Sidecutters

Sidecutters Closed

This style of pliers has been known to me as sidecutters since forever. There is a cutting blade on one side of the jaws and for me that was a good enough excuse to earn them the name.

Sidecutters Open

At some point I realized they also had cutters built into either side of the joint. You can see the cutter's notch when the pliers are open, like in the above photo. These cutters depend on shearing action instead of a sharpened blade and they are closer to the pivot point so you get more leverage which means they are good for cutting heavier gauge wire. It just occurred to me that these cutters built into either side of the joint is the reason this style of pliers are called sidecutters. Actually, I may have figured this out once before and forgotten about it.

I picked these pliers up a long time ago, probably out of a bargain bin somewhere. They are small, only about six inches long. Serious sidecutters are more like eight inches long. This pair has been relegated to barbeque duty for a long time. Last week I left them out for several nights and the dew got to them and they rusted up tight. I was able to work them loose with some elbow grease and 3-in-1 oil and they are almost like new, except for being ugly, but good enough for the barbeque grill.

Kind of odd that pliers are called a pair. Do we also call scissors a pair? Or maybe that's old hat, maybe no one does that anymore, maybe the term is just 'the pliers' instead of 'a pair of pliers'.