Knipex Cobra XS Review
There are a bunch of different lines of tools all of which are marketed as premium tools, step ups from stuff like Craftsman (which outlasted its parent company…Sears was oddly good at establishing brands but bad at being a company, perhaps it was their soulless stores that were attached to malls, which I am convinced are bad for the human spirit). Wiha, Wera, Snap On, Channel Lock, and Knipex all sell these premium hand tools. They are, in my experience, pretty darn good. I own this set of Wiha drivers and they are truly excellent.
I became intrigued by the Cobra XS after seeing one in the pocket dump of EDC Outlaw on IG, who coats and laser etches Cobras to fantastic results. His store is found here. There are also Cobra XS sheath makers all over Etsy, like this one. This is a product that has created a cottage industry around itself. That is usually a sign of quality.
Around the same time that I fould EDC Outlaw’s IG feed I also lost my beloved Leatherman Skeletool CX after more than a decade of carry and use. It is the first tool I have lost since I started the site and it was gobbled up in a move. I was looking at replacements for it and this and the soon to be reviewed SOG Flash MT came to my attention. With the Cobra the question was this—could I pair this with a knife and do better than I could with a multitool, even one as light as the Skeletool or the Flash MT? That’s the question this unscored review will answer.
Here is the product page. The Knipex Cobra XS Pliers retail for around $40, a pricey item for a tool and steal for a functional EDC item. In a smart move Knipex is advertising this directly to the EDC market as well as their normal customer base. It is about time someone did something like this. Over and over again traditional tool brands are leaving money on the table by not tapping into the obvious EDC market. Kudos to Knipex for doing this and tip of the hat to the smart person in the marketing department. Us EDC folks are a loyal and spendy bunch.
The Cobras are “water pump” pliers. There is a similarly sized set of pliers from Knipex that are wrench pliers. The difference can be found in the ratcheting mechanism and the shape of the jaws. In addition to being set at a slight angle, the water pump pliers have a recess in the jaws when closed while the wrench pliers have flat, parallel jaws. I chose this pliers designed instead of the wrench pliers because it is more versatile, capable of doing what the wrench pliers can and a bit more.
“Water pump pliers” are one of many names for adjustable slipjoint pliers. They were developed in 1934 by the company that became Channellock. I would guess that Knipex calls them “water pump” pliers because of how the handle shape resembles the single pump handle on an old fashioned water pump. I would also guess that calling them “channellocks,” like most people do in practice, would irritate the legal department at Channellock. When my Dad saw me use them for the first time he said: “Wow, Baby Channellocks, that’s new.”
These pliers are marked Made in Germany, as one would expect given that Knipex is headquartered in Wuppertal, Germany. The jaws of the pliers are hardened steel, but Knipex does not specify which formulation. They are hardened to 60 Hrc and I can attest to this fact—they are exceptionally hard.
That said, in their raw state, the Cobras are pretty prone to rust. I carried them and used them to install a drain hose from our downspout to a rain barrel and they exhibited a significant amount of surface rust on the jaws where the steel is satin finished without a coating. The rest of the tool is coated and exhibited no rust. As a result, I would guess the Cobras are not made of stainless steel. Some tool steel seems like the most likely candidate. If anyone knows for sure, comment below. There are tons of grades of tool steel us knife knuts are oblivious to so I would not want to hazard a guess.
Here are some notes on use.
The handles on the Cobras are worth mentioning. They are made with the texturing built in, resulting strong positive grip without any slipping or movement AND without harsh gimmicks. The slipjoint mechanism is very easy to use and unlike on cheaper pliers of this design it rare misthreaded or slipped out of position. Instead, it was easy to seat and impossible to dislodge once the pliers were in use. The Cobras were quite compact making for easy-ish carry. I wouldn’t call them easy to carry, they can’t tuck into a coin pocket, for instance, but they weren’t bad. While they were lighter than a multitool, they were just as wide functionally. The real upgrade here over a multitool is the quality of the jaws of the pliers. Thanks to very aggressive machining, resulting in sharp teeth, and very hard steel, they grip everything, even hardened steel round stock. This is, in my mind, the ultimate test of a pair of pliers—holding round stock without rotation, and the Cobras did it with ease, even with bright, shiny nails. They will mar and mark the round stock, so be careful. The jaws are also quite thin allowing them to get into small spaces and grab things.
I am not sure I would ever carry these with a knife INSTEAD of a multitool, but I do think they represent a functional and superlative alternative. I paired them with the Spyderco Sage 5 LW and they were exceedingly useful.
Given that a multitool is used as pliers or a knife 90% of the time, the functionality is there, especially because the Cobras are vastly superior pliers to anything you will find in a multitool regardless of size or price. I still think the drivers and the pry/cap lifter on a multitool are worthwhile and I have a new appreciation for the can opener, all of which you lose in a knife/Cobra carry, but there is something to be said for a great uncompromised knife and a great uncompromised pair of pliers.
So the answer is: yes, absolutely, you can use these along with a knife as a multitool replacement.
I love seeing innovation in how people carry stuff. We have enough new gadgets and steels to keep us occupied forever but Knipex encouraging people to carry differently in the EDC space is a cool idea and one I would like to see more of. I would never have guessed that a pair of small pliers like this would be an EDC item but they clearly are and they work great.
Highly Recommended
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