Pliers at Bab Al-Saif start at 0.500 KD for a 115 mm mini diagonal cutter, and the word "cutter" covers five different tools here, from a 0.250 KD utility knife to a 50.000 KD tile cutter. This page sorts out which plier does which job, what the inch number stamped on the handle actually measures, and which of the five things called a cutter you are looking for.
Which plier is which?
| Type | What it does | Sizes recorded | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combination pliers | Grip, twist, bend and cut wire in one tool. The default plier in a house. | 160, 180 and 200 mm | from 0.850 KD |
| Long nose pliers | Reach into a space your fingers do not fit, hold a small part, form a loop in wire. | 160 and 200 mm | from 0.750 KD |
| Bent nose pliers | The same job at an angle, for a fitting you cannot get in front of. | 160 mm | 0.750 KD |
| Diagonal side cutters | Cut wire and nothing else. There is no flat gripping face behind the jaws. | 115, 160 and 180 mm | from 0.500 KD |
| End cutting pincers | Cut flush against a surface, where a diagonal cutter cannot sit flat. | 180 and 200 mm | from 1.250 KD |
| Carpenter pincers | Pull a nail back out of timber, rolling on the curved jaw. | 8 inch | 0.950 KD |
| Water pump pliers | Adjustable serrated jaws for a tap body, a pipe nut or a pump housing. Also sold as tongue-and-groove or groove-joint pliers. | 250 and 300 mm | from 1.500 KD |
| Locking pliers | Clamp shut and stay there, so the tool holds the work while both your hands do something else. | 10 inch | from 1.000 KD |
| Circlip plier set | Internal and external circlips, straight and bent tips, four tools in one case. | 6 inch | 0.950 KD |
| Wire strippers and crimpers | Strip insulation to a set depth and crimp a terminal on. Not a job for a plier and a knife. | 8.5 inch, and 0.2 to 6 mm on the multi-tool | from 0.950 KD |
The inch number is the whole tool, not the jaw
This is the question that sends people to the showroom with the wrong plier. Every plier on this site is listed by its overall length, and the variant data gives both units together, so the mapping is exact: 160 mm is 6 inch, 180 mm is 7 inch, 200 mm is 8 inch, 250 mm is 10 inch and 300 mm is 12 inch. An "8 inch combination plier" is 200 mm from the tip of the jaw to the end of the handle. The jaw itself is a small fraction of that.
- Longer handle, more force, less access. The 180 mm combination plier is 1.250 KD and the 200 mm is 1.500 KD on the same listing. The extra 20 mm is nearly all handle, which is leverage on the cut — and 20 mm less room to get the nose into a socket box.
- What a jaw length buys you is reach, not grip. A long nose plier at 160 mm and one at 200 mm close on the same small object; the 200 mm one reaches 40 mm further to do it. That is the whole reason to pay 1.000 KD instead of 0.750 KD on that pair.
- On a water pump plier the number is the capacity. The 250 mm tool at 1.500 KD and the 300 mm quick-release at 2.750 KD open to different maximum jaw widths, and that opening is what decides whether it goes round your pipe nut. Neither listing records the maximum opening in millimetres, so bring the fitting or its size to the counter rather than guessing from the tool length.
- Material, where the record states it. The 8 inch insulated-handle combination plier records CR-V chrome vanadium steel. The industrial combination and long nose pliers record drop-forged tool steel with a nickel or black finish and a two-component plastic handle.
Insulated handles: read what the record actually says
One plier here is sold on its handle covering: the 8 inch combination plier at 1.250 KD, whose listing calls it an "insulated function" and records 8 inch and CR-V chrome vanadium steel. No voltage rating is recorded against it. There is also an insulated 5-piece screwdriver set at 1.350 KD, and that record states no voltage either.
