Today my crafty BFF and creative wonder Vicki O’Dell is sharing one of her favorite tools with us. A big welcome and thanks to Vicki!
I thought I’d share with you my very favorite wire cutters and tell you why they are my favs. Why? Every crafter needs good wire cutters but you especially need them if you are going to do any floral design with what we call “permanent” botanicals or silk flowers. And I do quite a lot of that.
I first heard about Knipex in a floral design seminar with J Schwanke floral guru extraordinaire. They aren’t cheap. MSRP is somewhere around $60 but I found mine on ebay for $40. They are made in Germany and I bought two pair nearly two years ago. I have yet to open my back up pair because the first pair is still going strong. They get used nearly every day. No kidding!
I cut through (from left to right) a paper wrapped wire, small wooden dowel, 18 gauge wire and a chenille stem so easily it was almost a joke.
And then a wire stem from a floral bunch. Again, no problem.
And a THICK floral stem.
And three floral stems at once. Just in case you are doing production work and want to crank out a bunch of arrangements.
And just for kicks I decided to try to cut through the base of the bunch. TEN wires all coated with plastic.
Now, to be fair I had to give it three squeezes but it still cut. And here is a tip… a freebie from me to you… if you are cutting through something fairly thick you can put one handle of the cutters on your work surface and use the counter/table to help push the cutters saving your hands some grief. Trust me, after a full day of cutting wire you’ll want to use that tip. 😉
If you’d like to see a craft I made using the Knipex cutters (and I didn’t cut wire!) then go to The Creative Goddess blog and see my Vintage Inspired Tinsel Wreath.
If you want to see more of Vicki’s work, head over to her blog TheCreativeGoddess and follower her on Twitter: @creativegoddess!
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Jen says
I love this tool as well! One of the best wire cutters I’ve ever used!