favoured by electricians. I was sent an interesting selection of a pair of VDE rated sidecutters, a pipe wrench and an innovative and versatile pair of fitter’s wire and crimping cutters.


Accompanying these was a clam pack of tethers that are designed to fit the clips on the handles of the tools. Inside the pack are three short tethers consisting of a nylon quadruple sewn strap attached to a loop of braided blue nylon cord with a slidable adjustment button on it. A longer tether that is ruched and will stretch to over a metre around has a strap loop at one end and a cord loop at the other. Also included are two lightweight 2kN (Max capacity) carabiners with screwgates for security.


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As a system it is clear that, used properly, the tools will be safely tethered as well as being free enough to be worked with easily.


As soon as you start fiddling with the tethers and cast an eye over the instructions, it is clear that they were designed to be as safe as possible but also to be as versatile as possible – thereby offering users the best opportunity of devising the safest and most convenient way of tethering the tools and still allowing them to be used effectively.


Each of the range of 45 Knipex tether- enabled plier-type tools has a wire loop


moulded into one of the handles. In normal use these loops will sit flat against the bottom of the handle and out of the way. To attach a tether, the string end of the long or short tether is fed through the loop and back through itself so that it is firmly attached. The plastic button is pushed down the cord to keep the tool from sliding down. The other end of the tether is attached to the user by a carabiner, or through a belt loop, safety harness or even the belt of work trousers.


But users will have some discretion about how they use the tether system. It makes sense to have a tool that is used very frequently on a single lanyard. On modern work trousers it would be easy to return the tool to a holster


pocket when not in use. But any more than a couple of tools will need a different arrangement. In this case, it makes sense to attach a short loop to each of the tool handles and attach them to a belt/belt loop/harness with a carabiner. When needed, each tool can be changed onto the longer lanyard by a quick click on the carabiner gate.


For more flexible usage where the reach of the tether might not be enough, the cord end can be placed over the wrist and tightened, leaving the tool safely tethered to the arm that is working it. Again, if frequent tool changes are needed, it is simple to change them by using a loop on each tool and making quick swaps via the carabiner.


As a system it is clear that, used properly, the tools will be safely tethered as well as being free enough to be worked with easily. As far as I could gather, individual loops, carabiners and extra lanyards are available to buy singly so it would be easy to kit out frequently used tools.


The tools It is also worth taking a quick look at the tools that are tether-enabled. The design of the metal loop for holding the tether is clever in the sense that, in normal use, it folds flat against the handle so it doesn’t get in the way of fingers – even ones folded around the handle for opening of the jaws. In order to feed the nylon loop tether through the wire handle loop, it needs to be opened and after the loop is secured it is folded flat at 180 degrees to its closed position. Like this, it is slightly raised to accommodate the thickness of the nylon cord and is therefore not a problem in handling and using the tool.


As an afterthought, it also occurred to me that I have never used a pair of the Knipex stripping and crimping pliers (with or without a tether) so I did a test run, with and without, to find out what they are like. The pliers are long and have long jaws so the handles are quite close together at the back where the wire tether loop is placed.


Cutting, crimping and stripping a range of electrical cables is easy with the various edges because they are sharp and placed for optimum ease of use. When cutting and stripping my normal method is to have two front fingers closing the jaws and two fingers folded under the handle for opening them. Space is limited for these fingers as a result, but the handle design is such that I didn’t nip them, even when the nylon cord was attached; no nipping with Knipex!


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