cable cutters

So it appears in a moment of middle aged man brain fog i have misplaced my trusty park cable cutters, or someone (could be me) has tidied them away to a special safe place where they will be easy to find again!!

Whichever I can’t find them for love nor money!

So do i get some new Park ones (40 quid now!) or are there better or cheaper alternatives? What do you lot recommend? With the thought in mind that when i do buy new ones the old ones will appear!

£30 from here for Park Tools ones. Cheaper “bike” ones are OK unless you’re using them everyday.

But life is too short for shit tools.

https://sdjsports.com/products/park-tool-cn-10-professional-cable-cutters?variant=34250939498540&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItqy95oychgMVfZJQBh3YHwQSEAQYDCABEgIZkvD_BwE

My trusty old Shimano cutters are doing fine.
I misplaced them a while ago and bought a set of Parks.
I think the Parks are a bit lacking,so was pleased when I found the Shimnaos.

(Shimano TL-CT120)

I use a pair of red handled side cutters I got from Toolstation or Screwfix, cost about a tenner. Work fine on bike cables

I’ve had some bbb cutters for 15 years.

They are still working perfectly. I’m just cutting cables for me, I’m not a shop. I assume that’s why the park one are double the price .

These draper ones look the same as mine

Bike cable cutters are wire rope cutters with bike tax added.

I got some of those Park Tool ones from SDJ a few weeks back. I figured it wasn’t much more than some cheaper options for the real deal.

I’ve got some Draper Expert cutters. Had them for years and cut really nicely. Seem to be about £12. Widely available, eBay, Amazon, DIY shops.

Nice one STW people

Bought the draper ones! Hopefully my Park ones will show up the first time I use the new ones.

I have the draper ones, they work just fine, had them for years. Only used for cutting bike cables rather than general DIY type cutting so they’re kept as sharp as poss

Cyclo

The cheap ones all look the same as the Draper one above. and tbh I used the cheapos for a few years and found the metal not to be as hard as something like that should be.

Felco C7 if you want something that will outlast you.

Anything apart from the Park ones which are probably the most terrible thing that they make.  I think the Draper ones that you have bought now are likely to be much better

The Park ones as mentioned above are absolutely awful. They’re OK when brand new, but they blunt in no time at all. The ferrule crimper is good and ironically they’re pretty good spoke cutters. Park could sell some people a jobby if they just painted it blue first.

Cheap wire rope cutters as above aren’t just a third the price, they’re much better. I have a set I’ve been using for years and they’re still better than brand new parks on their first ever cable. You can get them branded as Pedros if it has to be a “bike tool” but it’s the same tool just more expensive.

I have https://www.screwfix.com/p/irwin-vise-grip-cable-cutters-8/61667

Clean cut every time.

For hoses I use a JG Speedfit pipe cutter, again clean every time.

go Knipex every time

https://www.screwfix.com/p/knipex-wire-rope-cutters-6-3-160mm-/112hl

Bargain on SportPursuit – this type cut outer much cleaner than the Park ones

https://www.sportpursuit.com/catalog/product/view/id/3723746

I can confirm the draper expert ones i bought which are identical to the sports pursuit ones above but blue are very good and cut cleanly.  My 20yr old Park ones haven’t appeared so will be using these going forward!

thanks again for all the input

Knipex are my go to cable cutters and pliers. I think Park Tools for the most part are junk with a few exceptions in the range.

+1 Felco, if you want the best. Had mine 30 years…

Had to rebuild my park tools cutters from new with a proper bolt, wavey washer and nylock. The originals were stripped with the washer crushed. Consequently they wouldn’t cut anything. In fact you couldn’t actually open them! I would have sent them back but needed them to work for a build. Nothing wrong with them other than they’d been assembled by a gorilla and quality checked by a JLR employee. I’ve not bought a single Park Tools product since.

Shimano TL-CT10. ok, you can’t get them new any more, but mine are over twenty years old and I expect them to outlive me.

Another vote for Knipex.

Looked at the Felco but ££££ and couldn’t justify for the 1 or 2 cables I may cut a year.