Did SK Copy the Harbor Freight Icon pliers? Is Knipex slipping or winning? Innovation in an innovative plier space! SK on Amazon: amzn.to/4cjKx6H $30 Twingrip on Amazon: amzn.to/3x1RZUT $14 Counterfeit? Twingrip on Amazon: amzn.to/3yIHPZJ
Went in HF for the first time in a long time yesterday, had no idea Icon had copied the Knipex Twin Grip. Ended up just buying what I needed (magnetic gloves holder for toolbox), but the guy in line in front of me commented on my Snap On hat in saying "Snap On guy, you probably think your tools are better than these". 🙄
And you replied, “Well of course I do because they are.” Luckily the Pittsburgh pry bar he then swung at you snapped in half when it hit your head. But the guy quickly warranted it right then and there, and came at you again shouting, “See, Snap On wouldn’t have replaced this tool because it wasn’t used for its intended purpose!”
I wish Knipex would also make a pair of twin grips in a smaller size like 5” for smaller screws like the Engineer screw extraction pliers. I work with a lot of small fasteners that Twin grips can’t grab well.
Doc, you’re the reason I have those blue and red handled Knipex Twin Grip pliers in my box. Thank you. They’ve bit onto rusty fasteners on my 1987 GMC 4x4 numerous times. Thanks for all you do for us guys who use our tools.
I have the $14 w/coupon Icon as my beater/truck pair and the Knipex at home. Love both. Them SK are cool but pricy for chy-na. People seem to forget the value of 2nd and 3rd pairs when considering Icon at times.
I love all my icon tools they are the best quality beaters set that I own they never replace my knipex/snap on/felco but they're pretty up there in quality compared to my other Chyna sets these are the best
Rather have all knipex pairs, don't want to have to pull out the icon and just think, I wish I had my knipex....and for only a few more bucks, no brainer, plus familiarity is vital
Heat treating & the balance between hardness and ductility is a HUGE factor in any gripping tool, and its one you can't tell anything about on the store shelves. Harbor Freight's ICON line seems to be trying to use that as the cost cutting area for the icon line. So it looks the same, but it doesn't PERFORM the same. My Knipex Cobras are ALWAYS the last tool I have to reach for when struggling with hardware. Thats because THEY ALWAYS DIG IN AND GET THE JOB DONE. Because the teeth hardness & geometry is dialed in.
Interesting tool, especially the quick adjust button. There are some inconsistency at knipex, I also noticed that. They are hand grinded, before the teeths are machined. The cobra pliers are manufactured the same way too. Only precision pliers and cutters are finished on cnc machines. But the heat treatment is very good on the knipex pliers,anf the jaw geometry is the best. They are doing research, not just copying like this Chinese companies. So I will support knipex, and buying their tools.
That thin edge on the front of the knipex allows it to get into places the icons wouldn't fit. Generally when tool manufacturers leave metal thicker it's because they've used lower strength materials and need to make up for the difference in strength. Look at the closed box end of combination wrenches as a good example in this. The higher quality wrenches usually have thinner ends and fit in places more chunky cheaper tools don't. The twin grips have been great and gotten me out of a few jams. At $30 they've been worth it and I'd happily pick up another pair if I ever lost mine.
As Captain Willard said in Apocalypse Now: 'Never get out of the Knipex boat.' Absolutely goddamn right! The screw extraction front teeth of my Knipex TwinGrip saved me when removing 10 fasteners yesterday, all covered with thick layers of white paint completely obstructing the screw head recess (Pozidriv? Phillips? Mortorq Lox n.3? Don't know, didn't care).
ICON stuff is good, but sometimes the prices are pretty close to just buying the real thing from Knipex... It doesn't make sense to me. is $10 savings really enough to say no to the German real deal and get the ICON copy?
The Knipex are still the best, but Harbor Freight is creating strong competition by offering the best value. Obviously this design is an out-of-the-park home run because everyone is making clones.
@@andrewscott8892 I guess you are literally correct, but another way to look at it is to ask the question “if Knipex hadn’t made this model, would any of the competitors have?” Unlikely.
With these pliers the part of the jaws with the bigger teeth is pretty irrelevant for me at least. I’ve got pliers and wrenches better at that than these can be. What I would like to see is a vise grip style of these or some sort of locking mechanism to keep grip while hands free.
My knipex twin grips also have the minor flaw with uneven tips, but haven't had an issue with them in use Usually knipex tools are higher quality, I ordered those off amazon and they were significantly cheaper, so I do wonder if they were fakes or factory seconds
Coming from a machining background I don't like the idea of a plier being used for turning nuts and bolts. Generally these situations end up with the machinist being asked to remove a stripped fastener, just use the proper tool.
The reason these come out is because the fastener is already hooped, a slot drive that's become a security screw, a Phillips that's now just a crater. These are the Hail Mary play before dragging it to the shop.
There was no patent here. The button adjust mechanism is from the 80s, that patent is long gone. The side jaw pattern is from the 1970s, protection long gone. The end jaws have prior art in the form of burner pliers as well as Engineer pliers which came out nearly 2 decades before TwinGrip. The Lobster Neijianguirus, 3.Peaks DS series, and others also predate the TwinGrip on end jaws. The only thing currently protected on the TwinGrip is their trademark on the name and the brand, and the oval below the button which has a design patent. If there were infringement, Knipex would have room to file against Harbor Freight to prevent their import, and now against SK Tools USA LLC (the US arm importing their version) for the same.
Hola..tengo la Knipex y pienso que este tipo de herramienta no sirve para nada…para sacar algo se tiene que agarrar con mucha fuerza y esta herramienta no lo hace…Se debe usar una mordaza, un pico loro, estas si agarran con presión o fuerza..saludos.
Well of course the Icon pliers have thicker jaws than the TwinGrips. Taiwanese steel vs. German steel. I'll wager a paycheck that the Icon jaws will fracture long before the Knipex jaws would, regardless of thickness.
I was on here telling people to grab the icon snap-on pistol grip extractor knockoff...... my teeth are already almost completely worn. used it to extract three stuck screws.... I assumed the icon would try harder,I actually ended up using my cobras the last time and it worked better. spend the little extra and get the real thing.
I can’t stand people’s obsession with who designed what first. It’s a pair of pliers for f sake, they all work and do the same thing and in the end best price wins.
I simply can't take Icon seriously because it so painfully obvious how they try to imitate the brands they copy right down to the visual appearance if the items. I would rather pay the company that created the innovation in the first place, than a brazen copycat. I don't mind Doyle, Pittsburgh Pro, etc. but the way Icon tools are being marketed I simply can't support it. Especially listening to their SEMA people saying "we developed" this or that, which is simply lying. And the rip-off is never as good as the original anyway, plus the prices for Icon specifically aren't even that much better than the original Knipex items. The SK looks interesing, and they added their own twist. It is an example of what Icon should have been doing for the past several years. That said I am not particularly interested in the Cinese SK items, unless I need to build a cheap tool set for something.
@@The-Homecook-0000 I don't care how good the tool is. It is an ethical issue. Channelock and Wilde are also good tools and their pliers are similarly priced to Icon. Personally I think both those options are superior to Icon as well, and I don't have to support scummy behavior.
