2024 test19 productsHand Tools
Which End Cutting Pliers Brand Wins?
We compared 19 end cutting pliers options head to head. Knipex came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winner
Knipex
Price shown in test: $63
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Runner-up
Wiha
Price shown in test: $25
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Budget pick
Wiha
Price shown in test: $25
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Length_in | Weight_g | Country Of Origin | Flush Cut Staple Gap_in | Nail Cut Force_lb | Screw Cut Force_lb | Drill Bit Cut Force_lb | Hex Key Destruction Force_lb | Handle Feel | Hardness Claim | Durability Rating | Closing Avg Score | Design Claim | Retail Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1WorkPro$12 | 8 | 332 | China | 0.093, described as not a very good job | 184 | 331 | 312 | 959, upper jaw finally broke, called practically indestructible with human hands up to that point | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 2American Mutt Tools$14 | not tested | 33.3 (verbatim as captioned; implausible next to every neighboring brand's 260 to 430g range, almost certainly 333g with a dropped digit, not corrected) | China | 0.061, much better than WorkPro but still leaving a fair amount of staple proud of the panel | 150 (transcript literally reads 'at50 lb', derived as 150 from the narrator's own follow up line '34 lb better than the workpro', 184 minus 34) | 287 (narrator states 44 lb better than WorkPro's 331, which checks out) | 310, cutting knives held up even better than WorkPro's | 512, broke | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 3Hautmec$15 | 7 (shorter than the roughly 8in standard for most other brands tested) | 265.0 | China | 0.076, moved into second place behind American Mutt Tools at that point in the video | 197 | 310, jaw developed a small bend | 395, jaw already bent and struggled | 573, broke near the pivot joint, jaw badly bent | very stiff out of the box | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 4Kseibi$16 | not tested | 310.15 | China | 0.064, very close to as good as American Mutt Tools | 199 | 330 | 423 | 627, broke near the pivot joint | not nearly as stiff as the previous three brands | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 5Speedwox$16 | not tested | 43.66 (verbatim as captioned, though the narrator calls it 'by far the heaviest yet', which contradicts a 43.66g reading against WorkPro's already-stated 332g; almost certainly 436.6g with a misplaced decimal, not corrected) | China | 0.074, performed about the same as Hautmec | 175, moved into second place behind American Mutt Tools | 299, performed better than Kseibi | 329, trailed American Mutt Tools | 629 9 (verbatim as captioned, likely a stray extra digit; read as approximately 629, handles finally bending) | extremely stiff | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 6Irwin$17 | not tested | 379.8 | China | 0.835 (verbatim as captioned; roughly 10x every other brand's result, which cluster between 0.02 and 0.09; narrator calls it a real struggle, but this magnitude is almost certainly a garbled extra digit, not corrected) | 162 | 276 | 376 | 705 (brand rendered as 'earthwind' in the transcript at this point; resolved to Irwin by testing-order position, which is otherwise unbroken and consistent through every prior test), handles finally bent at this peak force | moves very freely | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 7Tekton$19 | not tested | 37473 (verbatim as captioned; almost certainly 374.73g with a misplaced decimal given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430g range, not corrected) | Taiwan | 0.073 | 156, moved into second place | 244, took the lead from American Mutt Tools | 319, moved into third position | never broke; handles became badly bent and the test was ended at 499 lb | not tested | induction hardened to HRC 58 to 64 | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 8Bates$25 | not tested | 29.86 (verbatim as captioned; implausible next to every neighboring brand's 260 to 430g range, almost certainly 298.6g with a misplaced decimal, not corrected) | China | 0.08, described as really struggled, a small misalignment noted | 204, moved into last place; jaw described as now bent and cutting knives no longer making contact on one side | did not complete the cut; made it to around 220 lb before losing ground and was unable to cut through, eliminated from the remaining screw/drill bit/hex key tests | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | implied worst possible rating of 5 for failing to complete the screw cut, per the narrator's general statement that some pliers received the worst rating after the screw test | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 9Wiha$25 | not tested | 37.74 (verbatim as captioned; almost certainly 377.4g with a misplaced decimal given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430g range, not corrected) | Vietnam | 0.045, best result at that point in the video, later confirmed as the second-best overall behind Wazakura in the closing recap | 147, moved into the lead at that point; final closing recap confirms it finished third overall behind Knipex and Gedore | 233, moved into the lead over Tekton | 269, best result at that point, closing recap confirms third place overall behind Knipex and Gedore | 548, lower jaw finally broke | moves nice and freely | not tested | not tested | 2.7, explicitly called out by the narrator as the best price-to-value pick in the video | not tested | not tested |
