cutting hard wire

[permadirt]

whats a good old hand tool for cutting piano wire, spring steel wire etc. i mean what did they use before knipex, high leverage and such back in the day. just curious. something small enough to fit into a tight space but still cut a .125 hard wire. i got plenty of dented up side cutters and dikes because thats all i had on hand. now i got knipex mini bolt cutters- its the best tool i bought lately. they work.

 

[mrjaw14]

I have the Knipex Mini bolt cutters and they are fantastic. I guess prior to that would have been regular bolt cutters or linemans depending on how thick it was. I think Klein as the blue handle journeyman series that's specially hardened for cutting smaller steel wire.

 

[matt_i]

This is a fantastic app for a cordless angle grinder with thin cutoff wheel, makes very fast work of this. Can substitute zizz wheel on a die grinder or even a dremel. Don't forget eye protection.....

 

[timgunn1962]

Felco C7. Nothing more to say.

 

[BarryWells]

Years ago they'd do a little "scribing" with a screw slot file and snap them off. 1/8 hard wire is hard stuff for a plier that will fit in a small space.
Pull out your best set and try cutting an 1/8 drill bit. Score it a little and it'll snap right off.

 

[seber]

This old ****** has cut a ton of piano wire up to .125 dia. It was retired from the factory floor when the operators complained too much about wrist fatigue. It is a bypass cutter with teeth used to keep the wire from popping out sideways. I still keep it on the boat to cut fish hooks in the event of a mishap. Definitely old school.

 

[techieman33]

Felco C7. Nothing more to say.

Those are not designed to cut solid wire, it will tear them up. They're designed to cut aircraft cable.

 

[anetode]

I don't know how tight a space you're talking about, but the Midwest MWT-6300 and Channellock 910 are specialized pairs of snips with M2 inserts rated for hard wire. Gedore has a version with HSS inserts, but they're overpriced in the US.

 

[Danglerb]

Cutting down a replacement spring for recliner turned a couple of my otherwise decent cutters into hillbillies.

 

[matt_i]

Those are not designed to cut solid wire, it will tear them up. They're designed to cut aircraft cable.

So a guy at the plant grabs the Felco aircraft cable cutters out of the shop to cut a tiny padlock off some other guy's locker due to lost key when nobody was around to stop him. I ended up first using the metabo to solve the problem and then ordering a new set of jaws for the Felco, a giant metal chip was removed from each cutting edge rendering it unuseable for the wire rope.

 

[HenryAZ]

Fence pliers will cut heavy gauge steel barbed wire.

 

[mcbane]

Starrett makes really nice carbide cutters. Very spend unless you have a huge amount of cutting to do.

https://www.vandaking.com/s-225a-starrett-wire-cutters.html


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[Downwindtracker 2]

Barb wire is on the soft side for wire. We used Knipex in the wire mill. Their jaws chipped too.

 

[Lassen Forge]

We used mini bolt cutters for 7 ga fence tension wire.

 

[davethorik]

As others say, Knipex mini bolt cutter unless you don't have the clearance (I have the original 8" 71 01 200), I see they make a 10" now too. In Knipex I also have a pair of 10" side cutters 74 01 250 and 8" end nippers 68 01 200. I'm happy with all of them, they cut hard material well.

I also have some Klein 2000 series that handle hard stuff too. 2 pair of ironworker-style pliers D2000-7CST and D2000-9ST, and angled 8" side cutters D2000-48.