KNIPEX StepCut Cable Shears

Hi everyone. My name is Ben from Electrical Innovations in Derby. I'm an electrician and today I'm reviewing the Knipex StepCut pliers. So I've had a set of these before in the past, it was similar version where this top jaw has a second section on it. It's about an inch longer. And if I'm honest, I really hated it. Didn't like it at all. Weirdly though, I gave it to one of the lads on our team and they really loved them. So it's weird how different guys like different tools. So in this video I've been sent a different set because my first review, I talked about some of the things I didn't like and some of the things I did like, so this set of cutters kind of has all the things I like on it and just taken away all the stuff I don't. So we'll give them a go and see how we got on now.

In the last video, I've talked about these. These are what I'm currently using. They're like 12 quid a set. I can smash them, bend them, whatever, it doesn't matter. These are different animal entirely. They're really high-end. You know, VDE Insulated, thumb stops, all of that. So it is a different tool, it's a lot more expensive and hopefully a lot better quality. So I'm going to put it through its paces and just see how we go.

So, first thing I'm going to start with is 25 mm tails, because as a domestic electrician, this tool is what I would use to cut this cable, or the other way around. If I've got this cable to work on, this is the tool I'd be going into a toolbox to find.

So it does cut it really well. That's one-handed, not too much trouble. It goes straight through. Two-hands on it, crop. No problem. Comes to stripping outer insulation, quite easyinner insulation, quite easy as well. It's done that with no damage to the copper, nice really clean cuts on the end. Really flat and straight cut on the end. You could see from them jaws, they're pretty sharp, pretty flat, flat on both sides as well. So if I was cut that in half, both sides of the cut would be clean. Whereas, if it were a pair of side cutters, you obviously going to get a diagonal on one side.

So I do like that for them. One of the other things we use these for quite a lot, and no manufacturer tells you to do this, we do use it for steel wire armoured. Now, if we're on a lighting job, like for example, last week we had, I don't know, maybe 30 armoured glands to make off on lighting job, using a set of these to just crop through all the steel wires. It's cheating, but it is quite good. And the fact that the croppers are cheap means we can just go through it and not worry too much.

So I have already tried it with the Knipex ones. Despite the small size, They do, do it. You do need to brace it a little, but I was really impressed with that. I thought, because it was so small, it probably struggle with that bit, but actually it's been really good, so that's the SWA.

The other one that we'd use these for quite a lot would be bigger Twin and Earth. So either just cutting general, as you go around pulling your ring mains in your domestic 2.5 mm, things like that. Being able to just crop through in a second without no hassle, it's really good for that. It's not too much trouble to open the jaws wide enough, even though this is quite small. You can open them wide enough to get your cable in easy. So it's quite nice for that.

I was a little bit concerned about 10 mm Twin and Earth. Because I mean, you can see there that the size of the jaws compared to the 10 mm, but actually it does go through it. I did need to brace a little bit. It goes through in one cut which is important. You don't want to be having to do that, and then that, it's just hassle, isn't it?

You want to be going straight through in one cut, no problem. It does that all right. They don't have a cable stop on them, if I was to trim the cable, I could pull the earth out, even stranded earth like this and grab it with this cable stop, yeah? Like that, and strip the centre. But it's a savage way doing it on a 10 mm. I wouldn't normally do it on a 10 mm like that, but we'd get a knife out.

You don't have that on the Knipex ones, which is a shame, but you can just grab the earths and pull through if you needed to. I don't really recommend that, but it is there. And then as for stripping the centres, dead easy. 10 mm, do the insulation, no damage to the copper below, even though they're really sharp. So yeah, I'm impressed. I really like them and it's thumbs up from me.

Scott here from SC Electrics, reviewing the 160mm Knipex step cutters. We're going to have a look at them, see how good they are against a few others we have. Standard, mid range. A bigger version, but these are basically what we have to use daily. There are pros and cons of these ones. And of course, cheap as chips, budget brand. So, lets get in, see what we can do. First thing we're going to do is, because this is the size recommended on the box. Says so right there. We're going to work on this size marked on the box. This is 16mm tails. Most of you should be familiar with this. So, first of all, we'll use the Knipex, and just... Wee bit of pressure. Not too bad. Very neat cut, so as with most cutters there's a slight lip afterwards, a wee bit... you wouldn't do much damage with it.

