Some brands earn their reputation. Knipex has spent 140 years earning theirs — one pair of pliers at a time, from the same German town, in the same family’s hands.
One town, one family, one job
Knipex started in 1882 as a small forge in Cronenberg, now part of Wuppertal in western Germany. Carl Gustav Putsch set up shop in the basement of his family home with one employee and two apprentices, making carpenter’s pincers and farrier’s tongs by hand.
Four generations later, the company is still owned and run by the Putsch family. Ralf Putsch — great-grandson of the founder — has led the business since 1996. The headquarters is still in Wuppertal. The factory is still in Wuppertal. Every pair of core Knipex pliers is still made there.
That kind of continuity is rare in the tool trade. Most legacy brands have changed hands multiple times, moved production offshore, or diluted what they’re known for. Knipex has done none of the above.
Pliers. Only pliers.
Knipex makes one thing: pliers. Around 100 different types, more than 900 variants when you count sizes, jaw shapes, and handle finishes — but it’s all pliers and pliers-adjacent tools (cutters, crimpers, strippers, circlip pliers).
That specialisation is the whole point. While other manufacturers spread across spanners, sockets, screwdrivers and everything else, Knipex has poured 140 years of engineering effort into a single category. They forge their own steel to their own specification. They build their own dies. They run their own drop forges, machining, heat treatment, grinding and laser cutting in-house. Vertical integration is close to 100% — almost nothing is outsourced.
The result is a tool with tolerances measured in hundredths of a millimetre, and cutting edges induction-hardened to balance hardness against the elasticity that stops a jaw from snapping under load.
Two tools that changed the trade
Two Knipex innovations show up in toolboxes across New Zealand, and both came out of Wuppertal:
The Cobra (1984). A water pump plier with a push-button adjustment that lets you set the jaw width with one hand. Self-locking, slip-free, and now produced in everything from 100mm pocket size up to 22-inch monsters that handle serious pipe work. The Cobra family has been refined over nearly 40 years and is the benchmark every other adjustable plier gets compared to.
The Pliers Wrench (1994). Smooth, parallel jaws and a ratchet adjustment that grips a nut or fitting without rounding it off. It’s a plier and a spanner in one tool — particularly valuable on plated fittings, soft fasteners, and the awkward sizes you never seem to have the right spanner for.
Both are still patented Knipex designs. Both are still made in Wuppertal. Both are on our shelves.
Why we stock Knipex
We stock Knipex for the same reason we stock any of our hero brands: we use them ourselves, and they earn their place on the bench.
A pair of Knipex Cobras or a Pliers Wrench isn’t the cheapest option — it isn’t trying to be. It’s the option you buy once. The jaws don’t deform. The pivot doesn’t develop play. The cutting edges hold up to wire that would chip a lesser tool. For an engineer, mechanic, electrician or mill hand who reaches for the same plier ten times a day, that adds up fast.
The range we carry covers the work our customers actually do: Cobra water pump pliers from 10″ to 22″, the Pliers Wrench, heavy duty side cutters, cable shears and wire rope cutters, the full circlip plier family (internal, external, bent, heavy duty), end nippers, carpenter’s pincers, twin grip slip joints, spanner wrenches and compact bolt cutters.
If you’ve been making do with something that’s nearly right, come and pick up a real Knipex. You’ll feel the difference in the first squeeze.
