Mushy front teeth on USA Wilde locking pliers

[pendragon1998]

I recently bought a couple of NOS Wilde long nose locking pliers (made in the USA by the same factory as vise grips used to be made in, I believe). The front teeth were cut in a grid shape, while the rear teeth were cut in a parallel manner. I've had the grips for about a month, and I've used them mostly pulling springs on a rear brake job.

My question is: the 'grid' teeth have mushed down pretty substantially since I bought them. Is this a problem with the tool, or is it a problem with me, the user? Can I restore the teeth in the tip of the jaws? I'm happy enough with the pliers, but I see the day coming when they start to slip because the front teeth are too smooth.

 

[TwoInch]

contact wilde, and see what they offer as an explanation, and what they do to remedy it. might be that they are soft by nature, or maybe its just a QC slip

 

[jsackin]

Just so you know, Wilde never actually made a locking pliers. These are most likely rebranded vise-grip.

Jori
HJE

 

[pendragon1998]

I emailed them about it, I'll post anything they send back. Pretty sure they no longer manufacture these, which is a pity, because despite the mushy teeth, I rather like them.

 

[pendragon1998]

I got a polite email back from their sales coordinator. He told me the background story of Wilde visegrips and offered to see what he could do about the pliers (still waiting to hear back about that part).

There is a bit of unique story behind these. We used to make locking pliers back in the 70's -80's, however, we could not keep up with VISE-GRIP.

We discontinued making in house the pliers you have are in fact VISE-GRIP pliers from DeWitt NE and they were private branded for us. We were one of the last companies they private branded for.

When VISE-Grip went overseas about 5-6 years ago we discontinued the line.

 

[ganymede]

All the Vise Grips I bought in early 2000's were the same way.
Also isn't spring steel kinda hard, close to music wire in hardness ?

 

[pendragon1998]

I was thinking the same thing about the springs. Think that's all it was, just gripping hardened metal pieces very tightly?

 

[pendragon1998]

I didn't end up getting an offer of a replacement pair. The person I talked to suggested that perhaps I'd gotten a bad pair, since these were the 'good' made in USA ones. I'm really only noticing a problem with the front teeth, which were cross-hatched instead of going straight across, so I suspect it was a mechanical weakness inherent to that pattern. Maybe I'll find me a V-profile file and try and sharpen them up a bit.