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Everybody knows Crescent Tools, right? No introductions are necessary. Back in late 2017, Crescent announced a new brand identity and went through some changes, with their sibling brands – Wiss, Lufkin, Nicholson, H.K. Porter, JOBOX, and APEX- also being brought into the Crescent brand envelope.
Crescent has been coming out with new tools at a steady pace. Some of them flew under my radar, others really caught my attention, such as their open tote tool bags.
Crescent recently signed on as a ToolGuyd sponsor to help support our content. This couldn’t have happened at a better time – I have a large number of reader requests, buying guides, and tool comparisons drafted or in my queue – a whole lot of hand tool content – and Crescent fits into some of these plans.
There are also a number of new Crescent products that interest and even excite me, and I’m sure there are some tools you guys are curious about.
Here’s an example of one outstanding reader question: what can be used to cut small hard wires? Well, there are lots of ways to do this, but my favorite is for mini bolt cutters.
With a lot of the questions that come in, readers mention not wanting to spend $50 on a tool sight-unseen, they want a good tool or problem-solver at an affordable price.
This is what I use – the Crescent Wiss 8″ wire cutter ($10 via Home Depot). I probably mistakenly call them mini bolt cutters, and they’re meant for cutting hard wire, cable, and light chain. This is a new sample I picked up locally, mine is from a few years ago.
They do the job.
A similar question and request came in recently. The user is working with semi-flexible hard wire, and it has been cutting up their fingers. They’ve been cutting the wire from a spool with a rotary tool, and then working it into shapes around objects with their fingers.
Okay, I start writing to them, you might want to consider long nose or lineman’s style pliers, and Wiss mini cutters… and then I realized – Crescent came out with new Z2 pliers.
I recently tried to use one of my other brand of diagonal pliers the other day, to cut some hard wire. That’s usually a big no-no, but I tried it anyway. Some of the spiral wire reinforcement from my dust collection hose was poking out and it scratched my hand. I grabbed my diagonal cutters, and… the wire made a small dent in them. Oh… the wire is harder than I thought.
That’s not going to be a problem with these Z2 pliers. Crescent designed their Z2 pliers for increased cutting power. There’s more going on – these are described as Crescent’s best performing pliers ever, with innovative features that make each style the new best performer in its class. I’ll be exploring what these pliers can do.
These Crescent Z2 pliers seem fitting as a single-tool alternative to what I was going to suggest, which would have been to get basic pliers and the aforementioned Crescent Wiss PWC9W mini cutter. With one of the Z2 pliers, one tool can do two things.
I briefly reviewed Crescent APEX screwdriver bits when they first came out. The brand has been expanding its selection since then, with non-marring screwdriver bits and other fastening accessories.
The non-marring bits are actually really cool, and you’ll see more on them here soon.
And then there’s this – new Crescent Apex BoltBiter nut drivers that remove and tighten hex fasteners.
I have some bolt extractors I’ve been meaning to test out, but they’re really designed for automotive work and stubbornly rusted stripped fasteners. I tend to come across damaged lag screws and similarly sized hex bolts.
These nutdrivers could be useful.
I’m a little hesitant, to be honest, but I recently spent a pricey sum on new hex drivers with similar “great for installation or damaged fastener removal” claims. I didn’t know there were new nut driver accessories that worked similarly for 6pt hex fasteners, but it’s worth looking into.
I’m going to find out just how well these work for fastening applications, and I’m sure I can find some stripped fasteners to test their removal success rate on.
I have been working on a series of content that’s supported by another sponsor – DIY and basic Pro tool kit selections and reviews – and Crescent keeps popping up there too.
Over at Instagram, I posted about a trio of my go-to scissors, and I asked if there are any other brands I should check out. There were several recommendations for Wiss.
Take a look at my recent New Tool Day haul from Home Depot. There are a couple of Crescent and Crescent Wiss tools in there, and my shopping for that content series isn’t done yet – there are a couple more tools to buy.
I use Lufkin tape measures, Nicholson files, Wiss tin sips – and I’ll be testing their scissors out soon – Crescent APEX power tool accessories, more than a few Crescent tools, and Crescent H.K. Porter cable cutters have been on my shopping list ever since I started working with larger diameter flexible cables.
Do you know what I saw at the local Home Depot recently?
Crescent Wiss left-handed scissors!
There’s a lot of good stuff here.
I had a good idea of the types of content this Crescent sponsorship could support, but it also seems there’s a lot that I missed.
I spoke with a company today, about how a project they’re sponsoring has been thoroughly enjoyable, and about how it really opened my eyes as to how well everything has been coming together. They said something about how they’ve been reading my content for a while, and that it seems I have a special place in my heart for [very specific brand] of hand tools. And I do.
As open-minded as I try to be, I am set in my ways and set-in-concrete recommendations. This partnership with Crescent has me looking at some of their new tools, and it’s supporting some of my long-overdue independent content where some of their tools fit in. And in getting started on all this – and vetting the brand’s tools to ensure they were a good fit for ToolGuyd – I realized that it’s almost like I’m seeing the brand for the first time again.
So, that’s where you come in.
Do You Have Any Crescent Tool Review Requests or Recommendations?
This includes anything in the Crescent brand lineup – Wiss, Lufkin, Nicholson, H.K. Porter, JOBOX (within reason), and APEX.
I already have a test and review sample shopping list, what would you add to it?
Crescent Tools is a ToolGuyd sponsor as of the time of this posting.
