Lineman’s pliers

How it works

Two forged steel levers cross at a fixed pivot; squeezing the handles closes the jaws and the cutting knives. The knives sit close to the pivot, where the short lever arm gives the most cutting force. The U.S. Army and Navy training text describes the pliers as having serrated jaws, a rod-gripping section, side cutters, a wire cropper, a fixed pivot and parallel handles.

The flat serrated jaws bend sheet metal and twist electrical wire, and the curved rod-gripping section behind them holds rods and bends small stock. The side cutters are ground at an angle for flush cuts on electrical wire, and a second cutting edge above the pivot, the cropper, shears larger wire.

Klein’s 1926 catalog states that its side-cutting pliers were made for use on bare and insulated wire, with handles shaped to the curvature of the hand, reinforced cutting knives for heavy cutting in telephone work, and full clearance behind the knife so that the pliers could be used on insulated wire.

Anatomy

Jaws: Flat, serrated gripping faces for holding and twisting wire and bending sheet metal.
Rod-gripping section: A curved portion behind the flat jaws that holds rods and bends small rods.
Side cutters: Knives just above the pivot, ground at an angle for flush cuts.
Cropper: A second pair of edges above the pivot that shear larger wire.
Fixed pivot: A riveted joint with no adjustment. Klein’s 1926 catalog calls the lap joint of its oblique cutting pliers an advance over the older box joint.
Handles: Forged to fit the hand; insulated sleeves are fitted to those used around electrical circuits.

Variants

Side-cutting pliers with sleeve-joint twister: Klein’s 212 series adds an opening for twisting double sleeve joints in telegraph and telephone wire; the 1926 catalog gives separate openings for No. 17 and No. 10 sleeves.
Round-nose (N.E.) pattern: A “streamlined” rounded head for work in confined spaces, in Klein’s 1939 catalog.
High-leverage pattern: Klein advertised its 213-9NE in 1958 as cutting regular wire and weatherproof hard-drawn copper wire up to No. 2.
Coil-spring pattern: A spring close to the hinge keeps the jaws open; Klein’s 1958 advertisement says the spring is guaranteed for the life of the pliers.
Oblique and diagonal cutting pliers: Narrow-headed cutters for confined places, cataloged beside the side-cutting pliers by Klein in 1926. Treated as a separate tool in this archive.

Specifications

Overall length · in: Klein’s 1926 and 1939 catalogs list its 201 series in 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 inch sizes; Kraeuter’s 1925 Dreadnought was listed in three sizes. No standard size table has been sourced.
Weight · lb per dozen: Catalogs of the period sold pliers by the dozen and list weight per dozen; Klein’s 1939 list gives 3 lb per dozen for the 5-inch and 14 lb per dozen for the 9-inch.

Made to

ASME B107.500
ASTM F1505
IEC 60900

Safety and care

Safety

Pliers used around electrical circuits carry insulated sleeves over the handles to reduce the chance of electric shock, according to the Army and Navy training text, which also warns against removing the insulation or oiling insulated handles.
The same text says not to use pliers for prying or for removing nuts or bolts, and to replace pliers with broken jaws, handles or cutting edges.

Care

Remove dirt and grease with a clean rag and apply a light coat of oil after each use (Navy training text).
A few drops of light oil at the hinge keep the pliers working smoothly and prevent undue wear (Klein, 1939).
Store in a tool box or on a rack when not in use (Navy training text).

Tips

Cut with the knives close to the pivot
The Army and Navy text places the side cutters just above the pivot point, where maximum pressure may be applied, and describes their angled grinding as giving sharp flush cuts on electrical wire.1
Use the cropper for larger wire
The second set of edges above the pivot shears larger wire than the side cutters. The side cutters make the flush cut on electrical wire.1
Twist a splice with the serrated jaws
The Army and Navy text gives the method: hold the wires just above the start of the twist, grasp the ends firmly in the serrated jaws and turn the pliers, then trim the ends in the cutting edges.1
The opening at the pivot twists sleeve joints
Klein’s 212 series has an opening in the head sized for double sleeve joints. In the 1926 catalog the 6- and 7-inch sizes serve No. 17 sleeves and the 8-inch serves No. 10.1 2
Knife clearance permits cutting insulated wire
Klein states that full clearance behind the knife permits use on insulated wire, and its round-nose pattern is meant for work in confined spaces.1 2
A notch can be used for crimping
On Klein’s oblique 240 series, a stripping notch behind the knives also served for crimping single-tube copper sleeves, with two crimps at each end for .032 wire and three for .025 wire.1

History

Earliest documented

1857 (company account)

