If you've ever tried to slit electrical cable very far without ruining the inner wires, you know how hard it can be. This amazing little tool does in two seconds what can take a frustrating five minutes with a knife or wire cutters. You adjust the blade to the outer jacket thickness, clamp the thing on the cable, revolve it around the cable for the periphery cut (it rotates 90 degrees), flick the lever with your thumb, slit the cable lengthwise as far you want it, and the outer stripped jacket just falls off. Otherwise, especially on a long strip length, you either have to yank the jacket off the wire by hand or try to slit it with a knife, which is when you start damaging wires. This works great on heavy rubber SJO cord, coax, multiconductor, you name it. No nicks or cuts on the inner wires. You can even remove the jacket from the middle of a length of wire by making two periphery cuts and slitting away what's in between.

Even among electricians who strip cables for a living, this tool is surprisingly lesser-known. I've shown this to guys who wire up large industrial machines for a living and had their jaw drop open. And then I never see my slitter much after that anymore since it's always out on loan. It's a hard tool to find at any store (Berlands house of tools used to carry it). I discovered his tool in 1993 or so. Usage seems to go in spurts, depending on projects and which phase of machine building we are in (I design custom automated machinery for a living). Sometimes these five-foot tall electrical cabinets will have 100 wires running out of it, each having to be stripped & terminated. The electricians I work with especially love this tool.

-- Jon Kroninger

$26
Available from Altex

Manufactured by Paladin