What Are the Different Types of Pliers Used For? A Plain English Guide

Pliers all look roughly the same at a glance, but each shape exists because someone got fed up doing a specific job with the wrong tool. Combination pliers grip and cut general hardware, long nose reach into tight spaces, water pump pliers handle round fittings, side cutters snip wire flush, and locking pliers clamp down and stay put. Once you know which jaw does what, the guesswork disappears.

Combination pliers: the default pair

Also sold as linesman pliers, these are the ones most people picture. Flat serrated jaws at the tip for gripping flats, a curved toothed section behind that for pipe and round bar, and a cutting edge at the back for wire and small nails.

They are a jack of all trades, which is exactly their weakness. The grip is coarse enough to mark soft metal, and the cutter sits too far back to trim anything flush. For general holding, twisting and rough wire work they are hard to beat, but reach for something else when finish matters.

Long nose and needle nose pliers

Long nose pliers taper to a narrow tip so you can reach into places your fingers cannot. Typical jobs include fishing a dropped screw out of a cavity, holding a small nut while you start a bolt, forming hooks in wire, and positioning components in electrical work.

Needle nose is the finer version, with a thinner and more delicate tip. The tradeoff is strength. Lever hard on a needle nose pair and you will spring the jaws so they no longer meet, at which point the tool is scrap. Use them for placing and holding, not for wrenching.

Bent nose pliers do the same job with a tip angled at roughly 45 degrees, which helps when you are working around an obstruction or need your hand clear of the work.

Water pump pliers (slip joint and groove joint)

These are the long handled pliers with a sliding pivot that lets the jaws open wide while staying parallel. Plumbers live on them. The adjustment means one pair covers everything from a small compression nut to a waste trap.

The serrated jaws bite hard, which is useful on a seized fitting and ruinous on a chrome tap. Wrap the fitting in a cloth or use a soft jaw cover if the finish is visible. Modern box joint versions hold their setting far better than old style slip joint pliers, which tend to jump a groove under load.

Side cutters and diagonal cutters

Side cutters exist purely to cut. The blades meet at the very front of the jaw, so you can trim a cable tie or a wire tail flush against a surface. Electricians, model makers and anyone doing repetitive wiring keep a pair within reach.

Match the cutter to the material. A cutter rated for copper and soft wire will chip if you attack hardened steel such as spring wire, panel pins or piano wire. Heavy duty cutters with a harder blade exist for exactly that, and they are worth owning separately rather than wrecking a good pair.

End cutters and pincers

End cutters, sometimes called nippers or carpenters pincers, have the blades on the end of the jaw rather than the side. That geometry lets you get right down to a surface, so they are the tool for pulling nails, snipping protruding fixings and cutting wire ties flush on concrete reinforcement.

The rounded head also gives you something to roll against the timber when levering a nail out, which multiplies your force without the handles fouling the work.

Locking pliers (mole grips)

Locking pliers clamp onto the work and stay there, which turns them into a temporary vice, a clamp or a last resort spanner. Set the jaw gap with the knurled screw in the handle, squeeze until the mechanism goes over centre, and the tool holds without you gripping it.

They are the go to for a rounded bolt head, for holding two pieces of steel together while you weld or drill, and for pulling on something that has no flats to grip. The pressure they apply is genuinely high, so they will leave tooth marks in anything softer than hardened steel. That is fine on scrap fixings and a problem on anything you plan to reuse.

Circlip pliers

Circlips are the sprung retaining rings that hold shafts and bearings in place, and they simply cannot be fitted or removed with anything else. Internal circlip pliers open as you squeeze the handles, external ones close. Many sets are convertible, and the tips come straight or bent at 90 degrees.

The tips are the weak point. Let one slip out of the circlip eyes and the ring fires off across the room, so wear eye protection and buy a set with replaceable tips if you use them regularly.

Wire strippers and crimping pliers

These are pliers by shape but single purpose by design. Wire strippers cut through insulation at a set depth without nicking the copper underneath. Crimping pliers compress a terminal onto a conductor with a ratchet that will not release until full pressure has been applied, which is what makes a crimp reliable rather than merely tight.

Doing either job with combination pliers is a false economy. Nicked strands snap later, and a hand squeezed crimp pulls apart under vibration.

A sensible buying order

1. Combination pliers, for general grip and cut work
2. Long nose, for reach and small parts
3. Water pump pliers, for plumbing and round fittings
4. Side cutters, for clean wire work
5. Locking pliers, for damaged fixings and clamping

That covers the overwhelming majority of household jobs. Circlip, crimping and specialist cutters are worth adding when a job actually demands them rather than buying up front.

Looking after them

Put a drop of oil on the pivot occasionally and wipe the jaws dry after wet work. Insulated handles on VDE rated pliers should be inspected for splits before any electrical use, since the coating is the protection. Store pliers so the jaws are not knocking against other steel in a drawer, because a chipped cutting edge never recovers.