Stanley’s compound action pliers and cutters have been on our radar for about 10 months now. At the time, I crossed my fingers that these would be coming to the USA under Stanley or even Dewalt branding. Now, months later, they’re still only available in Europe. Some dealers, such as at least two 3rd party sellers on Amazon, do import them into the USA, but at higher prices.
Stanley says that the compound action mechanism reduces cutting effort by up to 70%. You also get ergonomic bi-material soft-grip handles, and heat-treated jaws.
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These newish pliers and cutters look to work in a similar manner as Gearwrench’s PivotForce pliers, Crescent’s Pivot Pro offerings, and NWS Fantastico cutters.
Knipex TwinForce and Wiha BiCut cutters work in a slightly different manner. The Knipex has a curved pivot, while the Wiha has a toggleable high leverage mode with hidden internal components.
These pliers are available in a couple of sizes and styles, such as long nose pliers (FMHT0-70812), end nippers (FMHT0-71851), diagonal cutters (FMHT0-70814), side cutters (FMHT0-70813), and a 3pc set that includes long nose pliers, side cutters, and diagonal cutters (FMHT0-72415).
Overall, European prices are decent, and the pliers and cutters look to be reasonably designed. It’s surprising that Stanley hasn’t released any of these tools in the USA thus far. Maybe the market is already a little too saturated with plenty of compound leverage and compound action pliers and cutters, or maybe they are planning for an eventual release. It’s hard to tell.
If you spot these pliers, or even better – try them out, please let us know!
In the meantime, here’s a promo video about tools most of you cannot easily buy anywhere. Makes you want them even more, doesn’t it, or is that just me?
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Farmall 1066
Looks like Stanley copied the compound leverage joint from the Snap-On HL138 pliers I love so much.
Something tells me this may be a good idea, poorly executed.
Mike
The poorly executed portion of what you said was my initial reaction as well. I can’t remember the last time I handled a pair of Stanley branded pliers that I couldn’t bend into a pretzel with hand pressure.
But it's me!
Gripe time, but why does Europe always get such nice stuff before US! I get that many of the brands are based across the pond, but is it because of market saturation, pricing issues (currency rates, tariffs and the like), power difference, litigation, or some other issue I cannot see? I will admit a personal bias to domestically made tools if of superior quality and reasonable price premium. That extends to EU made tools, too.
Seb
I just checked all my usual sellers here in France and only one seems to carry them, Stanley hasnt got them in their website either, but they do appear on stanley Belgium so probably an import for me as well 🙂 Anyway i do own a few stanley tool and they do have some nice references, much better than some shop brands (maybe except Magnusson that is starting to have a very nice reputation, highly unusual for a shop brand)
john
I have had this set for around a year now and really like them. You get huge power from them with very little effort. They would be best described as general trade pliers and snips rather than trade specific.
I gave a pair of side cutters to my electrian mate and he liked them but said they wouldn’t replace his Knipex everyday pair as they were a little awkward to open single handed and the opening of them was a little smaller.
Nice strong and will put up with being used everyday.
Harry
Is Stanley that popular in Europe? I know Europe has cooler cars than you can get here. Is the market not crowded enough here for these compound action pliers already? We can get Irwin, Knipex, Crescent, Gearwrench, and probably a few more. The last Fatmax pliers I saw hailed from Thailand and weren’t impressive.
Stephen
The very first tool I ever bought with my own money as a boy was a Stanley Phillips screwdriver. Purchased from a small family owned ironmongers (hardware store) shop in the north of England in the early seventies. It had Made in England stamped on it and back then I didn’t know that Stanley was an evil American corporation and not a British company at all.
I still have the screwdriver. I also remember buying screws at the same time for a small project I was making. I asked for as many as I could afford with my remaining pocket money, hoping there would be enough for the job. I even saw the man count them out from the loose stock draw. But when I returned home and open my package I discovered that he had given me at least twice the amount I had paid for. Happy days.
Stephen
In my above comment I put “” by the evil American corporation part. The word joke dissappeared. Just wanted to be sure, it was meant as humour, I don’t want to offend anyone!
McGryphon
Well, on this side of the pond, Stanley’s usually only competing with shop brands and a little with Bahco. Most other brands sold here are either significantly more expensive (Facom, Hazet, Gedore, Stahlwille, Knipex, Wera) or too cheap to regularly work with (shop brands). Couple that to stanley’s robust brand image over here and I get why it might be more profitable to introduce tools over here first.
