Diagonal pliers.

Diagonal pliers are wire-cutting pliers. They are sometimes called side cutting pliers or side cutters, although these terms are shared by other pliers designs and may lead to confusion. The plane defined by the cutting edges of the jaws intersects the joint rivet at an angle or "on a diagonal", hence the name. Instead of using a shearing action as with scissors, they cut by indenting and wedging the wire apart. The jaw edges are ground to a symmetrical "V" shape, thus the two jaws can be visualized to form the letter "X", as seen end-on when fully occluded. The pliers are made of tempered steel and inductive heating and quenching is often used to selectively harden the jaws. Download high resolution version (260x679, 25 KB)Side cutters photographed by me. ... Download high resolution version (260x679, 25 KB)Side cutters photographed by me. ... A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, elongated strand of drawn metal. ... Needle nose pliers Pliers are hand tools primarily for gripping that use leverage There are numerous different jaw configurations to grip, turn, pull, or crimp a variety of things. ... In physics and mechanics, shear refers to a deformation that causes parallel surfaces to slide past one another (as opposed to compression and tension, which cause parallel surfaces to move towards or away from one another). ... Different types of scissors - sewing, kitchen, paper Scissors are a tool used for cutting thin material which requires little force. ...

Dikes — as in the phrase "a pair of dikes" — is jargon used especially in the electrical industry, to describe diagonal pliers. It is a corruption of "diagonal pliers" or "diagonal cutter". An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings and related equipment. ...

Applications

Diagonal pliers are useful for cutting copper, brass, iron and mild steel wire. They are generally not suitable for cutting tempered steel, such as piano wire, as the jaws are typically not hard enough. Attempting to cut such material will usually cause indentations to be made in the jaws, or a piece to break out of one or both jaws, thus ruining the tool.

For electronics work, special diagonal cutters that are ground flush to the apex of the cutting edge on one side of the jaws are often used. These flush-cutting pliers allow wires to be trimmed flush or nearly flush to a solder joint, avoiding the sharp tip left by symmetrical diagonal cutters.

External links

Commentary on selecting diagonal cutters to cut guitar strings