One of our favorite tool is the Knipex 13 96 200 general electrician's pliers:
Many reviews have already been written about it, so we just want to highlight the pro/con aspects that we have not encountered or have seen mentioned only a few times:
Pros:
- The pliers are spring-loaded, and a thumb-operated locking mechanism protects them from opening unintentionally. Even in the closed position, the pliers remain slightly open, allowing you to grab wire ends or even break out the wire pass-through hole in a junction box without fully opening them.
- It easily strips wires with cross-sections between 0.8-2.5 mm², though we generally prefer using another tool for this task.
- It can crimp ferrules onto stranded wires with cross-sections between 0.5-2.5 mm², but this is more of an emergency solution; we use dedicated ferrule crimping pliers that crimp at 4/6 points.
Cons:
- The manufacturer intentionally does not make the front part of the pliers serrated. For us, this has been more of a disadvantage than an advantage in 9 out of 10 cases.
All things considered, these are very likable universal pliers and the ideal answer to the question, "If you could only take one pair of pliers with you, which one would it be?"