Earlier today I posted about new Bosch pliers and pipe wrenches, and a reader remarked about how the adjustable pliers look like Knipex’s. The new Bosch pliers do resemble Knipex Cobras, but there are signs that the tools are NOT made by Knipex.
Bosch doesn’t have its own hand tool manufacturing facilities (yet?). As such, they’re working with other companies and OEMs.
There is no shortage of pliers and hand tool brands in Europe, with German brands such as Knipex and NWS offering partnering with other brands and companies.
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But from the images, it’s clear to me that Bosch is not partnering with Knipex.
For example, Knipex Cobra adjustable pliers have “Made in Germany” marked into the lower pliers handle, with an oval border. Bosch’s new pliers have a rounded rectangular border and the words “Chrome Vanadium.”
There are other differences. Don’t look at the jaws, look at the shape of the raised area round the jaws. Next, look at the adjustment grooves, especially at the travel limit. The Knipex Cobra pliers have a complexly shaped travel limit. Bosch’s is smooth and curved.
These pliers are not made by the same company, or at least they are not identical designs and are not made on the same assembly line.
Could Knipex be producing these pliers for Bosch? Yes. Would they produce a completely different design? No.
All signs suggest that Knipex is not the manufacturer. The clues are always in the details.
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It looks like Bosch has partnered with GreatStar, owner of SK Tools, to produce their new plumbing-focused Pliers Wrench.
Look at the shape of the jaw tips, the two indentations in the moveable lower jaw, the shape of the compound leverage arm, and the character of the end-of-travel limits in the adjustment mechanism.
Look at the serrated edges of the adjustment push button, the forged shapes of the lower handle as it protrudes from the handle grip, the distance between those handle features and the border of the toothed adjustment channel, and the recess where the brand name appears in the upper handle.
It’s reasonable to conclude that, aside from the colors, brand names, and shape of the handle grips, these two tools appear to be identical.
Here’s the Knipex 10″ comfort grip Pliers Wrench, in case you were interested in making additional comparisons.
GreatStar, which owns the SK Tool brand, manufactures hand tools for a broad range of other tool brands. They design tools to suit different brands’ needs, and also on occasion they rebrand tools, presumably at the behest of their customers.
It is far less expensive to rebrand tools for different customers than it is for an OEM to develop distinct designs from the ground up, as it means less engineering work and potentially shared production equipment and manufacturing steps.
There’s a good chance there are GreatStar-manufactured tools in your kit. When a tool brand wants to add hand tools to their lineup, and quickly, they work with brands like GreatStar.
None of this has been confirmed, but such is often the case for manufacturing arrangements. It’s also possible that GreatStar is not the manufacturer, but what are the chances a completely separate hand tool OEM – which? – is making tools for both GreatStar’s SK Tool brand and Bosch?
At least the new Bosch Pliers Wrench looks identical in design to SK’s, suggesting it’s made by GreatStar.
I haven’t had much luck tracing potential manufacturing origins or partners for Bosch’s other newly released hand tools – the adjustable pliers, pipe wrenches, or broad selection of insulated hand tools. It’s possible they contracted with multiple OEMs.
It’s also possible Bosch is producing some of the new hand tools themselves, but I have not seen any news or details to support or even suggest this.
This is all of academic interest, of course; I’m not sure about what the takeaway is for end users.
Michael F
For what it’s worth, I probably prefer the finish on the Bosch than the SK. With that said, I love my Knipex Cobras and wouldn’t buy anything else.
Jared
Good observation. Those do look the same to me, minus finishes and grips. It will be interesting to see how it performs.
JJ
Worth remembering that Lowe’s just dropped all its GreatStar-made SK tools after a few months. I don’t know where Bosch intends to sell these hand tools, and I assume they may not be available in US stores, but it’ll be interesting to see if consumers have a similar level of interest.
ITCD
Definifely won’t be available in the US (at least the pump pliers) since Knipex has a design patent on the oval thing coming off the button. I suspect it’s why the Icon clones switch that up for the chevrons.
ITCD
Also Lowe’s didn’t have much of the SK stuff to begin with (just a few freestanding PDQs of adjustable wrenches and ratcheting wrenches, missing a LOT of their catalog) and Lowe’s has a habit of just dropping stuff on a whim a lot lately it seems like so that doesn’t necessarily mean much. Wiha was in and is going back out in short order. Knipex got clearanced off. So on and so forth.
Nathan
Never seen any of those sk tools or are they great star items that get sold with sk on them
Where are they made
mark
CHYNA I’m sure. They would be advertising it if not id say. And if it wasn’t China/Taiwan etc , then you think they would’ve left the “made in Germany” stamps in the tools for clout + because they likely would’ve just partnered with knipex/nws etc, in the same way we see the greatstar/sk model here & how it’s the same to the future Bosch offering.
My guess is this will be for Asian/EMEA markets primarily, or just Chinese sk stuff with a brand that has more “big box store” recognition (Bosch).
Whole thing seems strange. If you asked me what tools Bosch makes before these announcements I would’ve said drills/drivers/Sanders, and other general powertools. Suddenly they are expansion their offerings & all we have to go off of is they are using an sk design.
Somewhere in Bosch a new upper-manager just took his role & this is his plan to earn his results in haha
DC
Love my Knipex pliers.
mark
Same. I’m so glad the imitators never really hit the target 100% – jaws too soft, jaw designs not as good, fit & finish, etc, comfort handles not as good, etc.
mark
I worked a couple summers in plastic injection molding. The way the dies were made we could swap out the inserts that stamped(molded) various details like text or visual design elements. Sometimes we used 1 die, but would have 3-5 insert sets to be able to change branding (and then we’d change colors for the resin too) for various customers. Same part, same tool, but they swap to a different insert set. I wonder if the same is how drop-forging works. If so, I could see these potentially being made by knipex, but I lack the knowledge here to know. Maybe someone with metal forging experience would know. I’ve dealt mostly with stamping sheet metal in my experience.
Nathan
You can made a fordging dies with inserts but it’s rare. Probably make the tool part and then stamp the logo last.
Autolycus Too
You can tell that the patents have expired on the Knipex Plierwrench and Cobra models – and how good those designs are – by the number of copies that are being made by other brands…
Slappy
The Knipex pliers have served me flawlessly for years,, so it’s quite unlikely I’ll try a knockoff. Maybe I’ll give them a shot if my tried-and-trues ever wear out, but at this rate that seems to be a concern for my kid’s kids.
Ken
One more bit of mystery on the new Bosch pliers is the price. They are listed on Amazon Germany (1600A02W3R), sold by Amazon, for €70. The equivalent Knipex (B01DJWWRMY) are sold by Amazon for €66. Why would anyone pay more money for a (presumably) Chinese knockoff when they could buy the authentic German-made version for less money?