier cutting test

[Vidar]

There was this issue with cutting braided steel wire in another recent post, which for various reasons is a bit interesting to me. So I figured I'd give some normal pliers and multi-tools a go at that.

While I'm going at it anyway I figure I might as well give some other materials a go too? So the plan has been extended to include not only the galvanized multi-strand wire thing, but also paper strips, stainless steel tig welding rod, steel wire tig welding rod, some small carpenter nails, and some annoyingly flexible plastic filament for 3D printing.

I plan to apply pressure gradually using one hand exactly once and to my limit if needed. (There will be no tricks like reversing grip, knocking, chewing, hammering, cooling or work hardening).

The material selection would likely make for some difference of results between the pliers. If anyone else have suggestions for a relevant material to add into the mix I'm open to suggestions. (I reckon all will cut normal electric copper cables so I wont even bother with that).

[AimlessWanderer]

 

[Don Pablo]

 

[Poncho65]

Can't wait for the results

[SteveC]

[Vidar]

Ok, tests done - lots of them. This turned out to be a more diverse result than I had imagined. There were also many casualties among the multi-tools plier edges. Not even the cheap normal pliers got damaged, so that was surprising and disappointing. (Not to mention expensive..)

This will be very picture heavy so will take some time to chop down to web size. If I get this right there is a 4Mb 4 picture max per post limit for attachments here on the forum? Anyone have any recommendations of where to put and link to the rest? 

First off the materials that got tested: From top left to right: 17-4 Stainless steel flat spring (8.5x0.9mm), 316L Stainless steel flat spring (8.5x0.9mm), square electroplated nails (1.8mm), steel tig welding rod (3mm), aluminium tig welding rod (2?mm), 316 stainless steel tig welding rod (1.5?mm), galvanzied steel lawnmover control wire (2mm), paper strips, soft PLA 3D printing filament (3mm), and some decent sized ziplock thingy.

Then we have the normal pliers and some less normal ones. From left upwards to bottom right: Some old sheep scissor (or whatever), a fencing tool, Knipex bolt end cutter, Knipex small universal plier, old Knipex cutter (forgot to test), cheapo something nose plier, some old Swedish electrical end cutter, some old Swedish electrical side cutter, Teng Tools Universal plier, cheapo something Universal plier, Knipex universal plier, Wiha electrical side cutter, Ergo side cutter.

The multitools I could find laying around. From top left to bottom right: IDL T10, cheap unbranded Chinese one, Henstrong, Cima (?), some often rebranded chinese one, some other often rebranded chinese one, another Cima (not tested - no plier or scissors...), Ruiss something something, Ruiss something else, Gerber Dime, Wenger Mechanic (?), Leatherman Juice , Leatherman Wave, SOG Power access (?), Ganzo 300 something (302?)

The test procedure was easy enough. Grip with padded work glove at the far end of the plier. Then a single go with gradually increasing pressure. An exception for the ziplock for the pliers that did cut but simply didn't have wide enough jaws to do all at once - there I would cut again to finish off.





 

[Vidar]

Some results:

Tool	Flat 17-4	Flat 316	Wire	Rod 316	Rod Alu	Rod Steel	Paper	Ziptie	Nail	Filament	Damaged?
Knipex end bolt cutter	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Bad ass scissor			Y		Y		Y	Y	Y	Y
Wiha Electric side cutter			Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y
Ergo side cutter			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Cheap nose plier				Y	Y			Y		Y
Fencing tool				Y	Y					Y
Knipex small universal			Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y
Knipex universal			Y	Y	Y		Y		Y	Y
Old Swedish end cutter			Y		Y		Y	Y	Y	Y
Old Swedish side cutter					Y		Y			Y
Cheap unviersal					Y				Y	Y
Teng tools universal				Y	Y				Y	Y

[Don Pablo]

I think the formatting failed, maybe you are missing a slash or something? 

Wow!

[Don Pablo]

Umm... Are the Y's lined up right?

[Vidar]

Ok, I've messed with the HTML and at least it should be readable?

[Don Pablo]

It appears to say that no tools were damaged

[Vidar]

Yes, that would be right - all the normal pliers were undamaged.

Multi tool results though... 

