What's a word for pliers and similar tools with a scissors action?

Question

Is there a word for all tools with a scissors action, e.g. scissors, pliers, side cutters, single hole punch, cable crimper, lopper, secateurs, post hole digger, etc.?

Specifically, any tool that requires its two arms which are connected on a common pivot to be moved relative to each other in order to complete the action of the tool.

This is required to enable a large number of diverse tools to be stored in such a way that they can easily be located, i.e. if I need the BNC crimp tool or the scissors I would go to the labelled collection of 'double class-1–lever devices' and not the 'pointy tools with a single handle' collection. The idea being to find some obvious feature that that ties then together, not necessarily related to their function - a sort of mental hook. This would enable say 500 tools to be arranged and stored in, say, 10 categories on the bench.

Incidentally, loppers, secateurs and post hole diggers would fit the definition but wont be in my collection, unless I do the same for the garden shed.

Answer 1

Class-1 Lever (or 1st class lever)

In a class-1 lever, the force you apply is on the opposite side of the fulcrum to the force you produce. A see-saw is an example of a class-1 lever. So is a pair of scissors:

-ExplainthatStuff.com/toolsmachines

Specifically, all of these types of scissor-action tools are sub-categorized as...

double class-1 lever device.

In other words, the fulcrum is in between the force and the effect, and the force of the 2 arms is in the opposite direction of the effect. This includes all the tools you have listed.

And here is an image of a single-hole puncher. The action is obviously the same from a physics standpoint.

Crimpers (pliers), hedge-cutters, pruning shears, and even the hated post-hole digger fall into this category.

All of the below tools whether they be crimpers, cutters, pliers, etc have 2 arms pivoting around a central point and have the same type of scissors action i.e. the direction of the effect is opposite to the force. Notice that most of these crimping tools also offer a "cutting" edge for wire, essentially scissors for tougher materials.

Answer 2

You could call all of these items hinged hand tools. I wouldn't necessarily think of all of the listed examples upon hearing this term with no context, but I think it is an accurate descriptor of the list - every item is a hand tool which has a hinge.

That said, this term may not be sufficiently exclusive. There are other hand tools with a hinge that do not operate in the same scissors-type motion - a paper cutter, for example, is a hinged hand tool with a purpose basically like a scissor, but it only has a single moving part and is a class 3, rather than class 1 lever.

Answer 3

Speaking as a tool (and gadgets in general) junkie here:

Scissor type tools are different than plier type tools. Namely, the effective tool interface in a pair of scissors is where the two cutting edges, found on the "blades" (neither of which is usually very good at cutting by itself) slide past each other, fracturing the workpiece by controlled local shear forces, stopping only when the entire working edges have passed each other.

In general, when they are used to cut, these are "scissor type" or "shear type" tools, and are found in the "cutting tools" section of tool catalogues.

In the case of pliers, the effective tool faces (jaws) meet each other and stop in the middle, unless they've trapped something in between them.

These are usually called in general "pliers", and include tweezers and all other pincer style tools.

Both kinds of tools usually have a very similar hinge; the difference is in how the tool interfaces interact with the workpiece.

A note about tool organization:

In most catalogues, tools are categorized by function rather than by structure. That is, wood cutting tools, marking tools, metal cutting tools, plastic cutting tools (all of these cutting tools may belong to a meta-category "cutting tools"), pliers, abrasives and files, etc. An exception to this "rule" is the bifurcation between "electric tools" and "hand tools".