Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Hand Tools). This thread is read-only.
Hey, did a review on my Knipex Pliers Wrench set, let me know what you think:
Knipex makes tools for other brands as well, Reca Tools, Mac Tools, Rems and others. It is good to have the different sizes in different colours from different brands. Knipex is a good brand and widely available.
Yeah, as with any brands, they do OEM for others…just like Lisle or Irwin or Ingersoll Rand or whoever.
SomeGuysGarage wrote:
10 hours ago, SomeGuysGarage said:Yeah, as with any brands, they do OEM for others…just like Lisle or Irwin or Ingersoll Rand or whoever.
NWS has made some pliers and hand tools for Irwin. I don’t look for hand tools that are made in Far East.
I own some of the NWS-made Irwin pliers. Lowe’s sold them for a while before putting them on clearance, since most Americans don’t want to pay @$40 for a good set of pliers. Now they stock similar looking Taiwan or China sourced pliers that cost about half that. I paid as little as $8 for the pliers on clearance, ending up with a number of side cutters, a couple pairs of linemen’s and I think one pistol grip long-nose.
As for Knipex, I own exactly one pliers wrench, which is a favorite. It’s the larger one, which I got during Sears’ last gasps when they offered 40% off on tools on Memorial Day around 2014 or 2015. I think I paid $50 for it and my first Estwing hammer. I’ve been thinking of adding some more Knipex tools to the box, but I have a lot of Channellock pliers that are workhorses. Speaking of rebranding, I own at least two pairs each of the basic Channellock tongue-and-groove pliers (minus the 460 and 480), but my first new pair was actually a Blue-Point 440-sized pair, bought off the Snap-On truck in the ’90s. Just like the now-defunct Western Forge and other American (and obviously German) manufacturers, a lot of companies seem more than willing to maximize profits by making tools for other brands. I don’t completely avoid tools made in the Far East, but those are generally considered disposable until they prove themselves through heavy use. One thing I’ve been collecting for years are the Petersen DeWitt Vise-Grips, generally considered better than later US made models and especially the imported Irwin versions.
Here is another German brand called Rennsteig having similar tools to Knipex.
You can see how similar Knipex and Rems are.