| 10Performance Tools$27 | not tested | 433.92, heaviest so far at that point in the video | China | 0.054, moved into second place behind Wiha | 174, moved into fifth place | 321, struggled, more cutting knife damage than most brands to that point | 393, 124 lb more than Wiha | test ended at 505 lb; the working (cutting) end outlasted the handles, which became badly bent | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 11Channellock$28 | not tested | 30791 (verbatim as captioned; almost certainly 307.91g with a misplaced decimal given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430g range, not corrected) | USA | 0.051, moved into second place behind Wiha at that point | 150, moved into a two-way tie for second place with American Mutt Tools | broke at 227 lb, pliers destroyed | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | implied worst possible rating of 5 for breaking during the screw test | not tested | the only brand using a knife-and-anvil style cutting edge, described as ensuring perfect mating and superior edge life | not tested |
| 12Blue-Point$31 | not tested | 289.50 (unit is captioned as 'MM' in the transcript, which does not fit a weight measurement the way every neighboring brand's gram figure does; kept as captioned rather than corrected) | China | no figure given; the transcript moves directly from the Blue-Point weight sentence into the next brand's country-of-origin sentence with no flush-cut result narrated for Blue-Point, an apparent transcript gap | 250, by far the worst result yet in that test | 354, the most force yet | 429 | 4177 (verbatim as captioned; roughly 8x every neighboring brand's 400 to 900 lb range for this test, almost certainly a garbled extra digit meaning something closer to 417, not corrected), broke near the pivot joint | pretty stiff | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | sold online through the Snap-on store; the narrator notes it is more expensive than most of the other pliers at this price |
| 13Barnwellnot stated; the transcript's price-intro sentence for this brand is missing entirely, jumping straight from Blue-Point's weight sentence into 'the barnw Pliers are made in Germany' with no price given, unlike every other brand in the video | not tested | 362171 (verbatim as captioned, no decimal shown at all; almost certainly a misplaced decimal such as 362.171 or 361.71g given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430g range, not corrected) | Germany | 0.05, took second place away from Channellock at that point; closing recap confirms Barnwell finished third overall behind Wazakura and Wiha | 155, performed quite a bit better than average | 267, moved into third place behind Tekton | 291 | 543, axle broke | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 14NWS$35 | not tested | not given; the transcript's weight sentence is cut off mid-sentence ('The NWS Pliers are pretty light at') with no number before the narration moves on, a transcript gap | Germany | 0.051, performed almost as well as Barnwell | 182 | 353, described as the most force yet at that point (essentially tied with Blue-Point's 354 stated just before it) | 433, trailed Barnwell by over 100 lb | 557, barely outlasted Barnwell | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | inductively hardened, tool steel forged and oil hardened | not tested |
| 15GearWrench$35 | not tested | 332.5kg (unit captioned as kilograms, which would be an absurd weight for a hand tool given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430 gram range; almost certainly meant to read 332.5g, not corrected) | Taiwan | no distinct figure given; narrator states a three-way tie for third place with Channellock and NWS immediately after GearWrench's weight, implying roughly 0.051 in without a separate number | 149, described as a two-way tie for second place, matching Wazakura's later-stated 149 | 225, moved into the lead at that point; closing recap places it a distant third overall behind Knipex and Gedore | 287, moved into second place behind Wiha | 565, handles became badly bent | not tested | not tested | not tested | 3.3, explicitly called out by the narrator as performing well | rounded inside edges for comfort, slim handle, curved back handle for added leverage | not tested |
| 16Milwaukee$36 | not tested | 292.50 (verbatim as captioned with a stray 'n' before the unit, read as 292.50g) | China | 0.057, still a little better than average | two different figures given for the same test: 215 lb stated in the original nail test narration, and 225 lb restated at the start of the screw test paragraph ('the Milwaukee pliers struggled quite a bit with the nail at 225 lb'); both kept, not reconciled | 320 | 430 | not narrated; the transcript has no hex key result for Milwaukee, jumping from GearWrench's result to a general statement about peak test loads and then straight to Knipex and Gedore, an apparent transcript gap | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | iron carbide edge, optimized blade angle for cutting and pulling nails, limited lifetime warranty, claimed to be professionally made | not tested |
