There is a new Crescent Tools holiday season promo at Home Depot stores and online, with special buy pricing on select Z2 pliers sizes.
Crescent Z2 pliers, as the promotional display advertises, are their BEST cutting pliers. The Z2 series tools feature laser-hardened cutting edges for longer life, high-leverage pivots for easier cutting, and aggressive cross-hatched grooves on the pliers jaws for higher gripping and pulling strength.
Crescent – a ToolGuyd sponsor – sent over a sample set of their Z2 pliers and cutters a couple of months ago. I mentioned the pliers here a couple of times, and have been using them as part of my kit for various cutting, pulling, bending, and grabbing tasks. So far, I’ve been quite happy with their performance.
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At these Black Friday 2021 promo prices, $14.97 each, I couldn’t resist – I bought another pair of diagonal cutters to start, and I might head back to my Home Depot store for more.
The photo shown here is from my “Day 1 haul”, the tools I bought on my initial outings while scouting out the holiday promotions at several Home Depot and Lowe’s stores. I bought two Crescent Z2 pliers – diagonal cutters and Auto-Bite adjustable pliers (which I found in the regular pliers aisle) at Home Depot, and a new NailSlicer circular saw blade at Lowe’s.
I really like the Crescent Z2 pliers, and this sale pricing made it hard to resist buying another pair for personal use.
I own many different brands, shapes, and sizes of diagonal cutters, and have been using the Z2s in my workshop for various soft and harder wire (and small nail) cutting tasks. The reduced cutting effort has provided great experiences so far. I never really fully integrate test samples into my personal tool kit, as the goal is always to eventually give them away, and so I wanted a personal pair.
These Z2 long nose, lineman, and diagonal pliers and cutters are regularly priced at ~$21 for the as-pictured versions with cushion-grip handles. While I do feel this is appropriate for the quality, competition is very fierce at this price point.
At $14.97, I’m the proud new owner of Z2 diagonal cutters, and I’m thinking I’ll get it another Z2 friend or two at my next trip to Home Depot. I feel this is a fantastic price for great pliers.
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I know that Crescent is proud of their effort and results on the Z2 pliers and cutters, and after using these, I agree that they have every reason to be.
I cannot tell you if these will be a good buy for your needs and wants, but they were a great buy for me.
As of the time of this posting, Home Depot has (temporarily) disabled online ordering. This is typical in the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Check back, or find them at your local Home Depot store. There should be a promotional display in the main aisle or gift center, with additional selection in the tool aisle.
If you check them out, please let me know what you think!
Crescent Z2 8″ High Leverage Diagonal Cutting Pliers – $14.97
Crescent Z2 8″High Leverage Long Nose Pliers – $14.97
Jared
What do the cushion grips feel like? Are they rubber over plastic?
Stuart
The orange-red section is hard but not slick, the black overmold is medium-hard with texture. I would say it feels a little grippier than Knipex.
Honestly, I’m not 100% sure they’ve different materials – maybe only the texture is different.
Tony
Any idea if Home Depot will honor the warranty Cresent tools?
Stuart
Retailers generally only warranty their “house brand” tools.
Generally, if a tool fails on you within the return period (usually 30-90 days), you can return it for an exchange or refund. After that, warranty considerations come into play.
I do not see any reason why the same would not apply here.
HG Forage
Crescent\ Gearwrench\ Bain capital is doing a good job of filling the Craftsman void with fine tools at a decent price. I am going to pick up the high leverage linesman pliers to try for things i think too scary for my nice cutters.
Koko The Talking Ape
I saw these at HD yesterday. They look fine, but be aware, they are big tools, bigger than what I’d need for electrical or electronic work (though I don’t really know what linesman pliers were originally designed for, and maybe there’s some electrical work that needs that kind of big tool.)
Stuart
These seem to be the most popular sizes.
That’s part of the reason why I like the 8″ diagonal cutters – the longer the handle, the greater the leverage. Cutting certain wire products with 6.25″ or 7″ cutters can be hard on the hands (and the blades if they’re only designed for copper).
But I get what you’re saying – 8″ tends to be too long for electronics work or more precise work in smaller control cabinets and the like.
TonyT
I know what you’re talking about. For work, we have some Aven 4.75″ cutters with carbide insert, can handle steel wire up to 0.1mm (~AWG18), so can’t handle huge wires (Z2 is rated at AWG 7, but HD doesn’t say what material), but much more maneuverable and convenient for our typical tight spaces – and with the carbide insert, I don’t have to worry about a careless tech notching the blade, unlike cutters such as the Xuron Micro Shear or Hakko CHP170.
Still, for the times we need it, I’m thinking about adding some big cutters – these Z2 are a cheap option, but I might go for a much pricier German cutter.
Wayne R.
When I was up on poles a lot, we bonded all our equipment together with #6 solid copper, and my Klein 9’s were right at home cutting & bending that stuff. Same wire was used for underground bonding & grounding too.
I think original open wire between poles (on glass insulators) might have been copper initially, but eventually went to copper clad steel. The vertical grounds on poles are usually copper clad steel, I believe, but of course we never cut any of those lines.
That stuff must have been the conception arena for line pliers.
Koko The Talking Ape
Thanks Wayne, that’s interesting.
