Cable Shears
After talking to my electrician tool enabler
@WreckITFrank I ended up ordering both the channellock and the Gedore 8094 cable shears (Frank informs me they are called loppers). I had also ordered the Kleins (Frank loves Klein) too, but they won’t fit in the pouch after I measured so I cancelled them. The Gedore 8094 are the same as the Knipex 95 11 200 so they will fit in the pouch at 200mm. Like exactly the same as the Knipex except for the branding. Normally they are more expensive than the Knipex, but I found them for $45 which is $7 less than the Knipex on prime and close enough to the price of the Knipex on .de that I did not feel so bad ordering it. Basically it came down to I have channel locks in the main set so they fit with my motif better than the Kleins and the Kleins in the castle set but they won’t fit in the pouch but I also have Gedore there. I am sure I will regret not getting the Kleins. It won’t be a high use tool so maybe not.
So I have analyzed Gedore’s product line because it is about as confusing as possible.
I had ordered all three of the Gedore 142 pliers (-7, -10, -12 referring to inches) in red dipped handles as a set for the castle. They were on sale and the price was basically the same as the Knipex cobras. I am not sure that I have a preference. I tried them out head to head today (finally got some wrenching in although I accomplished very little). The Gedore are pointier tipped on the ends and seem to grip nuts better, but the Knipex seem to grip round things better.
Back to the red handles on Gedore. It’s super confusing because Gedore has a “Gedore Red” line (which is the entry level stuff, mostly Taiwan, but sometimes Germany or Austria and the same as Gedore [Blue] but just says “Gedore Red” on it), but then they offer red dipped handle, mainly for the US market and the dipped red handle stuff is regular Gedore, not Gedore Red. But then they make Gedore Red with red handles (although those are red and black from what I have seen). I don’t think Gedore could have made this more confusing if they tried, but being german/austrian I am sure they believe it makes perfect sense.
I am a Knipex comfort grip fan (and VDE) mainly because they give good grip and are easy to clean. The Gedore/Stahlwille/Knipex textured grips are great if you have greasy hands, but they are super hard to clean (I have given up on the one set of Knipex cobras — it’s patina at this point). I even went so far as to order a bare chrome steel set of Gedore 142-10 pliers just so I had a greasy hands pliers that I could easily clean (and they were on super discount on Amazon). But the dipped are easy to clean too and don’t feel like crap and won’t freeze your hands when cold like the bare ones. Based on the condition of my channellocks, they will get beat up over time, but they hold up well enough.
