Pliers

Pliers

Pliers grip, cut, bend and hold, and the jaw shape tells you which job each pair is for. Combination pliers are the general purpose pair, with a flat grip, a serrated pipe grip and a side cutter in one tool. Long nose pliers reach into tight spaces and handle small wire and electrical work. Side cutting pliers and diagonal cutters exist only to cut wire cleanly. Water pump pliers, also called groove joint or slip joint pliers, open wide on an adjustable pivot for pipework and nuts, with capacities up to 44mm. Locking pliers, better known as vise grips or mole grips, clamp onto a workpiece and stay there so both hands are free.

Sizes here run 127mm to 300mm, with 150mm to 200mm the common household choice and 250mm to 300mm for plumbing and site work. Dargan carries the widest range, covering combination, long nose, side cutting, heavy duty side cutting, steel fixers, VDE insulated side cutters, water pump pliers in 7 inch and 10 inch, a 4-in-1 circlip plier set, a 12 inch pipe wrench, tinman shears and bolt cutters in mini, 18 inch and 24 inch. Faithfull adds soft grip water pump and fencing pliers, revolving punch pliers, an automatic wire stripper rated 1 to 3.2mm, tin snips and handyman plier sets. Irwin supplies Vise Grip locking pliers in straight and curved jaw with wire cutter, plus GV8 and GV10 Groovelock water pump pliers. Stanley covers aviation snips in straight, left and right cut and FatMax groove joint pliers, with Bluespot, Tala, Bahco, Milwaukee and Wiha adding carpenter's pincers, snips and VDE sets.