So we will not print a volt figure for either, and nor should anyone else quoting this page. A moulded handle covering is a described feature; a live-working rating is a tested number printed on the tool with a standard beside it. If the number matters for your work, read the tool itself at the counter in Shuwaikh and buy on what is printed on it, not on a product listing. For the electrical range as a whole, see electrical hand tools, which runs from a 0.450 KD electrician's scissor to a 35.000 KD 12-tonne hydraulic crimping tool.
Five different tools are all called a "cutter"
"Cutter" means at least five different tools on this site, and they live in five different places. Here is which is which, so you can go straight to the right one.
| When someone says "cutter" | What they mean | Price | Where it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| A knife with a snap-off or retractable blade | Card, carpet, film, tape, plasterboard paper. A utility knife is 0.250 KD; a 100 mm retractable knife 0.450 KD; an industrial snap-off knife, 25 x 140 mm blade 1.000 KD. | from 0.250 KD | Utility knives, cutters and blades |
| A cable cutter | Copper and aluminium cable, cut with a curved shearing jaw rather than crushed. The 6 inch cable cutter is 0.750 KD and the 8 inch 0.950 KD; a 9.5 inch / 235 mm is 1.200 KD. | from 0.750 KD | Electrical hand tools |
| A bolt cutter | Bolts, chain, padlocks, rebar and wire mesh. Long handles, short blades, 450 mm to 900 mm. | from 3.250 KD | Cutting discs, blades and hole saws |
| A tile cutter | A bed with a scoring wheel on a rail and a snapping foot. 400 mm 6.750 KD, 600 mm 8.950 KD, up to a 160 cm bed at 50.000 KD. | from 6.750 KD | Tile cutters |
| A cutting disc for an angle grinder | A consumable, not a tool. A 115 mm flat metal cutting disc is 0.150 KD. | from 0.150 KD | Cutting discs, blades and hole saws |
Two more that get the same word and are genuinely different tools: snips for sheet metal, from 1.250 KD for a 10 inch aviation snip up to 2.750 KD for 12 inch tin snips; and pipe cutters, 1.450 KD for a 42 mm PVC cutter and 2.250 KD for the 51 mm size of the alloy-steel tube cutter, whose 75 mm size is 2.500 KD.
Cable cutter, bolt cutter, tile cutter: do not substitute one for another
- A cable cutter is for cable, not for bolts. Its jaws shear a soft stranded conductor cleanly. Put a hardened bolt in a 0.750 KD cable cutter and the jaw is what gives way.
- A bolt cutter is sized by handle length, and the handle is the tool. The industrial bolt cutter goes 450 mm / 18 inch at 3.750 KD, 600 mm / 24 inch at 4.500 KD, 750 mm / 30 inch at 6.500 KD and 900 mm / 36 inch at 8.000 KD. There is also a shorter pair at 3.250 KD for 450 mm and 4.250 KD for 600 mm. Buy by what you have to cut and how much room you have to swing the handles.
- A tile cutter does not cut; it scores and snaps. The figure in the name is the bed length, which is the longest cut it can take: a 400 mm bed will not do a 600 mm porcelain plank. For a cut that is not straight, or a hole in a fitted tile, the tool is a diamond disc on a grinder, or the 710 W diamond tile and marble cutter, GDC 140, at 28.700 KD.
- A utility knife is not any of the above. It is the one on this list you will use most and replace blades for: a 10-pack of 18 x 100 mm snap-off blades is 0.250 KD, which is 25 fils a blade. A blunt blade is why people press harder.
Picking a plier set rather than singles
- Three pliers cover most of a flat in Kuwait. An 8 inch combination at 0.850 KD, a 160 mm long nose at 0.750 KD and a 160 mm diagonal cutter at 1.000 KD come to 2.600 KD for the three, and between them they grip, reach and cut.
- Add a water pump plier before you add anything else. At 1.500 KD for the 250 mm it is the tool that turns a tap back-nut, a shower hose fitting and a washing-machine inlet, and nothing else on the list does that job.
- For electronics and model work the 115 mm mini diagonal cutter is 0.500 KD and a 3-piece 5 inch mini set is 1.450 KD.
