The Southwire Forged Wire Stripper is feature-rich and built tough with heavy-duty forged steel. If you already read our review of the Southwire Romex stripper, you’re going to see a lot of similarities and that’s a good thing.
Pros
- Durable forged steel construction
- Wide jaw has aggressive knurling for secure gripping and twisting
- Scalloped cutting knives hold wire and cable better for cutting
- Strips 8-16 AWG solid and 10-18 AWG stranded
- Wire looping hole
- Ergonomically curved handle and comfortable rubber grips
- Excellent value at $26
Cons
- Some Pros may prefer longer jaws
Recommendation
The Southwire Forged Wire Stripper takes the standard functions of a wire stripper and puts them in a much more durable and ergonomic build with a price well under Klein’s offering. The one thing you need to look out for is the jaw length – some Pros may prefer longer ones.
Southwire Forged Wire Stripper
Materials
If you caught our recent review of Southwire’s Forged Romex Stripper, you’ll notice that the Southwire Forged Wire Stripper is very similar. The biggest difference is this version’s shorter jaws.
The headline feature of this tool is the forged, heavy-duty steel body. The handles are covered in a rubber grip and it has an ergonomically contoured grip to fit your hand better than straight symmetrical ones.
Operations
The Southwire Forged Wire Stripper strips and loops 8-16 AWG solid and 10-18 AWG stranded copper wires. Wide, aggressively-knurled jaws are designed to twist several wires simultaneously. The knurling isn’t the heaviest I’ve ever seen, but it’s still aggressive and grips very well for pulling and twisting.
I prefer the longer jaws of the Romex Stripper I mentioned above, but the shorter jaws of the S816SOLHD still work quite well.
Standard 6-32 and 8-32 screw shears are located in their familiar place around the rivet.
Interesting scalloped cutting jaws are in the place of traditional straight knives. This design holds the wire and small cable so they don’t slide while you’re cutting them.
Pros seem to be divided on spring-loaded, locking handles. Some find it annoying that the spring-open default position has to lock to keep the jaws shut during storage (do they make those for teenagers?). Others like the convenience of the auto-opening during use. You’ll have to decide on that one.
Given the heft of the wire stripper’s forged steel, the tether loops are a must when working overhead. Southwire puts one at the end of each handle and you can decide if one works better than the other for you.
Price
You can pick up the Southwire Forged Wire Stripper for $26 and comes with a lifetime warranty. The closest Klein equivalent, the Klein K12054, is quite a bit more at $38. Of course, stamped steel wire strippers are much less and won’t last nearly as long.
The Bottom Line
The Southwire Forged Wire Stripper takes the standard functions of a wire stripper and puts them in a much more durable and ergonomic build with a price well under Klein’s offering. The one thing you need to look out for is the jaw length – some Pros may prefer longer ones.
Southwire Forged Wire Stripper Specifications
- Item Number: S816SOLHD
- Price: $28.98
