25 Types of Pliers and Their Uses & Benefits.

If you have chosen never to have pliers again, at least keep slip joint pliers. With two teeth, this plier boasts the ability to be a versatile tool for repairs. The first teeth lie in front and grip small objects like nails. The back teeth take care of bulky objects.

Image: Slip Joint Pliers

The benefit of having split joint pliers is fixing things in the kitchen, such as a broken faucet.

This is one of the most popular types of pliers. As an electrician, the Lineman Pliers is one of the must-have pliers. It comes in handy when you need to cut wires. You can also use it to get rid of wire insulation.

Image: Lineman’s Pliers

The purpose of these pliers is to twist and do quite a few things with wires.

If you ever need to grip or hold nuts and bolts and other objects that are weirdly shaped, Tongue and groove pliers come in handy for this task. With its big mouth that can open all the way, it can rotate and turn objects.

Image: Tongue and Groove Pliers

It does this task perfectly with the help of its serrated jaw. Tongue and groove pliers are also called water pump pliers.

As a lineman or electrician, another plier you should have in your toolbox is the diagonal pliers. It was designed to take care of tasks that require cutting, skinning, and removing objects like wires, pins, nails, screws, etc.

Image: Diagonal Pliers

It’s your go-to friend for taking out fasteners. When cutting wires, diagonal pliers wedge and indent the cables.

This plier is another plier that electricians and wire hobbyists have in their plier collection. This plier had a needle-like nose. While it’s not entirely thin like a needle, its nose is delicate enough to reach into spaces that a regular plier wouldn’t.

Image: Needle Nose Pliers

It is skilled in cutting, bending, and shaping wires. With its elongated nose, be sure to achieve precision in what you do with it.

Bent nose pliers are similar to Needle nose pliers. In reality, they are just another expression of needle-nose pliers. They have a thin nose towards the top and are bent at the midpoint, around 45°. Although they do the same thing as needle-nose pliers, this type of plier takes it a little further.

Image: Bent Nose Pliers

You can use it in contexts where it’s challenging to use a needle nose plier. For instance, bent nose pliers are perfect for making jewelry.

Perhaps, this plier gets its name from its function. If you ever need to make wires assume a round shape, you don’t need to use your hands. A round nose plier is perfect for that context.

Image: Round Nose Pliers

Their long jaws also make it easy to grip any object. In jewelry-making, round nose pliers are the ideal tools for beading and in making loops and rings.

Locking pliers are versatile. For starters, it can double as both a plier and a vice. They are great for gripping any object. You need to adjust the space between the jaws. That way, you’ll grab anything quickly without trying too much.

Image: Locking Pliers

Aside from gripping objects, feel free to use locking pliers to hold, clamp, extract bolts and nuts that are rounded in shape, fix broken knobs or levers, etc.

This plier is perfect for sheet metals. If you ever have to work with sheet metal, you know there are many things you can do to it.

Image: Sheet Metal Pliers

A sheet metal plier makes it easy for you to do a range of things to sheet metals. With this plier, you can crimp, bend, lock and form a sheet metal material.

Now, electricians and hobbyists aren’t the only ones who need pliers to work. As an artist who creates the canvas you use for your painting, you’ll need canvas pliers for the creation process.

Image: Canvas Pliers

A canvas plier comes into play when artists have to stretch their canvas on the stretcher. A suitable canvas plier would help you achieve tighter canvas stretching.

Crimping pliers are another must-have plier for jewelers as their main job is to join two metal pieces. Jewelers can use this for their beading wires.

Image: Crimping Pliers

It helps finish the end of beading wires. However, it works more to transmit data via connectors.

If the name “snap ring” sounds weird to you, then you probably might have heard “Circlip pliers” or “C-clip pliers.” Some people prefer to call it “lock ring pliers.” However, you know this plier as, at least, I’ve established the fact that it is also a snap ring plier.

Image: Snap Ring Pliers

Regular hikers probably have this plier in their backpack as it always helps them with quite a few applications. But people use this plier for snap rings. You can take it out or insert snap rings with this plier.