Tyler
I guess what I’m failing to understand is this: we have Irwin, now Stanley with basically the same design and especially on the Irvin’s then same handles….but now Stanley? And not available here yet.
/tangent
I do have a pair of the gear wrench pivot force compound action cutters, and I must say the review here was spot on. The amount of handle travel required to open the mouth big enough to cut most everyday things is beyond the natural range for most hands I would say.
/ end tangent
Anyways, what I’m getting at is since these and the Irwins look an awful lot like then NWS cutters and pliers, why not just go to the source and get the NWS. they’ve got cooler handles anyways and are available stateside via a few specific resellers.
/ end rant
Stuart
Irwin’s new pliers are made by NWS. That’s why they look so similar.
john
Stanley gear is enormous in the UK for certain and Europe as well. It is the biggest brand by a country mile.
Not everything is perfect but they do have a lot of great tools.
In my experience, most tradesmen in Britain often have their core trade specific tools from another brand, Knipex cutter for sparks, Bahco spanners for plumbers etc but have their general tools like saws, hammers, knives etc from Stanley. A lot carry a back up trade specific kit from Stanley too.
Its rare to see a tradesmans bag or tote without a couple of Stanley tools, often the bag is Stanley as they are very popular.
fred
There was a time when Stanley had a manufacturing or sourcing presence in the UK.
This was particularly true for some carpentry and woodworking tools. I have 3 Warrington Pattern (Cross Peen) hammers bearing the Stanley brand that were made in Sheffield in the 1970’s. Some of Stanley utility knife blades are still made in the UK
Stuart
Their FatMax wood chisels were also made in England. Quite good, too.
Seb
I can only agree, their presence in France is good, but in Belgium it s absolutely massive. And every tech i know do have at least some Stanley gear, myself included. Just checked actually and i got a hammer , some screwdrivers, a utility knife, and no less than 3 tapes measures, which is one of their most popular offering, i can hardly go on a job site without seeing some workers carrying those around
ktash
Not only do I want the pliers in the U.S., I want the ad. It assumed people who use their tools want to understand some things about them and explains it without some heavy metal blaring music with in your face action scenes that leave you wondering how the damn thing works. It assumes we are intelligent.
john
That’s great to hear mate. I have done some of these videos for Stanley and they are genuine tradesmen giving the comments. We just get sent a product to test as part of our work and then they just ask us to give our feelings on it.
There is quite a bit of Stanley manufacturing still going on in the UK, blades, plane irons and chisels amongst them. There is also quite a lot of “Made in the UK from Global Components” which is a fair compromise really. And of course there is a fair bit of manufacturing all over the world.
Just to clarify I don’t work for Stanley, nor do they pay me for my testing etc. I run my own joinery and furniture making business and for about the last four years I have been part of an independent panel that Stanley set up to test tools and help with product development.
This is some info about the panel. https://www.stanleytools.co.uk/tooljury/jury
ktash
Well, that explains why it is such a good ad. Thanks for letting us know. In the ads I don’t like (most) it’s an actor who probably doesn’t know or care about the tool, but is just trying to look cool, as he’s been directed to do. What a difference! The expertise shows right through in the ad.
ktash
Looks like they are being sold in the U.S. with Dewalt branding. Here’s a link through Amazon Prime.
http://www.amazon.com/Dewalt-Pliers-Diagonal-Piece-Chrome/dp/B006FAN49S
ktash
After looking more closely, maybe not the same, but they claim the 70% compound action mechanism. Anyone know the difference?
Stuart
Completely different tools. Those Dewalt pliers have aviation snip-like compound action mechanisms. I think it makes the tools bulkier, and possibly causes the handles to spread even wider.
john
They are very odd looking those Dewalt ones. Curious looking tools.
ktash
Thanks, Stuart.
Gary T.
I wanted to try these pliers but the shipping prices the third party sellers on Amazon wanted killed it for me. Hopefully they will be sold here in the near future.
Marcus
These look like a copy of the Kincrome X-force sold in Australia.
https://www.kincrome.com.au/product/K4063/x-force-comb-plier-200mm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZmuyvZsHaM
Stuart
You’re right!
I wonder who makes the pliers for whom.
John
I am living and working in Thailand at the moment and I needed a set of pliers. So Stanley being the only known brand in the store I bought them….3 times the price of the local brand. What junk! Poor quality steel unplated which started rusting within a month. The jaws don’t open enough. I should have bought the other brand!