| 17Wazakura$50 | not tested | not given; the transcript's weight sentence is interrupted by a [Music] tag right where the number should be ('the wasak Cur Pliers are by far the heaviest yet at [Music]'), a caption/audio gap | Japan | 0.023, moved into the lead, confirmed in the closing recap as the single best result in the video | 149, two-way tie for second place (with GearWrench) | gave up at 375 lb; cutting knives described as too soft for the screw, jaw developed a small bend | not narrated between Milwaukee's result and the closing summary of the drill bit test, an apparent transcript gap | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | forged and beaten using a heat-treating process the narrator says is similar to samurai sword making | not tested |
| 18Knipex$63 | not tested | 46027 (verbatim as captioned; almost certainly 460.27g with a misplaced decimal given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430g range, not corrected) | Germany | 0.0457 (transcript caption inserted a stray space mid-decimal; treated as one continuous number, not two separate values) | 76 (transcript literally reads 'at only 7 76 lb', treated as a stray duplicate leading digit; later closing recap independently restates 76 lb for this same result, confirming 76) | 94, very easy work | 164 | 397, the only brand in the video to successfully cut all the way through the hex key rather than merely bending or breaking | not tested | cutting edge hardness approximately 64 HRC | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested |
| 19Gedore$70 | not tested | 42947 (verbatim as captioned; almost certainly 429.47g with a misplaced decimal given every neighboring brand is in the 260 to 430g range, not corrected) | Germany | 0.083, had to smash its way through the staple, cutting knives called not very sharp | 89, very impressive, finished second overall behind Knipex | 148, finished second overall behind Knipex | 187, finished second overall behind Knipex | 290, badly bent; cutting knives described as too dull to actually cut through the hex key, unlike Knipex | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | designed for hard wire and piano wire, double lever mechanism for maximum cutting performance | not tested |
How it was tested
- flush-cut closeness to panel on a staple, measured in inches with a dial indicator (lower is better)
- squeeze force in pounds to cut through a 16 penny galvanized nail
- squeeze force in pounds to cut through a number 10 deck screw
- squeeze force in pounds to cut through the shank of a 3/16in drill bit
- destructive test: squeeze force in pounds at which the pliers break, bend, or (in one case) successfully cut through a hex/Allen key
“the knipex pliers finished in first place to earn the best possible rating of one in every category except for clipping the staple off close to the panel... it's a very good set of pliers and definitely worth the extra cost”
Data notes and caveats
19 brands tested: 18 named in the prose description (Knipex, Milwaukee, Blue-Point, GearWrench, Channellock, Gedore, NWS, Tekton, Barnwell, Wazakura, Bates, Speedwox, Kseibi, Hautmec, WorkPro, American Mutt Tools, Performance Tools, Irwin) plus Wiha, which appears only in the linked Products Tested list below the prose and not in the prose itself; cross-checking both parts of the description (per spec) was required to catch Wiha. Kseibi is never spoken as a recognizable phonetic variant (captioned as CB throughout) and was resolved purely by elimination: it is the one description brand with no other transcript match, at the $16 price slot. This video has a systemic caption defect on weight readings specifically: at least 10 of the 19 brands (American Mutt Tools, Speedwox, Tekton, Bates, Wiha, Channellock, Barnwell, Knipex, Gedore, and GearWrench's stray kg unit) show weight figures that are off by roughly a factor of 10 versus their neighbors, almost certainly a systematic misplaced-decimal caption bug rather than 10 independent errors; all are preserved verbatim per product with the pattern flagged here rather than corrected. Barnwell is the only brand with no price stated anywhere in the transcript, a clear narration/caption gap. Bates and Channellock were eliminated mid-showdown (Bates failed to cut the screw, Channellock broke on the screw) and do not appear in the drill bit or hex key results; Milwaukee and Wazakura are each missing one late-stage test result (hex key for Milwaukee, weight and drill bit for Wazakura) that the transcript never narrates, distinct transcript gaps rather than the brands being excluded from the video. The overall winner is unambiguous: Knipex earned the best rating in every category except flush-cut staple closeness, where the cheaper Wazakura ($50) actually posted the single best figure in the video (0.023in vs Knipex's 0.0457in). The narrator gives explicit numeric average scores for exactly three brands in the closing recap (Knipex implied best/near 1, Wiha 2.7, GearWrench 3.3), used here for runnerUp and budgetPick; no composite score is given for the other 16 brands, so products[] is ordered by ascending price as presented in the video rather than by a full composite rank.