With two cylindrical rods making up the jaw of bail making pliers, this plier is another effective plier in jewelry making. It’s a significant plier in jewelry making.

Image: Bail Making Pliers

The rod-like jaws are used to shape ear wires and create the loops needed in jewelry making.

These pliers are standard with mechanics and car repairers. They come in handy when you need to maintain your car battery bolt. They are also used for battery terminals.

Image: Battery Pliers

Their jaws are a bit different from other pliers. With short and angled jaws, they can grip the bolts on your car battery.

This plier type is prominent in the automobile field. Aside from car mechanics, if you often attempt to fix issues with your car, you should be familiar with this plier.

Image: Brake Spring Pliers

That plier helps out when you need to change parts of your car brakes like the pads, drums, etc. Brake Spring Pliers explicitly created for any vehicle-related brake task.

It’s standard types of pliers. If you don’t want to spend money on too many pliers, then a combination plier is all you need. You can already guess why it’s called a “combination plier”.

Image: Brake Spring Pliers

You can do many things with it, from extracting objects like nails, bending, compressing any object to twisting, cutting wires, gripping, etc. Probably, combination Pliers have that name as they are heavy-duty pliers.

The first thing you should know about Eyelet Pliers is that they are not the same as Grommet pliers. Both pliers are different. When you want to create a hole in a brass fabric, an eyelet is perfect for the job.

Image: Eyelet Pliers

Don’t worry; the holes made on these fabrics are pretty functional. For instance, fashion designers use Eyelet Pliers to create shirt or jacket buttonholes. This is also special types of pliers for leather works.

The first thing you should know about Eyelet Pliers is that they are not the same as Grommet pliers. Both pliers are different. When you want to create a hole in a brass fabric, an eyelet is perfect for the job.

Image: Grommet Pliers

The thickness of the material you’re working on is part of what determines which plier you’ll need. Generally, they work for heavy fabrics and objects.

Most people call this pliers the grabber pliers. Hose Grip Pliers are commonly used amongst plumbers as they use it in tasks related to plumbing. Plumbers deploy grabber pliers when they deal with hoses.

Image: Hose Grip Pliers

Their grabber jaws work to hold on to hoses like heater hoses, etc. You can also use them for spark plugs, clamps, etc.

Oil Filter Pliers works just as its name describes it. It is not a general plier type but is uniquely constructed for use in a specific industry.

Image: Oil Filter Pliers

If you work in automobiles, as a professional or hobbyist, this plier is a must-have. It works to drain oil from the filter casing.

Nail Puller plier is another plier that is named after what it does. With tapered jaws, nail puller pliers are practical when extracting nails from objects like wood, etc.

Image: Nail Puller Pliers

It is an essential plier for professional or hobbyist woodworkers as it simplifies the tasks.

Another plier you’ll come across when working in the automotive industry is the pushpin plier. With a wedge-shaped tip, they are the perfect choice for extracting plastic pushpins.

Image: Push Pin Pliers

When you extract the pins with this plier, you’ll preserve the anchor and the pin so they won’t be damaged.

With cutting edges designed at the short jaws of these pliers and their locking mechanism, you can easily twist your wires.

Image: Wire Twisting Pliers

The best part about this plier is that you can twist as many wires as possible at the same time. This plier is an important plier tool for electricians.

This plier is another plier that’s useful in the automotive industry. The interface with engines.

Image: Piston Ring Pliers

Here’s what I mean. If you ever need to extract engine piston rings, this plier is the perfect plier for you.

Fencing pliers come in handy when you’re trying to install or maintain your fence. It’s a special types of pliers for fenceing.

Image: Fencing Pliers

It is pretty versatile as you can use it to grab your wires for tensioning, cutting through it, splicing, twisting, etc.

Now that you know all the types of pliers that exist and the best uses for these pliers, you can handle any automotive, electrical, or plumbing task prepared. Sure, these pliers are a lot. But you don’t have to buy every single one of them unless you’ve got enough money to throw around. Instead, invest in the pliers that matter and are helpful for your tasks.