6 gauge solid wire? I had to look up the thickness, and it’s over 1/8″! Yeah, I could see you needing some burly pliers for that.
HushHouse254
I’m just curious how these pliers differ from the Gearwrench Pit Bull pliers that you reviewed on 29 Dec 2020? They are manufactured at the same parent company. Other than the sale price, I’m intrested how your position changed since in the Gearwrench review you stated, “they just seem kind of ordinary, maybe even all bark and no bite.” I bought a set of Gearwrench pliers with the cushion grips in June to replace a very worn (1990) Craftsman set and I am quite pleased with their initial quality, value and performance.
Harry
I think these are the same as Gearwrench’s Pitbull series only in Crescent trim.
Stuart
I was extremely skeptical, which is part of the reason I’ve been testing these so heavily. That was a news/preview post, not a review.
As far as I can tell, the Crescent and Gearwrench versions are nearly identical, with only the handles being a little different. I’ve used both brands of pliers over the past few months.
I really liked the Gearwrench pliers and splurged on 6pc sets for my father and father-in-law when they both asked for new pliers and cutters. https://toolguyd.com/gearwrench-pitbull-pliers-fathers-day/ It’s been a hit so far, as they like these pliers as much as I do.
I started using both brands’ pliers partly out of convenience and partly because I needed to explore and test them. This is usually how things go. I seek organic testing opportunities and sometimes swap between different styles of tools for comparative purposes.
But they quickly became my go-to cutters and pliers except for more delicate operations that I use smaller or specialty tools for.
I have been using both brands’ pliers as go-to pliers, and for “beater” tasks where I wouldn’t want to expose my more delicate tools to hard use or abuse.
Because of this, I’ve been buying more Gearwrench pliers, and there’s another size or two on my shopping list. But at these prices, I wanted another Crescent.
The Gearwrench are $20 right now, the Crescent was $21, and with it now on sale for $15, I couldn’t pass up another pair.
The Pit-Bull pliers are a bit different. This was actually my first pair – I was sent assortment set test samples, which come with tongue and groove pliers but not these
I bought the Pit-Bull because I wanted a pair of hard-use pliers. I have other pliers in my main kit, but I have been doing a lot more work in dirty and harsh conditions and wanted a couple of dedicated pliers for both everyday and abusive conditions. Sometimes everyday pliers can recruited for such tasks, but sometimes things happen where I then can’t use them for other regular tasks.
But, I wasn’t shopping for the Pit-Bull pliers specifically. I had this in the back of my mind – it was a “good to buy soon” kind of tool I figured I’d order online at some point this month.
I was at Lowe’s to scout out the deals, and I was looking specifically at a competing brand’s adjustable pliers. I was already thinking about buying them online, and I saw that it had an updated design. But, they had practically no gripping teeth. Every single one on the peg was the same – almost no tooth. I’m not going to pay for something like that.
My next visit was to another Home Depot. I picked up the Z2 cutters (the first store didn’t have pricing and I knew I had many more stores to visit that day so I didn’t pick one up until the second store) and went to the pliers aisle to double check on the original pricing. I saw the Pit-Bull pliers and did some quick thinking.
All of my recent Crescent and Geawrench pliers experiences have been positive. The Pit-Bulls looked good and I liked the discounted price. So, I bought it on the spot. I’ve been liking the other Gearwrench and Crescent Z2 pliers so far, maybe I’ll like these too.
My initial impression is positive. The auto-adjusting mechanism is SIMPLE, which is important because there are a lot of gimmicks out there that aren’t worth it.
At this time last year, I had not see any real details as to what made the Pit-Bull pliers worthy of my coin. Auto-gripping pliers rarely impress me and far more often disappoint, and this made me skeptical.
Having them in-hand, I am most certainly impressed, and it fits in line with my overall sentiments about Gearwrench and Crescent’s broader pliers lines.
I also ordered a new Gearwrench bundle set last year, in part because it comes with these Auto-Bite and Pit-Bull-style pliers. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GGGRJ1/?tag=toolguyd-20
I didn’t want to talk much about the Pit-Bull/Auto-Bite pliers here because I still have to test them more thoroughly, and because it would take too long to tone down my language.
I was also somewhat deceived by the online imagery. The activation lever is simple and can be swung out of the way if you want to use the pliers without the auto-adjustment feature. But the auto-adjustment feature doesn’t control the “bite,” it just provides slight pressure to the handles so as to allow the lower jaw to swing closed.
Gearwrench is a sponsor, and we also have affiliate relationships with different retailers. If I didn’t have to choose my words so carefully in an attempt to be as objective and informative as possible, I would say that these pliers – the Crescent Z2, Gearwrench, and Pit-Bull and Auto-Bite pliers from both brands blow most of my other pliers out of the water. That’s why I’m not done shopping for Gearwrench pliers this season and why I might get another Z2. By the time I’m done, I’ll have Gearwrench and Crescent pliers in every tool box. The small hitch is that this didn’t come from one experience, but by months of use that now have me seeking out the Gearwrench or Crescent.
Given the length of this comment, I hope you can understand why I focused on the Black Friday promo in the main post, although I do plan to post more about these pliers later this month.