- A riveter is not a plier, though it looks like one and sits in the same collection: the 10.5 inch hand riveter is 1.500 KD and it sets blind rivets rather than gripping anything.
- Browse the full range in pliers, and if you are building a kit from nothing start with what a home tool kit should contain.
Why buy from Bab Al-Saif
- Close a plier in your hand before you buy it. Our showroom is at Shuwaikh Plaza, Khalifa Al-Jassim Street, Shuwaikh Industrial, and what separates a 0.850 KD plier from a 1.500 KD one is the steel, the finish and the handle the records describe, which you can feel in two seconds and cannot see in a photograph.
- In Kuwait since 1992, rated 4.7 stars by over 350 customers on Google.
- Cash on delivery, card, or split your payment with Deema, with delivery across Kuwait.
FAQs
How much do pliers cost in Kuwait?
From 0.500 KD for a 115 mm mini diagonal cutting plier. A 160 mm long nose or bent nose is 0.750 KD, an 8 inch combination plier 0.850 KD, and a 250 mm water pump plier 1.500 KD. Twenty-nine listings in all, among them a multipurpose plier at 4.500 KD measuring 102 x 46 x 23 mm, in pliers.
What is the difference between combination pliers and a side cutter?
A combination plier has a flat serrated gripping face, a round section behind it and a small cutting edge at the back of the jaw, so it does three jobs adequately. A diagonal side cutter has only the cutting edge and no gripping face at all, which is why it cuts a wire flush and a combination plier leaves a stub. Combination from 0.850 KD, diagonal from 0.500 KD; most electricians carry both.
Which plier cuts an electrical cable?
For a single conductor, a 160 mm diagonal cutting plier at 1.000 KD. For a multi-core cable, a purpose-made cable cutter with a curved shearing jaw: 0.750 KD at 6 inch, 0.950 KD at 8 inch, 1.200 KD at 9.5 inch, or an aluminium and copper cable cutter at 0.850 KD. A combination plier will do it in an emergency and will crush the end flat.
What is a crimping plier, and do I need one?
It presses a metal terminal permanently onto a stripped conductor. The multi-function stripping and crimping plier at 2.000 KD is rated by the record for 0.2 to 6 mm conductors, which it also gives as 24 to 10 AWG. A 6 inch long-nose plier with a crimping section is 0.750 KD. For heavy cable lugs the tools are hydraulic: 14.000 KD at 8 tonnes and 35.000 KD at 12 tonnes.
Can a plier cut a padlock or a bolt?
No. That is a bolt cutter, and the smallest one here is 3.250 KD at 450 mm. The leverage comes from the handle length, which is why the 900 mm pair at 8.000 KD does what no 200 mm plier can.
Is a "cutter" the same thing as a cutting disc?
Not usually. Most people asking for a cutter in Kuwait mean a knife with a snap-off blade, from 0.250 KD. A cutting disc is the consumable that goes on an angle grinder, from 0.150 KD, and which disc fits which grinder is set out in angle grinder prices and disc sizes.
What size water pump plier do I need?
The 250 mm / 10 inch at 1.500 KD covers household taps and traps. The 300 mm / 12 inch quick-release at 2.750 KD is the one for a larger pipe nut or a pump union, and it adjusts without the thumb-and-slide step. Neither listing records a maximum jaw opening, so if the fitting is unusual bring it in and we will try it.
Why does the same size plier show more than one price?
Because several listings carry the same size at different build. An 8 inch combination plier is 0.850 KD on one listing, 1.250 KD on another and 1.500 KD on a third, and the differences are the steel, the finish and the handle. That is also true of the 450 mm bolt cutter at 3.250 KD and 3.750 KD, and the 600 mm at 3.750 KD, 4.250 KD and 4.500 KD. Ask at the counter which one suits the work rather than assuming the price is an error.
Also useful: all hand tools for the rest of the range, what size spanner, socket and Allen key you need for the nut-and-bolt side of the same job, and cutting discs, blades and hole saws for everything that mounts on a machine.
