Which Needle Nose Pliers Brand Wins?
We compared 14 needle nose pliers options head to head. Kobalt came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Kobalt
Price shown in test: $11
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Irwin
Price shown in test: $15
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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 | Weight | Grip Test 1 Screw Parallel | Six Penny Nail Cut | Grip Test 2 Screw Perpendicular | Sixteen Penny Nail Cut | Deck Screw Cut | Twist Test 120inlb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Kobalt$11 | 277 g | 8 in lb | 47 lb, the best result of any brand in this test | 7 in lb, tied for third with Craftsman and Southwire | 220 lb | 230 lb, only 10 lb more force than its own nail cut result | no visible damage, didn't even seem to notice the test |
| 2Irwin$15 | 299 g, the heaviest of the first 5 brands tested | 7 in lb | 54 lb, tied for second with Stanley FatMax | 5 in lb, same as Performance Tool | 197 lb | 224 lb, moved into the lead at that point in the narration, tied with Channellock later | seemed more robust than most other brands, no visible damage |
| 3Klein Tools$29 | 265 g | 6 in lb | 49 lb, second best result, nearly as good as Kobalt | 7 in lb, tied for third with Kobalt, Craftsman, Southwire, Fujiya | 188 lb, took fourth place from Southwire | 240 lb, held up really well with only minor damage | pretty robust, definitely built to handle the grip and twist motion, no damage |
| 4DeWalt$20 | 296 g, nearly as heavy as the Irwin | 6 in lb, same as Milwaukee | 56 lb, same as Channellock | 6 in lb, slightly better than Irwin, same as Milwaukee | 199 lb, almost as good as Irwin | 265 lb, cutting knives lost their pointed edge | easily withstood the torque, less flexion than most other brands, no visible damage |
| 5Craftsman$13, same price as the Stanley FatMax | 262 g | 8 in lb, tied for first with Kobalt | 84 lb, the worst result up to that point in the narration | 7 in lb, same as Kobalt | 206 lb, second place at that point behind Stanley FatMax | 282 lb, cutting knives now pretty flat with quite a bit of damage | flexed quite a bit but snapped right back into place, no permanent bending or visible damage |
| 6Vampliers$40 | 177 g, the lightest of all 14 pliers tested | 9 in lb, the best result of any brand in this test | 61 lb, hurt by its shorter handles | 11 in lb, the best result of any brand in either grip test, a very impressive standout | 262 lb, struggled due to shorter handles | 319 lb, shorter handles hurt performance again | jaws on the pliers are now bent |
| 7Stanley FatMax$13 | 257 g, 20 g lighter than the Kobalt | 7 in lb, second place behind Kobalt | 54 lb, tied for second with Irwin | 8 in lb, moved into first place in this retest | 171 lb, moved into the lead at that point in the narration | 244 lb, second place behind Kobalt, knives had a little more damage than Kobalt's | made it to 120 in lb but remained twisted after the test, and one jaw broke |
| 8Channellock$21 | 226 g | 8 in lb, three way tie for first with Kobalt and Craftsman | 56 lb, same as DeWalt | 5 in lb, same as Irwin | 136 lb, by far the best result of any brand in this test, described as very impressive | 224 lb, tied with Irwin, cutters held up really well and looked nearly as good as new | not set up for this type of grip and twist motion, quite a bit of damage to the nose |
| 9Southwire$25 | 274 g | 8 in lb, four way tie for first with Kobalt, Craftsman, and Channellock | 64 lb | 7 in lb, same as Kobalt and Craftsman | 194 lb, fourth place at that point | 200 lb, moved into first place, the best deck screw result of any brand, knives looked nearly as good as new | pretty robust, didn't twist nearly as much as some other brands, but did experience a small amount of bending and twisting |
| 10Milwaukee$24 | 238 g | 6 in lb, same as DeWalt | 50 lb, moved into a top 3 position at that point | 6 in lb, same as DeWalt again | 180 lb, third place behind Stanley FatMax at that point | 235 lb, nearly as well as Channellock, knives held up with only minor damage | experienced more flexion than Irwin and DeWalt, and the pliers are now bent |
| 11Fujiya$44, the most expensive of the 14 brands tested | 224 g | 5 in lb, slightly better than Wiha | 53 lb, described as performing very well | 7 in lb, tied with several top brands including Kobalt and Klein Tools | 203 lb, described as a pretty good result | 255 lb, slightly better than average | quite a bit of flexion during the test, and the nose is now bent |
| 12Wiha$33 | 225 g, described as light | 4 in lb, tied with Knipex for the worst result | 55 lb, slightly better than average | 5 in lb | 265 lb, the worst result of any brand in this test, described as really struggled | 355 lb, the worst deck screw result of any brand, though cutting knives held up with only minor damage | experienced quite a bit of damage from the test |
| 13Knipex$28 | 199 g, the lightest brand at that point in the narration (later beaten only by the Vampliers at 177 g) | 4 in lb, the worst result up to that point in the narration | 70 lb, its short handles really hurt this result | 4 in lb, same as the first test, struggled again | 255 lb, needed quite a bit of squeezing force | 350 lb, really struggled, moderate damage to the cutters | not nearly as robust as most other brands, nose badly bent |
| 14Performance Tool$7, the cheapest of the 14 brands tested | 215 g | 5 in lb, the screw caused a small amount of damage to the pliers | 68 lb | 5 in lb, same as the first test | 215 pounds | 270 lb, some damage to the cutting knives | experienced quite a bit of damage from the twisting force |
How it was tested
- grip strength test 1: screw held parallel in jaws under 100 lb of clamp force, torque to slip measured in in lb
- cutting force required to cut through a six-penny nail
- grip strength test 2: screw oriented perpendicular to the jaws, torque to slip measured in in lb
- cutting force required to cut through a 16 penny nail
- cutting force required to cut through an exterior deck screw
- twist test: nose inserted into two holes drilled in a bolt, 120 in lb of twisting force applied, pass or fail plus damage description
“It's really hard to argue that the Kobalt didn't win this showdown when you consider the very affordable price of just $11 and the very impressive performance.”
Data notes and caveats
Very clean transcript with no brand name garbling; all 14 brands match the description's Products Tested list exactly (Vampliers is spoken as Vampire Tools or the Vampires throughout, a natural paraphrase of the portmanteau brand name, not a caption error). Narrator gives a clear three tier verdict: Kobalt as outright winner (best price to performance), Irwin as a secondary affordable recommendation, and Klein Tools as the pick if price is not a factor. Five brands (Kobalt, Craftsman, Irwin, DeWalt, Klein Tools) were the only ones to take zero visible damage in the closing twist test, a key differentiator the narrator calls out explicitly. All 13 other pliers are 8 inches long; the Vampliers alone are 7.5 inches, which the narrator explicitly says hurt its leverage dependent nail and screw cutting results even though it won both grip strength tests outright. Products array orders the three explicitly named picks first, then the rest by a composite read of their standing across the individual sub-tests narrated in the transcript; no single overall combined score across all six tests was narrated for all 14 brands, so this order should not be read as one official composite rank.