Which Knipex inner gear cable cutters do I want?

My park tools one are shite, never get a clean cut without fraying the bloody cable, so frustrating!

Have never been impressed with them and they are bulky and not easy to get into small spaces

Just want a clean cut pair of cable cutters and believe the Knipex are about as good as you can get without a stupid price tag

But which model? Any links to the ones I need?

THESE

Agree with bbs, the double cutting edge for inner and outers and the lower part works great for squashing the cable tidy on the end of the inner cable, they always cut cleaner than the other style.
But much cheaper alternative brands are available.

Similar experience with Park, but Topeak cable cutters have been much better. Lighter, smaller, actually cut properly. Or Knipex…

Have you tried shimano ones. Mine are absolutely great.

Jez

I have some non Knipex ones identical to the ones above, identical but shit.
Ie stick to the Knipex.

Have you tried shimano ones. Mine are absolutely great.

My Shimano ones are great too but they must be about 25 years old and I don’t know whether the current ones are the same/as good.

Cheers BBS shall get some ordered they are only as dear as the crap park tools ones

I must have spent around the price of the park one in new cables due to fraying the cables upon cutting and add the frustration of having to do them again

I’m using Pedros cable cutters that I’ve no complaints about. Cuts cable & housing cleanly & easily without fraying or distortion. This thread prompted me to read the reviews on them. No complaints about the quality of the cut. The main criticism is how far the handles require to be opened to get the cable in & that there’s no crimp for the ferrules. Some people will complain about anything if you give them half a chance. Good tool for what I paid. The cutters from Birzman, Draper, Lifeline etc all look nigh on identical. £12.99 for the Decathlon cutters.

The Park ones are shite tbf. Good for cutting spokes and crimping the wee end nipple things but it’s like they just never even tested them on cables.

I just use a cheap set of wire rope cutters, they’re fantastic tbh. And literally the same thing as you can buy from Pedros for twice as much.

Those knipex cutters look remarkably like the Irwin ones Screwfix do just twice the price Happy to be proved wrong though.

I had to replace my old Park ones (no problems with them… just lost the buggers). Bought Evans own FWE ones and they work just fine

I’ve got Pedro’s ones that we got as part of our first chalet tool kit in 2005. They still work fine considering the sheer volume of use they’ve had, number of times they’ve been dropped etc.
Sometimes I’ll get a slight single strand unravel at the end of the inner but I can prevent this by holding the end that I want to keep, not the end I’m chopping off. A single strand unravel can almost always be twisted back on and on once it’s in the Outers it doesn’t matter.
I assume you’re threading an uncut cable and chopping/crimping it as a last job?

A bit late now, I guess, but wire rope cutters are what you need, even the description of those in the link says they aren’t suitable for cutting steel wire.

I’m glad it isn’t just me that found the Park ones completely useless. The Knipex 95 61 190 by comparison are in a completely different league

Hmmm so are the ones bigblackshed linked not the ones? Luckily not ordered yet

Will be used for stainless steel inners

I’ve got Park cutters that I had as a birthday present but always grab my 30 year old Shimano ones which still cut as good as the day I bought them.

Another one with poor experience of the Park cutters. I picked up these from PX, they do the job well. https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TOOOCC/on-one-cable-cutter

Hmmm interesting lunge

So they cut cleanly and no frayed ends, very very disappointed with the park tools, awkward to use and bloody useless at cutting clean both inners or outers

Draper 57768 Expert Steel Wire Rope Cutter, 190mm https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0001K9WXA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_4PQ2QH26V284FRNK2D38

Using a set of Felco C7 in work, and they seem to have outlasted all the other similar looking jobbies (though at a price). Draper Expert wire rope cutters have probably been the best of the rest, and a lot cheaper too, Pedro’s looked identical, bar the colour, but were biunt within a few months.Hope this helps.

Brill cheers folks I’ll order some of them draper expert ones then they can’t be much worse than the park so worth a punt!

my Felco ones are 20 years old…

+100 for the Felcos. Mine just simply formidable…

Felco c16e

+100 for the Felcos. Mine just simply formidable…

Felco c16e

Jeez :-0

Shimano cable cutters without a doubt

+1 for the Draper 57768

AXS ;)

looks to me like the on-ones, drapers and pedros ones are all the same.
choose whichever color matches your bike I suppose :)

I got these Knipex wire rope cutters:

SOlid, work well and will probably outlive me.

Another happy Pedros owner here.

No idea how old they are now tbh.

I used to work in a large bike factory building cheap n cheerful bikes, those traditional style knipex always stopped cutting clean after a while and I had to go around the floor looking for a pair that cut nice, I have a pair similar to those that bigblackshed showed but mine were only about a tenner from either toolstation or screwfix, they’re a least 10yo and still cut perfect, I also have 8″ branded version but the 6″ are more suited to gear cables and I have the classic knipex I swiped from the factory on my last day but I never use them for the bike.

Interesting, I use the Park ones at work and have used them every day for 4 years doing around 800 cuts a month and they’ve been fine. They are just starting to wear though with the odd frayed cut so will get a replacement soon. I’ve no idea how a home mechanic could wear them out unless you are cutting spokes or something.

I generally dislike Park stuff so am going to try the Knipex ones above. Will hopefully do me until I retire.

Not sure tbh they’ve been crap from day one

Now I know this sounds daft even writing this but I’m left handed, I don’t know whether that has some effect on the way I hold or cut it, not sure and sounds ridiculous but given I’ve hardly ever been able to get a clean cut on them from the off I really have no idea how else I could be doing it wrong

Anyways I’ve been putting off buying some replacements for a while I’ve bought the draper ones as I have a local toolstation I can collect for them so for 15 quid cheaper than any bike specific ones and if these don’t work I’ll go full on knipex ones as above

My Park ones have worked for the last 10+ years.