I'm going to get a new set of snips,,the ones I have belonged to my dad and he used them many,many years ago ,,back in the 50's and they are just plain worn out! They are Wiss brand and I have always thought that was the number one brand,,,but also know there are several brands on the market. Anyway,,,they now offer the offset Wess snips in both right and left along with the regular standard snips,,I gotta tell Santa what I want! Which type do most of you guys use or recomend? HRP
weiss is still a good quality snip, but they do have different levels of quality. The ones available at hardware stores are not the best. Look for the heavy duty aviation snips.
Tell Santa you want all three. If you have been "bad", just ask for the straight ones. Happy Holidays.
I always like the Prosnip off set snips the best. I always thought Wiss were cheap and didn't hold up to alot of use. The Prosnip's were made in Beatrice, Nebraska and the company was part of the Vise grip Company but all went to shit when Irwin tool company bought them out and now they are going to be made in china. I haven't bought a pair of snips in about six years and I guard the 2 pairs rights and lefts, of prosnip's with my life. They don't make them like this anymore. Irwin changed the design and unless you have giant hands they are hard to use.
The snips are red for cutting lines that curve to the left, green for lines that curve to the right, and yellow for straight cuts. Or was it the other way?
I probably have 10 sets of reds and greens (aviation snips), Wiss, Prosnips, Cresent, you name it. By FAR the best I own or have used are MidWest. No more expensive, available at Sears, US made, cuts clean, compound leverage. Back in the 60's I worked at a sheet metal shop and Wiss was THE brand. Now they're junk imo. Last set I bought (Lowes) had a huge gap between the blades, cut poorly, and left a nasty burr.
Klenks are my favorite, been a tinknocker 30 years, like the offsets best. And they are made here. Most of the guys in the trade don't even bother with straight snips, just lefts and rights are all we ever use.
If you have a nibbler then don't boterh with the straight ones (should be yellow handles). Yes, Red for Left, Green for Right, or at least they are supposed to be (don't buy Chineese ones, no matter what color grips they got). I have some older Wiss snips. They work great, but I hear alot about how either the newer ones are crap, or there are counterfit ones floating around, and they are crap. I got my snips from one of the local Snap On dealers about 15 years ago. No idea where he got them from, but they work great.
The best ones I have ever used are throatless bench-mounted shears. Beverly used to have the patend on them and they usually went for about $800, but I found a set from Harbor Freight for about $100. Well worth it and a great investment. There's nothing like slicing through sheet metal like it's paper. It's one of the good purchases from HF that I can definately recommend.
Find a place that caters to commercial heating and air conditioning contractors. Listen to their recomendation, cause they know what they sell that nobody complains about. Then pick some thing that feels good to you. You'll only pay for em once but you'll use em lots of times.
I don't own any straight snips,,,never needed them,,, Standard snips or off set?,,,which ones do you prefer? HRP
I have a pair of the giant's toenail shears type things I got from the Snap-on man, bit strange to use the first few times, beause they seem huge and heavy, but I find them easy to use now, and they cut smooth and easy, the very long handles give enough leverage that you can use the length of the blades rather than only being able to cut close back to the pivot. Certainly if you have a lot of cutting to do or want to cut heavier gauge the long handled oversized sissor design of snips would be my preference to the double lever aviation snips.
I've straight ones, offsets, lefts, rights, even have a set of "Bull Snips" about 32" long. If I could only have one pair (some version of hell) it would be a 24" pair of straight snips with replaceable blades. Just MY opinion.
Whatever you do, buy'em now and get spares if you like them, or you'll discover production has just moved to Sri Lanka when you do move on them.
I've had Prosnip and Wiss and now have a set of Bahcos I think are better but the Gilbows get far more use than aviation snips.
get left and right offset ones and a set of gilbows for straight cuts, and youll have it covered. the yellow straight snips seem really useless to me.
Klenks here too! I also have some of the older Irwin offsets. They quit making that style a couple of years ago though. the new ones look just like the Wiss snips and are just about as bad. I gave away my red Wiss snips.........the Klenks and the Irwins just totally blew them away. Oh, and I got the big Malco "bulldogs too". Midwest snips are good too. Tim D.
It's been several years since I bought any. I use to get the offset ones from the Snap-on man. Sears did sell the exact same ones, I even found a Snap-on marked set at Sears once.
Wiss are okay, but I think Klenk is better. If you want your snips to last a long time, avoid cutting very thin gauge stainless. Stainless is tough on blades anyway, but the very thin stuff can sometimes just fold over and pry the two cutting blades apart from each other. Then they're ruined. Also don't let some kid use them to cut hard steel wire or nails -- because then they'll get nicked. I like snips that have very fine serrations on the cutting edges. They kind of grip the metal better and keep it from trying to shoot out forward.
+1 you can sometimes get all three in a set. ^ the big scissors (Andy snips) are great to for cutting bigger sections of sheet metal
I work in the heating & air, I use Midwest. Good and inexpensive. I only use red and greens, or left and right. The offset handle is good, takes a bit getting use to but once you use them u will never go back.
I have a tool box full of old snips that I have worn out (just can't throw things away!!!) and the Midwest snips from Sears are as good as any I have ever owned and better than most. Price is good, they are tight and sharp and last well. Rex
I do architectural sheet metal for a living and I have always used Midwest. I only use the red and green offsets, I stopped buying the yellow,(straight), snips years ago. I just don't see the need for them. It's not easy, but I have cut 16 ga. steel with them. They also offer a lifetime warranty.
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