I’ve had and used cheap pliers all my life. For thinner pliers like needle nose etc, I find the heat treat on cheap pliers to be too soft. The handles should not feel springy.
In use, if these are just tweezers for extracting dropped hardware, cheapies are fine. When used in anger, they can be infuriating. Some flex so bad, the harder you squeeze, stuff just “watermelon seeds” out. For automotive, grabbing and twisting is pretty common for me. And the cheapies‘ jaws start to slip past one another infuriatingly.
We need to separate in this thread, comments about pliers purchased and never used because you legit didn’t like the style, from purchases of **** pliers that didn’t work well so you never used them again.
Years ago, Snap on didn’t offer long reach pliers. They sold the blue handled Bluepoint branded ones. At that time, HF offered a similar even crappier set. To be fair, both the Bluepoint and hf versions were cheese. Since then, I think there better pliers have been made. I’ve seen a lot of German models. It would be good to hear from those of you who have them talk about them. For my part, I have a drawer full of Knipex pliers, many of which I don’t like, feel are too spongey, jaws slip off stuff etc.
Last I was in the store, I messed around with the icon long noses. They felt no better than the blue points from years ago. Just better grips and maybe better fit and finish. This makes them ok, but not “must haves” unless they are just big tweezers. If they are big tweezers, you can get them for less money on Amazon.
So I vote NO to pistol grip pliers only because I’ve never seen a set I thought would be high enough quality or would provide something I don’t already have.
This being GJ I offer this alternative:
Knipex 8" Assembly Pliers with half-round jaws, knurled grip surfaces, oil-hardened special tool steel, 34mm jaw length, and plastic-coated handles. Shop at KC Tool.
kctool.com
These guys are pretty legit. They are different from everything Snap on makes. I like the talon grip needle nose, but these are different. The jaws are short and powerful, while the handles are long. I have these in both round nose and duck bill. These are not snap on quality, far from it. But they are very helpful, good enough quality. I am not a fan of Knipex everything, but I like these a lot.
