What do you call electrician's pliers? [Poll]

[dwasifar]

Just curious. There are a lot of variant names for this tool.

 

[Robinson1]

Been around construction all my life and ran my own company for 15 years. I’ve never heard them called anything but lineman’s pliers. Now cutting pliers on the other hand I’ve heard them called: dikes, side cutters, flush cutters, wire cutters. I usually call them side cutters. I’m not an electrician though and dikes seems to be an electrical term.

 

[msharley]

Klein's!

 

[AA/FC]

Klein's!

Even if they're made by Channellock, Ideal, Proto, Milwaukee, Irwin, etc.... you would still call them Klein's?

Hey, around here everyone calls a skid loader a "Bobcat" regardless of who actually makes it. lol

 

[KnurledNut]

"9's".
Occasionally "hammer".

 

[lardy1]

Combination pliers. When I was younger we called them sidecuts around home.

 

[dutchgray]

Combination pliers.

 

[decableguy2000]

9's. I've been doing telecomm work for 25+ years and never heard them called by their given name.

 

[redwrench60]

Klein’s or Lineman's

 

[toolenthusiast]

Submitted without comment (because I don’t want to get into a linguistic debate today ).

 

[matthew]

Submitted without comment (because I don’t want to get into a linguistic debate today

Apostophization, then?

(Feel free to comment on my diction, it is either terrible, brillliant, or more likely a rare blend of both, lol)

 

[seber]

Electrician's pliers.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Lineman's pliers. If someone said "9's" I'd know what they needed even though I wouldn't call them that.

Calling them "Kleins" is stupid because the Klein pliers are junk compared to other brands.

 

[WAID]

Now cutting pliers on the other hand I’ve heard them called: dikes, side cutters, flush cutters, wire cutters. I usually call them side cutters. I’m not an electrician though and dikes seems to be an electrical term.

Dad was an electrician and I always recall him calling them wire cutters. For whatever reason I got that wrong in a test in shop class in school because the woodshop teacher refused to accept that term in his tool ID test. I figured I'd trust an electrician over a shop teacher though.

 

[jdl25]

Calling them "Kleins" is stupid because the Klein pliers are junk compared to other brands.

I'll take the bait. What would you prefer? I always thought Klein pliers were great.

 

[bbrins]

I call them either Kleins or lineman's pliers, depends on the situation.

 

[Sumboodie]

Dikes

 

[dnschmidt]

Sidecutters.

 

[dwasifar]

Dikes

These are dikes, no?

 

[dwasifar]

I added some of the other suggestions to the poll.

 

[housewolf]

Even if they're made by Channellock, Ideal, Proto, Milwaukee, Irwin, etc.... you would still call them Klein's?

Hey, around here everyone calls a skid loader a "Bobcat" regardless of who actually makes it. lol

Yes, and yes.
And this is a coke machine.

 

[toolenthusiast]

Dikes

 

[GeoBruin]

And this is a box of Kleenex.

 

[Wamsutta]

KLEIN is calling them "Linemans Pliers." I think they're too embarrassed to put the apostrophe in before the S like they're supposed to.

Can you imagine a big company like Klein being afraid to be punctually correct? Even my spell check says they're supposed to be Lineman's.

 

[Jim greengo]

Just curious. There are a lot of variant names for this tool.

Well it depends on which kind of pliers you're referring to I'd say.
I've got a truck full of differant pliers.

 

[Wamsutta]

What really gets me are the people who spell Klein Klien. Some seriously dumb dodos out there.

 

[DAustin]

Them damn pliers, right over there.

 

[Sumboodie]

Linesperson pliers

 

[LOW1]

Thick *** Pliers

 

[dwasifar]

KLEIN is calling them "Linemans Pliers." I think they're too embarrassed to put the apostrophe in before the S like they're supposed to.

Can you imagine a big company like Klein being afraid to be punctually correct? Even my spell check says they're supposed to be Lineman's.

It looks like you found the only place they spell it that way. Even in the text directly below it, it says "Lineman's":





I'm going to go with Lineman's, because that seems to be how Klein mostly spells it, and so do Knipex, Irwin, Milwaukee, and Craftsman:









Stanley, however, has gotta go their own way:



Pretty funny considering Stanley owns Craftsman and Irwin, you'd think they'd spell it the same. But no.

And of course Channellock has to throw me a curve by thinking of a variant I hadn't considered when making the poll:



"Linemen's pliers" sort of implies that two or more linemen have to share pliers. Imagine if your employer was that cheap.

 

[dwasifar]

What really gets me are the people who spell Klein Klien. Some seriously dumb dodos out there.

Having learned German in high school, and what with Klein being a German name, I would never think to spell it Klien. German speakers would pronounce that "clean."

By the same token, Hazet to me is automatically HOT-zet (sound the z as in Mozart), not Has-it.

But don't ask me to pronounce Knipex. I would rather just buy another brand than try to ask for a pair of them.

 

[Wamsutta]

Having learned German in high school, and what with Klein being a German name, I would never think to spell it Klien. German speakers would pronounce that "clean."

By the same token, Hazet to me is automatically HOT-zet (sound the z as in Mozart), not Has-it.

But don't ask me to pronounce Knipex. I would rather just buy another brand than try to ask for a pair of them.

The way I say it, the K is silent and I pronounce the word with a long "I" like in word night. NYPEX.

 

[dwasifar]

The way I say it, the K is silent and I pronounce the word with a long "I" like in word night. NYPEX.

Ha, when I first read that, before I got to the last word, I was following along and thinking, "why would he pronounce Klein with a silent K?"

Anyway, apparently we are both wrong:

 

[CoogarXR]

And this is a box of Kleenex.

Wouldn't it be Klienex?

 

[dwasifar]

Wouldn't it be Klienex?

Veering off topic now, but learning German influenced my pronunciation of English ei and ie words. Consequently I say eye-ther and nye-ther rather than ee-ther and nee-ther, for example. It wasn't conscious; I think my brain was just trying to reconcile the languages.

 

[joel63]

It looks like you found the only place they spell it that way. Even in the text directly below it, it says "Lineman's":





I'm going to go with Lineman's, because that seems to be how Klein mostly spells it, and so do Knipex, Irwin, Milwaukee, and Craftsman:









Stanley, however, has gotta go their own way:



Pretty funny considering Stanley owns Craftsman and Irwin, you'd think they'd spell it the same. But no.

And of course Channellock has to throw me a curve by thinking of a variant I hadn't considered when making the poll:



"Linemen's pliers" sort of implies that two or more linemen have to share pliers. Imagine if your employer was that cheap.

Can I change my vote?

 

[toolenthusiast]

The way I say it, the K is silent and I pronounce the word with a long "I" like in word night. NYPEX.

The way you say it is super-duper wrong

 

[dwasifar]

Can I change my vote?

In fact, you can.

 

[Skyman]

Reconciling the English language with itself can provide an endless source of amusement.

 

[joel63]

In fact, you can.

Because I’m a little confused about how the meaning of possession applies here.