barkymalarkey
Junior Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2012
- Messages
- 65
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi all
I am a novice DIYer and a guitarist, so I have in the past tried to make my own audio leads, etc. About six months ago, I had an electrician doing work in the house and he whipped out some of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanley-FMHT0-96230-FatMax-Stripping-Plier/dp/B00CD24EAK
I was amazed! Up until then I had always used a really crap set of strippers that were so bad that I usually resorted to a blade. Blades usually meant cutting strands of wire unintentionally, which usually left me with just my teeth!
So after a bit of reading, I saw that the CK strippers got rave reviews. These ones:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002NZMM9M/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00CD24EAK&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1P2TXDB4B595D6N9MDE7
I ended up getting those from eBay at a good price. They were new.
When I finally got around to using them I was very disappointed. They don't seem to strip very well at all. When I try to strip the outer sheath/jacket of Van Damme audio cable like this:
http://www.van-damme.com/19.html
it doesn't make a clean strip at all. A lot of the times it just pulls the jacket without actually cutting it.
Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible I have a dub pair or fakes? Should I have got the Stanley ones which I saw my sparky use? I have noticed that the blade on mine is very blunt... How sharp should it be?
One other point of interest... I've read in some places that the cheap ones you see for around a fiver are exactly the same as the expensive CK/Stanley type ones. The argument goes that they all come from the same factory (which is why they look identical). Firms like CK and Stanley just jazz them up with the logos and styling. I wondered what people think to that argument?
Cheers
Max
I am a novice DIYer and a guitarist, so I have in the past tried to make my own audio leads, etc. About six months ago, I had an electrician doing work in the house and he whipped out some of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanley-FMHT0-96230-FatMax-Stripping-Plier/dp/B00CD24EAK
I was amazed! Up until then I had always used a really crap set of strippers that were so bad that I usually resorted to a blade. Blades usually meant cutting strands of wire unintentionally, which usually left me with just my teeth!
So after a bit of reading, I saw that the CK strippers got rave reviews. These ones:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002NZMM9M/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00CD24EAK&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1P2TXDB4B595D6N9MDE7
I ended up getting those from eBay at a good price. They were new.
When I finally got around to using them I was very disappointed. They don't seem to strip very well at all. When I try to strip the outer sheath/jacket of Van Damme audio cable like this:
http://www.van-damme.com/19.html
it doesn't make a clean strip at all. A lot of the times it just pulls the jacket without actually cutting it.
Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible I have a dub pair or fakes? Should I have got the Stanley ones which I saw my sparky use? I have noticed that the blade on mine is very blunt... How sharp should it be?
One other point of interest... I've read in some places that the cheap ones you see for around a fiver are exactly the same as the expensive CK/Stanley type ones. The argument goes that they all come from the same factory (which is why they look identical). Firms like CK and Stanley just jazz them up with the logos and styling. I wondered what people think to that argument?
Cheers
Max