Tool	Flat 17-4	Flat 316	Wire	Rod 316	Rod Alu	Rod Steel	Paper	Ziptie	Nail	Filament	Damaged?
Leatherman Wave				Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Ganzo something					Y			Y	Y	Y	Y
SOG				Y	Y			Y	Y	Y	Y
Leatherman Juice			Y	Y	Y		Y		Y	Y
Henstrong					Y						Y
Wenger Mechanic							Y	Y		Y
Cima blue					Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Chinese large head
Chinese small head					Y
Unknown skeleton sides					Y			Y	Y	Y	Y
Small Ruiss					Y
Medium Ruiss				Y	Y			Y	Y	Y
Gerber Dime
IDL T10					Y				Y	Y

[Vidar]

There were some clearly distinct failure modes:

Lack of leverage and they had no chance at the flat stainless steel ones or the steel rod. Actually I stopped trying the flat ones after a while - apart from the Knipex end cutter there was hardly a scratch to be seen.

Lack of precision would cause failure at paper, zip tie, filament or wire.

Possible lack of hardness also caused failure with stainless steel and galvanized wire samples. Combine that with long enough handles to get leverage and the tools simply turned suicidal. Neither stainless 316 or that galvanized wire should be particularly hard, so that was quite surprising.

Another way to fail with the stainless rod, wire, zip tie and filament was for the jaws to actually spread apart sideways so there opened up a gap in between the edges. This happened a lot with the small narrow multitools.

Biggest positive surprises here were the little Knipex universal, medium sized Ruiss and the Juice. For the size they did a lot, and they didn't get damaged trying at harder stuff either.


Now this was of course only a single sample of each tool so milages might vary. And many would have been able to chew through some of the stuff if I had pumped the handles. Applying greater pressure using a hold, reversing grip or otherwise would also have helped. But for what it was, one hand pressure, it is an indication of what to expect - at least in the more general big picture view of things.

[Vidar]

Some more pictures...

The Knipex end cutter was the only one to do it all. And fairly easy at that too. The small Knipex universal did a lot for its size. The Leatherman Wave got damaged on the 316 rod and the nail. And the story was pretty much the same for the Ganzo.

[Vidar]

More pictures...

The Juice was the only multi-tool to cut the wire. (Before I started I assumed all the multi-tools except the small ones would do that actually). The Wenger scissor did surprisingly well with that zip tie. The medium Ruiss is quite the package for its size. And finally the IDL was the smallest of the bunch but still cut some at least.

 

[Steinar]

Thanks! I love tests like these. 

[Vidar]

A few more for now.

The old worn rusty scissor did well. I guess bulk does count for something. The Wiha side cutter did its stuff easily enough except for the larger steel stuff. The Ergo side cutter did all but the flat steel springs, and was by that on a second place performance wise. And then we have the Gerber Dime which did exactly as the picture shows - no cut of nothing. (To be fair, if I've used the scissors instead it would have taken the paper and possibly the soft filament).

[Vidar]

The small electric side cutter wasn't the best sample as the edge was a bit rusty. Still precise enough to do paper, and squeeze of that aluminium. The small end cutter was in better shape and did very well for its size. The blue Cima was a positive surprise up to the point that it got damaged. The one with the large pop-out plier head, an often rebranded design, proved to be anything but usable. It cut nothing; lack of leverage and lack of precision also meant that any lack of sturdiness or hardness couldn't even be discovered.

[Vidar]

The previous version of that pop-out head tool did a tiny bit better - it cut off the aluminium. Basically the same issues though. The small unbranded skeleton thingy did quite well actually. Borderline damage though. The small Ruiss had problems keeping the edges next to each other and only ended up doing aluminium. And the SOG was another downer for the multi-tools with proper sized handles. Like the Wave and Ganzo it damaged itself during cutting.

[pomsbz]

Very valuable, thank you!

[Vidar]

Here comes the remaining pictures. The cheap nose was a bit middle of the road - it cut the stainless steel rod, but failed paper. The fencing tool really only had edges for small somewhat hard stuff, which it did despite rust. The Knipex universal was less precise than its little brother, but did cut a lot too. And the cheap universal cut less than the more expensive ones - something right in this world after all.

[Vidar]

Final two - finally! This turned into quite the little project.

The Teng tools cut decent enough, and better than I expected actually.While the Henstrong, also rebranded all over cheap town, actually did a bit less then I would have guessed up front.

