Schweinhund

Dug for and found, I hate these things.
Used twice Free to any poster in this thread.
They are the Muzata branded ones.

etherhuffer 

Well, the cutters jumped out of box and made a run for it, but I grabbed them right quick and scolded them for hiding from me for two days. All is well.
Now, where the hell did I put my Dremel tool? Good lord, I have been hit by a bolt of senility or something......At least my grinder can't disappear so easily.

FBinNY 

The Pedro's was copy a made in Taiwan copy. It wasn't specially made for Pedros, the maker private branded it for various clients, but only Pedro's in the bike world.

I sold plenty of these BITD, along with a generic version of the same, identical but for red handles.

aggiegrads

Full disclosure - I have too many cable cutters: Knipex (2 pair), Felco, and Pedro’s. The Knipex are model 91 65 190, the Pedros are the Felco knock-offs, and my Felco C7s are over 40 years old that my mother passed down to me. She used them to cut steel wire stems from thousands of artificial flowers. All of them are excellent for cutting brake wire, derailleur wire, and derailleur housing. Where I notice the difference is in cutting brake housing. The Pedro’s are most likely to cause the dreaded “fold-over” of the coiled housing. The Felco and Knipex are less likely to have that happen, but it still does more often than I would like. The Felco and Knipex cutters are much better than the Pedro’s at making a “clean-up” cut after the coil folds over.

My favorite pair is the Knipex because it is one less tool I have to pick up and put away due to the built-in cable tip crimper. It makes a perfect crimp in both derailleur and brake end tips. Only animals crimp cable tips with diagonal cutters, which leaves annoying sharp edges. The hex crimper for brass brake housing ferrules also works well, but I rarely see round ferrules anymore - most have small flutes which negates the need for crimping.

in Schweinhund ‘s defense, I also have three different pairs of the Knipex Cobolt compact bolt cutters, and they are some of my favorite tools. They really are amazing. I have cut spokes, fencing, nails, screws, steel pallet banding, and they will still make a perfect notched cut at the edge of a single sheet of paper. I tried them for cutting brake cable and housing this morning, and they really do work. I cut about 20 pieces of cable and housing, and even short pieces of cable (less than an inch long) cut clean and did not fray. What really surprised me is that they are less likely to cause the fold-over in brake housing described above than either my Felcos or my Knipex cable cutters. My guess is that the performance is due to the high hardness (64 HRC) that these are heat treated to.

Germany_chris

I have a park cable cutter and a generic one I bought a decade ago, they both cut cables cleanly but my generic one cuts housing better.

The park doesn’t have a crimper on it but my park needle nose pliers do

smd4

By "animals," I think you actually mean "artisans."

aggiegrads

smd4

Not bad for a $90 dollar tool!

Schweinhund

I may try one of those next, can't be a frustrating as this thing


One handed use? Yah right.

Paramount1973 

When I took bike mechanic training at UBI, every work station was equipped with Felco C7 cable cutters which we used to cut cables and also shift housing. For brake housing we used 8” Klein high-leverage diagonal cutters, model D288-8. Probably the best price for Felco C7 cutters is the Pruner Warehouse: https://www.theprunerwarehouse.com/f...le-cutter.html
They offer free shipping.
Description of the high leverage Klein diagonal cutters is here.
https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/d...everage-8-inch
Other manufacturers offer high leverage diagonal cutters.

Park Tool describes the use of diagonal cutters on brake housing:
https://www.parktool.com/en-us/blog/...tion-drop-bars

smd4

The Knipex ones look to be very high quality--what I'd expect from something made in Germany.

Just a little too rich for my blood when the Shimano ones do the job perfectly every time. Maybe when the kids get out of college...

Schweinhund

On Amazon they are 49 bucks, well worth the price of entry but only if you need them.

smd4

Oh, I enjoy owning quality tools even if I don't need them right away! I like having a well-stocked shop. Maybe would be a good B-Day or Christmas present...

smd4

Can the Knipex cut cable housing too? Compressionless? Or just cable?

Pop N Wood

I'll never use a crimp on cable end again, these Jagwires are the bomb

Schweinhund

Considering this is how they advertise it, probably not an issue

Schweinhund

this one is pretty cool too 49 bux

https://www.amazon.com/KNIPEX-95-61-.../dp/B000VKHW9Q

tFUnK

I can confirm this is true🤣😣

smd4

Ok, got a Knipex (95 62 190) slightly different/updated grips. Pretty much what I expected—a very high quality tool, made in Germany. It’s precision made. I do like the crimp shape. Does it function better than the Shimano or Park? Hard to say. Cuts cable about the same as the other two. Haven’t tried it on housing. Feels good in the hand and I like the internal spring. The Park seem perfectly adequate. The Shimano is shop tested.

Would definitely recommend it, but if there are decent or cheaper alternatives, you’ll be fine.

smd4

Um…never. Those things are terrible.

soyabean

Me too.

I spot weld my cable ends. They look just like the end of new uncut cables

Pop N Wood

Don't understand that reply. Working great for me, keeps the cable intact and reusable.

Pop N Wood

Interesting. I tried solder once but got way too much on. What tool do you use?

soyabean

I weld with a welder, of course

smd4

Not much to understand. They're terrible. They're also ugly as F.

Who cares if they're reusable? Aluminum caps aren't generally reusable, but they only cost (conservatively) $.000000001 a piece, so I'm not really concerned about reusability.

Why not just wrap a rubber band around the cable? Rubber bands are re-usable, and also plentiful!

They may work for you, but you are in the vast, vast minority.

Also--did I mention this?--they're ugly as F.