Wire strippers are a hand-held tool also known as cable strippers which are designed to remove insulation or outer sheath from electrical wires and cables. There are various types available from stripping the cable and cutting copper and each is made with components and materials to best suit their application. You can find out more in our wire stripper tool guide.Why would you need wire strippers?Wire strippers are an essential tool for any electrician or mechanical engineer. Wire strippers create a neat and tidy cut to reveal wires, ready to be soldered or have a connector attached.Types of wire strippers Adjustable stripper – self-adjusting stripper with the ability to crimp, strip and snip wires. Designed with precision and made to last.Triple action wire stripper – Professional heavy-duty cable strippers with unique spiral-cutting facility rotary, linear or spiral cut. These tools embody unique spiral-strip selector for hard-to-strip insulations like butyl and rubber. Wire stripper pliers – V-shaped stripping jaws for removing plastic insulation from single and multicore conductors. Available with VDE handles.Sheath stripper – Simple rotary action cutter and stripper perfect for 2-core and 3-core mains cables and leads. Produces safe ring-of-cut for outer and inner insulation on all types of flexible cable.Pistol wire stripper – Wire stripper with a self-adjusting blade, compound stripping action plus it grips and strips in on the motion.Automatic wire stripper – Cuts and strips insulation from a range of wire sizes in one operation. A single squeeze of handles opens and closes the synchronised jaws and strips insulation clean.Manual wire stripper – Made for regular use across various applications offers a spring-loaded self-opening handle and safety lock.Steel armoured cable stripper – Ideal for slitting the corrugated copper, steel or aluminium armour layer on fibre feeder, central tube, stranded loose tube fibre optic cables and other armoured cables.Who would use a wire stripper?Wire strippers are primarily used by electricians or mechanics but are equally at home in any DIY toolbox.