Chicago, Illinois

Klein Tools says that Mathias Klein, after emigrating from Germany, opened a forge shop in Chicago in 1857 and that the first tool he made was half of a pair of side-cutting pliers, brought to him broken by a telegraph lineman. A trade journal article of 1911 on the firm gives the same founding year but says the manufacture of linemen’s tools began in the early 1860s. No dated object or patent for earlier lineman’s pliers has been read; this is the company’s account of the origin, not independent evidence.1 2

Lineman’s pliers are named for the trade that first demanded them. Klein’s own history says that the first Klein pliers were a repair made for a telegraph lineman in 1857 and that, once the Civil War had shown the importance of dependable telegraph communication, the forge shop grew into a business making hand tools for professional tradesmen. The firm’s 1911 history, written by a member of the family for the trade press, gives a later start for linemen’s tools, in the early 1860s, when the formation of Western Union brought Mathias Klein into contact with its construction department. Both accounts are the company’s; neither can be checked against an independent record in this entry, and they differ on the date.

The tool belongs to the electrical and communication trades because those trades strung wire. Klein’s 1926 catalog describes a period in which line construction was in its infancy, and says Mathias Klein then concentrated on tools for telephone and telegraph construction and for power and railway work. Its side-cutting pliers were sold for bare and insulated wire, with a knife clearance that permitted use on insulated wire and a sleeve-joint twister variant for telegraph and telephone work, features that follow from the work of splicing and cutting line wire.

The form was set by 1914 and has changed little since. Kraeuter’s Dreadnought pliers of that year used nickel alloy steel and a patented grip pattern; Alloy Artifacts, a collector site, calls this one of the earliest confirmed uses of alloy steel in hand tools. Klein’s 1926 catalog warns that tools marked only “Klein Pattern” are not of its manufacture, which shows that the pattern was already being copied. By 1958 the changes Klein advertised were refinements: a high-leverage pattern, coil springs and a round-nose head.

The pliers displaced no single earlier tool; they combined a gripper, a twister and a cutter in one, so that a lineman on a pole carried one tool for work that otherwise needed several. The Navy’s training text lists the same functions: bending sheet metal, twisting wire, holding rods, cutting and shearing wire. It adds that the side-cutting type is often called electrician or lineman pliers. O*NET’s Tools Used table lists lineman’s pliers for 3 of the 5 occupations that this archive maps to the tool, and lineman’s or combination pliers for all 5.

Timeline

1857
Mathias Klein establishes his business in Chicago; the company later dates its first pliers to this year.1 2 3
early 1860s
According to the firm’s 1911 history, the formation of the Western Union Telegraph Company brings Klein into contact with its construction department, and he takes up the manufacture of linemen’s tools.1
1881
Klein moves to a new shop on Chicago’s West Side; in 1911 the West Side factory is principally engaged in making Klein pliers.1
1914
Kraeuter & Company of Newark, New Jersey, introduces its No. 2801 “Dreadnought” lineman’s pliers, forged from nickel alloy steel, with a “Don’t Slip” grip pattern covered by design patent D46,682, issued 24 November 1914.1
1925
Kraeuter lists the Dreadnought lineman’s pliers in three sizes, described as extra fine lineman’s pliers with hardened steel jaws.1
1926
Klein’s Catalog No. 26 lists its 201 side-cutting pliers in five sizes and its 212 series with a sleeve-joint twister, and warns buyers that tools marked only “Klein Pattern” are not its make.1
1929
Kraeuter’s catalog No. 14 introduces the “Supreme” class, first applied to the No. 4801 lineman’s pliers.1
1939
Klein’s Catalog No. 39 lists the 201 side-cutting pliers in 5 to 9 inch sizes, with round-nose “N.E.” types and a stripping-notch oblique pattern.1
1958
Klein advertises the 213-9NE high-leverage pliers, said to cut hard-drawn copper wire up to No. 2, and coil-spring pliers.1

Where the sources disagree

When did Klein begin making pliers for linemen?

1857. The first tool Mathias Klein made was half of a pair of pliers repaired for a telegraph lineman, and a second visit by the same lineman produced the first complete Klein pliers.1
Klein Tools company history
The business was founded in 1857, but linemen’s tools were not in great demand in its early days; manufacture of them began in the early 1860s after the formation of Western Union.1
Telephony, 1911, article on the firm by a member of the Klein family

Gaps in the record (7)

The first lineman’s pliers and its maker have not been independently identified; both origin accounts are the company’s own.
No Klein patent for lineman’s pliers has been located.
Klein’s catalogs before 1911 have not been found; the earliest read is the 1911 trade-journal article and the 1926 catalog.
The year Klein’s round-nose, high-leverage and coil-spring patterns were introduced is not established; only the 1939 and 1958 appearances are read.
The standards that govern lineman’s pliers have not been read; slugs in standards are unverified guesses.
No independent test or failure data has been sourced, so buying is null.
Klein’s current product pages could not be read (the site loads product detail dynamically), so no current manufacturer instructions are cited.