Fit pliers? I had never heard of them until just recently. Fit is a not-at-all-new German brand of hand tools that makes an interesting style of pliers with 2 handle options. That’s all they seem to make – 1 pliers and 2 handle styles.
Shown above is the “No. 15,” which has 2-component cushiony-looking handle grips.
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This one is the “No. 14,” which sports cellulose acetate hard plastic handles.
You learn something new every day. On the Fit website, they mention that cellulose acetate is sustainable and is made from cotton. Cotton? Interesting.
The pliers have a multi-functional design and looks to be capable of a wide range of cutting and gripping tasks.
They have combination jaws, with a fine-grooved tip section and a coarser-toothed midsection that can grip larger parts such as hex fasteners.
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Or copper tubing.
The shears can cut wire cables.
And metal strapping.
Fit emphasizes that the shears have a scissor-like profile that cleanly cut all kinds of materials – metal sheets, foils, similar flat materials, and round materials such as cables, pipes, and branches.
There are also “nipper” cutting jaws at the rear of the pivot, for cutting wires and nails.
Presumably, one would use the shear jaws for cleaner cuts in a wide range of materials, and the nipper cutting jaws for tougher jobs you wouldn’t want to risk ruining the primary jaws on.
- Can cut flat materials up to 4.5 mm (soft), 1.0 mm (steel)
- Can cut round materials up to 12 mm (soft materials), 2 mm for hardened materials
- Not suitable for cutting spring steel wire
- 8″ long
- Made from drop forged tool steel
Why Should You Buy Fit Pliers?
I reached out to one of my contacts at KC Tool and asked them just this.
Pretend that I’m looking to buy some new general use pliers and am looking at top USA brands, and German brands such as NWS and Knipex.
They suggested that these pliers aren’t at the same level of Knipex or NWS, and that:
The major selling point is that they cost considerably less money than the most comparable Knipex (13-81-8), at around a third of the price. They just make sense if you want a German-made pair of pliers for not a lot of money. I think of it like 60% as good for about 60% less.
So, there you go. While I don’t feel compelled to run out and buy a pair, they do look quite functional. I think I understand the positioning – they’re German-made pliers that aren’t quite at the level of higher-tier brands, but are proportionally more affordable.
Price: $25 – $30 (before coupon)
Buy Now(Hard red handle via KC Tool)
Buy Now(2-component handle via KC Tool)
More Info(via Fit)
Don’t forget about our KC Tool Coupon Code!
Is this something you would try?
They pliers look very functional, and especially well-suited for field work where you might only want to carry one pair of pliers instead of several.
Dax
The second link does not work.
Stuart
Whoops, thanks!
Seems that I mangled all of the buy/info links. Should be fixed now.
Brian
I was talking with Ryan from KC and he honestly hadn’t heard of them until recently, he was impressed by them and the cost, I agree. It remains to be seen if they are good but in my experience the Germans make great tools so I’m sure they’re worth the cost. This is really in a class by itself, I’m curious if the unique design is do to lack of brand knowledge or because it’s a poor design. I can think of times I wish I had a shear but didn’t have one in my bag.
Randy
I feel the same way but I also wanted some Wera SAE/metric socket sets and the 3/8th fine tooth ratchet. So I had an excuse to add the Fit #15 to my order. I rounded it out with a can of Ballistol Multi-Purpose Tool Oil. I’m going to keep the Fit 15 in my emergency tool bag in the truck since it is capable of doing a few different jobs. I also made sure to use the KC Tool “Tool Guyd” 10% discount.
fred
They look a wee bit but still different from a pair of Bahco pliers.
https://aboloxtools.com/cutting-tools/cutting-pliers/bahco-2628g-180-side-cut-combination-plier-ergo-7-inch/
fred
I should have said – no shears – only wire cutters on the Bahco.
I also seem to get 404 errors when I click on the KC tool links
Graham Howe
The kctoolco links have an extra forward slash before the utm_source parameter.
Thom
Try this link for the red handles: https://www.kctoolco.com/fit-shear-pliers-no-14/?utm_source=ToolGuyd&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=fit-pliers-14
thom
I just bought a pair with the red handles.. thanks Stuart for feeding my tool addiction!
Noah
I really want these but in long nose.
Hans
The *FIT* pliers are made by ELORA, a german maker of high quality tools. They have made pliers of this type for many years.