And the other ones, these are mid-range ones, which, as you can see, aren't VDE, they aren't red and yellow. They're quite cheap, they're probably about half the price. But usually that's all we'd use these here for is cutting tails. Now these... This particular brand I find, unlike Knipex, tends to rust very easily, especially in the back of the van. Knipex seems to last a lot longer. I use side cutters, I use a lot of different tools from them. So these here, see here how I have to manually stretch them. Need oil. Again, they cut through the cable. A wee bit... The same amount of effort. But it cuts through, no problem at all.

And, of course, onto our cheap ones. And these were used for about two days. And then threw in a drawer. And the reason for that is they are absolutely terrible and I'm actually sitting here using all my strength to even get through it. There's a difference between cheap and quality.

Now, that's a wee bit of a challenge. Let's see. Let's give them a bit of a roll, see how they actually do. This is probably on the outside of a size they can actually stretched to. Now, I would love to use SWA because that would really show how well they can cut, but the only problem is I've got another pair of cutters like this. As it says on them, if I can get you to focus, eventually, "Do not cut steel." So that... I can't cut steel, that means unfortunately, unlike these cheap ones which will still stay in the tool bag for just this purpose, for SWA and cutting screws, these ones here, I'll ruin them. I don't want to do that. So we'll see how they fare on this. This is 6mm tough three core, which is really quite a thick cable. And it just about fits in the jaws, that's why I picked it. So we'll size it up. And it goes through it relatively easy.

The one thing I have noticed in these, it's not just straight grips. The grips are actually at a strange angle, sitting nicely in your hand. So whenever you're putting force in you're actually putting force onto a curve, and here is actually sitting nice into your palm. Gives a wee bit of extra strength perhaps? Not entirely sure. It's quite nice.

But we'll try our mid range ones in the 6mm, see how well they do. And to be honest, even these are stretching to the size of this. See yourself. Now the big difference is I have a lot more leverage in these, so I should be getting a better cut. I'm actually struggling quite a bit more. But, it does get there.

Now for the real fun. I doubt these will even cut it. In fact, I would be really, really surprised. They barely fit over it. And I have two hands to start it. And, believe it or not, they're actually... I think actually... That's actually unlike usually step cutters...

Now the benefit of step cutters, in case you don't know, this is one of the disadvantages of using even like a side pliers or something like that. As you can see, the cable's pretty much crushed flat. Which is why we really want something that doesn't do that. Because that, whenever you come to work on a gland, that's going to be a real pain. So it will catch on everything else. The step cutters however, unlike most of the others, because step cutters work, they cut singly at a time, so every time you pull down it's actually cutting. And cutting, and cutting, and cutting. I'm actually struggling here. So, that's what step cutters do a cut. It leaves it... You can probably see a difference here if I can find it. You can see the difference between the round the step cutters cut is still quite round, compared to the crushed cable from the other ones.

Really, a good wee little tool. Quite sharp. I don't think it would struggle much if I put 25mm tails. I might have to really open them up wide to get to them, but I think it would cut them quite cleanly. They don't crush, they cut very, very cleanly. Idea of them is you cut one strand at a time, hence the strange shape of the blade, which I'll show you. As you can see, it's a serrated sort of edge. So, it's unlike a pair of side cutters or again unlike these croppers. They don't try to cut the whole lot at once, which is a great advantage. I've actually found with these tools that they don't oxidise and rust and jam up as quick. They tend to last in your tool bag a lot longer. Personally I used to use a different brand. I changed to these about a year ago. Not this particular set, but this brand a year ago for all my side cutters, even multi-cutters, everything else, and I must admit, very, very impressed.

This would be a good addition to the tool bag. Unfortunately because it's a slightly different tool, I can't use for everything I've to use these for, which is mainly cutting screws and SWA. So unfortunately these will still have a place inside my toolbox for now, till I find something better.

That's all for now. Thank you all and see you again soon.