Now I just hope Grant won't do things of dubious nature to me for posting so many pictures... 


 

[Vidar]

Most of these would be able to cut soft stuff with enough tries and chewing, and thus function at some level for that. And there are plenty of perfectly valid use cases that wasn't even in this test because I simply assumed they would all do it with ease. Electrical cables, thin braided rope, strings - things like that. And of course a plier is also about much more than just the cutting.

What was disappointing was the issues with the harder stuff and the tools getting damaged. That means that increasing pressure or chewing would be far less helpful as it would just accelerate the damage as well. And there were three samples causing damages: The lawnmower wire, the electroplated nail, and the thin 316 rod.

The lawn mover wire is of unknown hardness, but most fails there was about it getting stuck sideways in between the jaws. Many tools would have made it with another go or two, and few got damaged. It didn't appear especially hard, then again it did prove a challenge.

The 316 rod on the other hand seemed harder than expected. If the way they manufacture these causes work hardening they might be quite hard on the surface at least. (I didn't have a magnet around so I couldn't test). That said I did cut it in the hard wire slot of the tools that had such.

But that tools got damaged cutting the nail was quite a disappointment. And 1.8mm profile nail is quite small. Now I did choose the square ones instead of round ones just because they would be more difficult. But still, at that size? (If you want a bolt cutter proof chain go for a hard and square profile one).

Anyway, I learned a lot - success! 

[tosh]

Thanks for doing this test Vidar 

So sorry to hear this caused damage to your tools. If nothing else it proves to me personally that manufacturers need to listen up and up their game. little point in bringing out silly colour schemes and exotic designs if they cannot be relied upon to perform simple tasks.
Fact is, its not good enough. if they keep insisting that a multitool  as a viable substitute...then I think they need to reassess what they deem to be acceptable quality. because a "toolbox in your pocket" is way off mark.

[Syncop8r]

I would not use ANY pliers on some of those things... rather a hacksaw blade on my Surge.

[Vidar]

I would not use ANY pliers on some of those things... rather a hacksaw blade on my Surge.

Personally I hesitated adding the 17-4 flat spring. Being a spring in that material it is hardened. I honestly didn't expect anything to go through that one. The 316 flat spring is also a plier nightmare but more because of the shape than the material.

It is worth noting that only the Knipex end cutter and the Ergo side cutter are general cutters. With the exception of the two flat springs I had no second thoughts about cutting into the rest with these two. And they did great too. All the other normal pliers are more universal plier designs or really intended for softer electric work. Some did quite good nevertheless.

For the multitools it seems like using the hacksaw might be a very good idea for some of these samples.

So sorry to hear this caused damage to your tools.

No reason to be sorry about that. This has been one of the more interesting explorations.   

[AimlessWanderer]

Good show Vidar. Thank you for putting all the work into not just the tests, but also the reporting and pics 

This sort of information is invaluable on this forum. Please try to save some of the materials in case you get other tools at a later date, so you can rerun the tests and keep this thread updated.

Thanks again 

[Vidar]

Good show Vidar. Thank you for putting all the work into not just the tests, but also the reporting and pics 

This sort of information is invaluable on this forum. Please try to save some of the materials in case you get other tools at a later date, so you can rerun the tests and keep this thread updated.

Thanks again 

Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully someone finds it useful or informative.

Yes, I got plenty of all those materials. And part of my thinking was also to use some kind of standard materials and sizes that many might have around if they want to try themselves. Hence the TIG materials, zip tie, filament and paper. (Just aim for not-too-great hand strength and you should have perfect test replication!  )

[pomsbz]

I can add some information if this is going to be a repository of testing. I tried cutting bike brake cable with a Skeletool. It both dented the wire cutters and forced them slightly apart. This week I cut a couple of thicker braided clothes lines, about 2mm thick, with my Charge. It did get through it eventually but with plenty of work. No damage. It is a shame they don't have the thicker cable cutters (at the back of the pliers) from the larger LM tools. I can also report that my Skeletool failed rather badly with Cat6a networking cable. Mainly due to the internal plastic dividers. A friend demonstrated that the Skeletool would cut through regular Cat6 cabling without a problem. Regular electrical power cables have never been a problem with the Skeletool.

[pa_strunk]

Strong work