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Knipex has new needle nose combination pliers with a 185mm (~7-1/4″) length, expanding upon their existing 145mm (~5-3/4″) length pliers with similar features.
The Knipex needle nose or long nose combination pliers features straight wire cutting blades, wide gripping jaws, fine gripping jaws, and a round slot for gripping smooth round materials such as nails and wires.
The pliers will be available in four styles:
- 08 21 185 – black atramentized with dipped handle grips
- 08 25 185 – chrome plated with cushion handle grips
- 08 22 185 – polished black atramentized with cushion handle grips
- 08 26 185 – chrome plated with VDE insulated cushion handle grips
The pliers can be used for common tasks where you might want fine gripping or twisting action, or if you’re working in tight spaces.
But they also have specially shaped jaws that can securely grip larger flat parts.
The jaws appear to be straight and flat near the tip, before slightly tapering away from each other.
The shape of the jaws gives you more gripping contact area than other styles of long nose pliers that only have straight jaws.
The inner gripping area is larger and tooth in such a way it can grip and turn 6pt hex head fasteners.
It can also grip smooth cylindrical objects.
A groove in the mid-section of the fine-tooth jaws allows for slip-free gripping of smooth thin materials, such as nails.
The cutting edges are induction hardened to approximately 64 HRC.
Wire Cutting Capacity
- Medium Hard Wire – 3.8mm
- Hard Wire – 3mm
- Multi-Stranded Copper Wire Cable – 13mm
- Multi-Stranded Copper Wire Cable – 25mm²
Price: ~$40 and up
Note: Amazon has lower pricing than USA dealers, but you have to wait for international shipping – which is free via Amazon Global Store UK – and it’s unclear as to whether this will affect USA warranty coverage.
Discussion
These pliers look to fill multiple roles.
I have pliers with grooved fastener and tubing-gripping jaws, but I rarely use them on hex bolts or similar. Maybe your needs and usage environments will be different.
The fastener-gripping grooves aren’t new for Knipex either – I first posted about their simialrly featured combination side-cutting pliers more than 13 years ago. That’s not a bad thing, it only means they perfected its shape long ago.
I’m intrigued by the shape of the fine gripping section of the jaws. In my experience, long nose and needle nose pliers work best on very thin materials. It looks like Knipex came up with a way to shape the jaws for greater contact when gripping a broader range of materials.
Maybe Knipex carried the idea over from their TwinGrip pliers?
Will pliers like these replace two (or more) pliers in your kit?
