Over at Amazon, they’re running a beginning of the year sale on select Irwin hand tools, clamps, and power tool accessories.
The surprising thing is that many of the new premium pliers and cutters that are made in Germany are eligible for the discount.
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The discount appears in your cart, and is valid thru Jan 31st, 2015.
Irwin sent over two of the style of pliers for us to test out – their PowerSlot cutters, which are essentially NWS Fantastico cutters with Irwin’s blue/yellow/grey grips, and their ergonomically curved long-nose pliers.
Here are quick reviews of each:
If there’s one NWS or Irwin premium plier or cutter that you try, it should be a PowerCut diagonal cutter, either their 7-inch or 8-inch styles. I have found these to be superior to all other brands’ high leverage and fancy-pivot diagonal cutters.
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I have been using NWS pliers for a long time now, and am pretty happy to see that Irwin partnered with them to produce their new premium pliers and cutters. To me, this means greater stateside availability and easier warranty replacements if needed.
There’s a wider range of Irwin pliers included in the discount promo besides these two, so you might want to go through the list carefully.
Deal Info(via Amazon)
mason
Just purchased the 8″. Very excited to try these bad boys out. Thank you!
firefly
Thanks Stuart!
I ordered the 8″ cutter and the angled pliers. I shop around and the price is decent with the extra 20%. Personally I wouldn’t never get it with the normal pricing. Seem to be much higher than the NWS for some reasons.
firefly
I got them in the mail today. I like the hard-to-open plastic packaging that I open with my wingman :). The reason I like the plastic shell is that it’s ensure that I am getting a brand new item. It also protect the tool better. Amazon packaging has been lacking as of late, they often leaving multiple bare items banging against each other.
The Long Nose Ergonomic Multi Plier is nice, I like the spring loaded and the pistol grip. One thing those the jaw doesn’t close completely, I am not sure if this is be design or not because one of the other review on Amazon pointed out the same thing. The gap doesn’t seem to compromise the pliers functionality and the jaw seem to be in perfect parallel with the paper thin gap. I wonder if the pair that you got also does the same thing.
The 8″ cutter is nice and it was almost effortless to use. I like the ergonomic grip.
Stuart
Both my NWS ergo-grip pliers and my Irwin sample have a very small gap in the jaws where they just almost touch. I think this is by design so that the cutter blades touch when the pliers are closed. The gap isn’t even paper-thin, but maybe cellophane-thin. It could also be a result of the aligned parallel jaw grooves.
I also just noticed a small defect in one of the Irwin’s cutter blades. Looks like someone used the cutters on very thin and ultra-hard material. Shouldn’t affect usability at all though.
Mike
If you look in Klein’s catalog (printed or PDF) there’s an interesting section that explains where the different types of pliers close first and why. In cases like this you are right, the cutting edges meet first so that they will still meet as they wear down. The cutting edge on new pliers also comes together first nearest the pivot. They’ll become parallel as they break in.
Personally, I would love to have a ‘conversation’ with whomever invented those sealed clamshell packages. Next to utility knives I have more scars from them than any other single source.
firefly
Thanks Stuart and Mike. I had a feeling that it was by design too. I just wanted to confirm my suspicion.
@Mike, that’s a very good explanation. It’s the little details like that tell us that we got a tool that is well engineered.
rx9
I got the 8″ powerslot cutters; and while they aren’t as hardcore as my knipex cobolt cutters, they seem to be the best diagonal cutters available. They are more powerful and better built than my double leverage kobalt diagonal cutters.
rx9
If you can’t afford knipex, nws or irwin-nws, though, go with Crescent or Kobalt brand double action diagonal cutters. My kobalt cutters clipped through about 400 hog rings ( upholstery).
Jerry
I wonder which type kobalt pliers you were using. Item number or photo is preferred. Thanks.