Knipex CoBolt® Compact Bolt Cutters 20° Head Multi-Component Grip 200mm (8in) Reviews

Video transcript

Now then, people. It's Macauley from SmartPipe Plumbing Services. I hope you're all doing well. Before we get started, I'd just like to say a big thank you to Tool Talk TV for sending me out this product to review. It's the Knipex Cobolt.

After using it for a few days through this week, I'm really impressed with it, highly recommend the product. Made of quality material, as all Knipex products are. If you've used Knipex before, you know that they're quality, top of the market, for all trades. This tool itself is not something I would use day-to-day, being a plumber and gas engineer, as it is for cutting thin bits of metal, barb wire, stuff like that.

Before I go into it in a bit more detail, I'll give you a little demonstration. So I've got a 3" x 10 screw, and it can cut straight through that, no problem. I'll just show you that. Oops. So yeah, you see that cut straight through with no problem. So you can imagine on a day-to-day basis, if you are cutting through, I don't know, chicken wire or like that, it's handy to have in your toolbox, or even just in the van, just to get out every now and then.

Some other products uses it does have, is... I don't know if you can see. On the inside there, it's gripped on both sides, so it's handy for pulling nails out, so you can grab it and you can use the head of the product to lever it out of the timber. It does lock into place. It does have a locking mechanism at the front which you just twist down to store it away nicely.

Anything that I'd improve about the product? Not really. I'd be interested to see how long this clipping-in mechanism lasts. That's the only downside, I think, to it. It doesn't feel as good quality as the rest of the product.

So yeah, make sure you go check out all the other videos on Tool Talk TV. I hope to see you all again shortly in some other videos. I'll do some more reviews for you. Thanks. Peace.

Video transcript

These, a pair of bolt cutters. Now, I didn't think initially I'd have any use for these whatsoever, but for stupid little things like cutting down the three and a half, four mil face plate screws, these are perfect. Were incredible, really, because normally, I don't care what anyone says, you'd use your side cutters, your snips, and just put it down to the jaws and put a little bit of effort into it and grit your teeth and hope it doesn't chip away at them too much.

But using a pair, I've got a three-and-a-half drill bit here that I happened to break, and cutting through them, it's absolutely effortless. And this is proper HSS. It just chomps through it. I would not want to do that with my snips, because they cost money. And I really think they'll improve the life of, well, whatever you buy, because every electric, I don't care who you are, you will use your snips for everything. Mine are a hammer, a, well, bolt cutter, snips. But using a proper tool for the job, and judging by the quality, this will probably outlive me. I don't see any problem with it.

The one little bugaboo I found nearer the teeth. I don't know if you can see that there just at the top. There is a gap in the jaws where you want to slot stuff in. I suppose chomping metal with it, by the time you've got down to that gap of a cut, it'll just snap off anyway. So I'm sure that's got to do with the longevity of it. It doesn't shear away too much at the actual jaws. But no, I don't really find it a problem. It's just an observation more than anything.

The locking feature on them is very good. It's just it's a little roller. See the thumb grip there, a little dot. Roll it up and it'll spring loose. These I thought looked super weird when I saw a photo of them, but there's nothing wrong with them. They don't get in your way, as far as compression goes. They feel pretty durable. Yeah. Locking, one-hand job. It's very easy, just and ... But these, I really didn't think I'd find useful, and I have. I think these are probably going to go in the main tool bag for most days, second fixing, chopping down big 75-mil screws just probably tripled the life of the snips that I've absolutely thrashed. So I'm very impressed with that.

All in all, as a brand, I mean, this is really my first proper experience with them, but I might look at replacing a lot of my kit with this as it dies, because the quality is pretty unbeatable. A lot of my other stuff's Bahco, Klein, the big ones, Wera. But I know this is a big name, but I've not been able to justify it price-wise. But you do get what you pay for, I suppose.