Elora tools are sold in USA by Bloomer Tools, a very good company,
T
I was always under the impression that Dürholt-Zangen of Remscheid was the original manufacturer, Elora being rebranded.
fred
I spotted this on the Internet:
The Fit shear pliers, patented in 1950
“The inventor of our Fit shear pliers, Otto Dürholt, had them patented under No. 806 502 on 26 April 1950. Since then, more than 13 million of shear pliers have been sold. You too can trust a German quality tool” – certified engineer Arndt R. Dürholt, CEO of Dürholt-Zangen GmbH
Seems like the design has been around for a long time. Who knew!
Hans
T!
I was wrong stating that the FIT pliers were made by Elora. They are probably just rebranded by etching on the Elora name.
Go to Amazon and search for Elora Tools. There you will find an
Elora Universal FIT Scissors Tong, 493BI with 2K handles by Elora selling for 152.63 + 4,87 shipping! ( Can that price really be correct?)
Anyway, Elora makes some very good tools, specially sockets.
fred
Caveat emptor!
There are lots of items on Amazon where a third party merchant asks ridiculous prices – maybe by mistake or possibly hoping that the often quoted P.T. Barnum was correct when he said that a sucker is born every minute.
Here’s a $31,000 tape measure:
https://www.amazon.com/100-Engineers-Chrome-Clad-Tape/dp/B00HDT2R2U/ref=sr_1_5?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1495298893&sr=1-5&keywords=wrench
glenn
I see the same thing frequently on ebay. Ludicrously priced items with the same product either side of them at normal prices.
And what’s worse, is they occasionally sell!
Stuart
Those are usually mistakes.
glenn
Really Stuart? Not as extreme as Fred’s but more than double our RRP and it still sold,.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_nkw=ryobi+18v+mitre+saw&_sop=16
Toolfreak
It’s been mentioned on here before, but when ebay/amazon items are at those kinds of prices, it’s usually because the seller has run out of stock but it’s less hassle for them to just raise the price and keep the listing active than it would be to completely cancel and make a new one later on. Blame ebay/amazon for not giving sellers an option to hide listings or deactiveate/reactivate them easily without financial/placement penalty.
fred
What I find a bit more disturbing about our “brave new world” of internet shopping is the scammers that seem to be able to set up shop on places like Amazon. Their ploy is often to offer very attractive prices that may be to hard to believe. My personal thing is not to buy from any Amazon third party sellers where there is no track record – no customer ratings etc. The words “just launched” – for me anyway is a caution flag – unless the merchant is a well known entity. While Amazon stands behind their transactions – it is just too much of a hassle to order something – never receive it and have to wait on a refund.
Hang Fire
Sometimes crazy-high (or low) prices are mistakes. Often they are placeholders for lazy small vendors with out-of-stock conditions. As in:
“If someone is crazy enough to pay this much, I’ll find one SOMEWHERE and have it drop-shipped to them FedEx. In the meantime I’ll restock next month and then lower the price again. That’ll save me the effort of handling it properly, because if I lower my inventory to zero, my listing will vanish, my seller rank will go down because I have less items listed, and/or another supplier may usurp it. Unless, of course, I forget or go out of business, and then it’ll haunt Amazon for years.”
Glen
Hans,
Thank you for the compliment!
fred
Elora sells some different looking Hex Sockets with what look like a locator pin ant the end:
http://www.bloomertool.com/images/3210INZ.JPG
Glen
Hi Fred,
Those hex head sockets do have a locator pin, they are designed for Ribe-IC
cap screws. The Ribe-IC cap screws are somewhat of tamper proof cap screws.
You can try using regular hex keys on them but they will keep popping out. The hex portion of the cap screw is shallower, and the pin helps to keep the driver from slipping.
Toolfreak
These do seem like they’d be pretty useful as a single pair of pliers to carry or keep handy, especially with the variety of gripping surfaces and the longer shear cutters that can do thin strapping plus the wire/cable cutters.
Only thing is the ends seem to be duckbills with a gripping surface. This might be good for some things, but I’ve found that having a shorter nose is better when using the curved larger teeth of slip-joint type pliers.
I guess these are made as a one-size-fits all deal, but having say, three options, with long nose, these as medium/duckbill nose, then a shorter nose closer to a slip-joint plier style would let people pick what type they need/use most.
Still, nice to have more options for german-made pliers.
Evan
I own the No. 14 model. The design of the pliers is beautiful, but the fit and finish is disappointing for a German made tool. The surfaces the shear and pivot are not ground, and the edges of the shear are rough and poorly aligned. Breaking them in takes forever due to interference from the shear edges. I was able to improve mine using sharpening stones, but honestly the pliers aren’t well enough made to justify the effort. They’re cheap and durable, and if you need a pair of pliers for the kitchen drawer or glove box they’re worth adding to you next order from KC Tool, but they don’t have a place in my toolbag. If the same design was manufactured by Knipex, they’d be my go to pliers.