Lee Valley is one of my favorite woodworking tool suppliers. This is not just because of their excellent Veritas tools, but because they have great customer service.
NWS is a big pliers brand in Europe, but isn’t quite as big a name in the USA, at least not yet.
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I own a couple of NWS pliers and REALLY like them. Most of my pliers have the black teflon coating which I like better than the chrome finish.
Here’s a show and tell video I put together a few years ago that showcases a couple of different NWS pliers styles:
Now that Lee Valley has started carrying these pliers, I will probably buy a few more sizes or styles. Other USA distributors don’t always have every SKU in stock, which means you might have to wait a while after ordering before the pliers around. For one order I had to wait 6 weeks or so until everything arrived.
It looks like Lee Valley is carrying NWS combination pliers, long nose pliers, water pump pliers, cutters, and our favored Fantastico high leverage wire cutters. Their prices on sets and individual pliers are good, and we hope that sales prompt Lee Valley to expand their offerings.
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Andy says
Nice. Wanted to try these for awhile but they are hard too find
fred says
I bought some NWS “Fantastico” pliers a while ago from Chads Toolbox – and I like them quite a bit. I was now more interested in some other new items from Lee Valley (VERITAS) – such as their now extended line of toothed plane blades. I have 3 Veritas planes that they will fit – and I’m hoping that the fine toothed blade will do a better job on curly maple than the coarser toothed blades that I’ve used.
They are also now carrying some interesting looking Nite-Ize products at less than half the price of Amazon. Only thing left is for me to wait on one of their free shipping deals.
Stuart says
The new toothed-edged blades caught my attention as well. I’ll probably pick one up next time they offer free shipping.
fred says
Planes have been around since ancient times. With the advent of the more modern metal-body plane – it probably became easier to mass produce options to deal with tricky woods and grain patterns. If wish to learn more you might look into toothed blades – but also the notions of bedding angle, high angle frogs (e.g. York Pitch), low angle (technically block) planes, bevel-up planes, plane iron grinding (bevel angle), skewed blade orientation, throat openings/adjustments, chipbreakers, cap irons, sole length and so on. I’ve been working on mastering the use of hand planes for about 50 years – and I’m getting better – but would never want to have to compete with a Colonial era journeyman.
Eric says
Where else can these pliers be purchased at? Are the comparable to Klein as far as price and quality? These tools certainly have my attention.
Stuart says
Chad’s Toolbox and German-Hand-Tools.com. Chad’s is where I bought all of mine. GermanHandTools is a newer distributor that has a wide selection, decent prices, and a good reputation.
fred says
While I’ve dealt with Chads (for Knipex, Wera, Urko, NWS, Felo, Checkpoint et. al.) for many years (in the past buying in quantity for a business) and find their prices to be competitive (may not beat a Woot Deal) – I’ve often been a bit frustrated by the wait for items to come into stock. When looking at their website I also find it hard to precisely know the quantities in stock.
I’ve also purchased from kctoolco.com for some brands of German tools (Wiha, Wera, Knipex and Gedore) but they don’t carry NWS as far as I know
jesse says
I would like to see a comparison of comparable NWS and Knipex water pump pliers.
Toolfreak says
Wonder if the sets will ever go on sale…