After forgetting even to take my basic pair of snips away on holiday and needed to cut cables with whatever I had to hand, I feel in the need of investing in a decent pair of cable cutters.

Parktools £18 feels a bit steep, but then perhaps I’m just being too menny pinching.

Do any of the DIY chain ownbrand ones come out well in actual use, bear in mind this isn’t for a commercial workshop etc so cable cutting might only take place 6-10 times a year (though I’d like to do it well / right on each of those times)

I bought the Parktools one years ago and it’s still going strong so good value over a lifetime of use?

Yep, as above. Park are bombproof. For normal home use, they’ll last pretty much forever. Even in a busy workshop they can last a number of years (which is a lot!).

Got a shimano set and a generic set of cable cutter from Screw fix (similar but a smaller size to these), both are very good at cutting cables.

I have the Park ones but they never did the job for me, almost like the cutting edges weren’t lined up properly.

I’ve since bought these from PX, I’m sure they’re rebranded from someone else but they’re awesome and merely £8.

I’ve got some X Tools branded cable cutters that look very similar to those Planet X ones. Seem to be doing a fine job thus far.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/x-tools-pro-cable-cutter/rp-prod10187

although they seem to have doubled in price recently the X-tools cutters have been fine for me. I mean how many cables do you need to cut

Years of using a Park one has provided no reasons to go elsewhere. Otherwise as a mechanic I used Shimano and a (beautiful) Campag tool, both of which worked more than adequately.