MARVEL MVA-200 Pliers
Shear-Cutting MARVEL Lineman’s Pliers (and Scissors)
MARVEL pliers are produced by MARVEL Corporation, a Japanese company focused mostly on tools for the electrical trade. Their MVA-200 lineman’s plier is one of the few shear- (bypass) cutting lineman’s pliers available (as opposed to the traditional pinch cutters on almost all other lineman’s pliers). Since I’ve never used shear-cutting lineman’s in all the decades I’ve been doing electrical work, I was naturally curious about how they felt, cut, and generally worked compared to the lineman’s I was familiar with. (Note that MARVEL also makes a very lineman’s-like pinch-cutting “combination” plier, too: the MA-880)
After all, when we need to cut big cables we don’t reach for lineman’s, but for shear-cutting cable cutters. I wondered if the shear-cutting MVA-200s would cut more easily than pinch-cutting lineman’s through the common cable and wire that most electricians work with most of the time here in the States.
But what really piqued my interest were the results of a recent survey of Australian electricians in which the MARVEL-200 was the clear favorite of sparkys down under, beating out other brands of pinch-cutting (traditional) lineman’s. Now, Japanese products have a pretty good presence in Australia, but there are also several traditional high-quality lineman’s pliers widely available there from well-regarded American and European manufacturers. Then I started to notice the comments on various electrician’s forums from electricians in Australia saying that MARVEL was king of the trade there.
So I reached out to MARVEL and asked if they could send us a pair of the MVA-200s. They were nice enough to do so, and they also sent along their new scissors (the JBS-180) which are well suited to use as electrician’s scissors. Bearing in mind what a reviewer can and can’t do, here are my thoughts.
MARVEL MVA-200 Shear-Cutting Lineman’s
- Total length: 8.3 inches (212 mm)
- Weight: 12.2 oz (360 g)
- Cutting Capacity: VVF cable (diameter 0.1 inches (2.6 mm) x 3 cores), copper wire (diameter 0.1 inches (3.2 mm), IV wire (0.9 inches (22 mm) x 0.4 inches (9.2 mm)
- Crimping Capacity: 0.05 – 0.08 inches (1.25 – 2.0 mm)
- No gap in the closed nose
- Molded vinyl grips
- Drop-forged carbon steel head
- $63 on Amazon (sometimes less on eBay)
- Marvel website description here
Of course, the cutting capacity refers to Japanese and Pacific Rim cable and wire designations. The only one I recognize is VVF, which is essentially romex. But Australia runs 230 volts, and Japan 100 volts, for residential wiring so I just used the common 14 and 12 AWG romex cable and wire that I had here as test mediums.
The feel in the hand of these pliers is extremely comfortable. As used as I am to a 9-inch set of lineman’s, I really like this size (8.3 inches) which is lighter and more nimble, and perfectly suitable for the 120-volt cables that most electricians work with most of the time. The MVA-200s are also lighter than other lineman’s this length, and they feel less fatiguing in the hand. It’s important to add that they are well balanced and you always have a good feel for where the head is. According to Google and the U. S. military, I have average-sized hands for an American male, and these pliers fit them perfectly.
The fit and finish of these pliers are first-rate. The surfaces are perfectly machined with crisp lines, curves, and corners. Both flat sides are polished. I will probably take a stone lightly to a couple of the edges because they are so crisp that they border on sharp!
The vinyl grips on the MVA-200 pliers are different from what we are used to here in the U.S. and very comfortable. They remind me of the old red plastic grips that used to come with lineman’s back in the 60s, only these have just the slightest, just-right, give to them. They have a slight texture that’s a perfect combination of smooth and grippy. MARVEL definitely got these grips right!
Unlike conventional pinch-cutting lineman’s, there is no gap in the closed nose of the MVA-200s. None is necessary since they don’t need a gap to accommodate cutter wear.
Unlike some Japanese pliers, the jaws of the MVA-200s have cross-hatching, which I was glad to see. Cross-hatching is standard on almost all American and European lineman’s, and it really does a better job than unidirectional grooves of gripping wire, wire nuts, and everything else that an electrician needs to grab, pull, and twist. I measure the jaw width as 13mm, which is wide enough to comfortably twist 3 or 4 strands of 12 or 14 AWG wire.
MARVEL says that these pliers are rated for copper only, which is not uncommon with Japanese lineman’s. While this may strike U.S. sparkys as a limitation, I suggest that it’s not usually, at least not for most of us. If you’re cutting MC of any sort, there are far better ways to do so than with your lineman’s. For nails and the like, I always carry a pair of beater (sacrificial) high-leverage dykes because I don’t want to ruin the knives on my lineman’s. Now true, grabbing a nail or something similar that’s in your way and leveraging it out with your lineman’s, without having to access another tool, is often convenient. All I can say to that is that the majority of Aussie electricians who swear by their MARVELs clearly don’t find their copper-only rating to be a problem.
How do the Shear Blades Compare?
I compared the 8.3-inch MARVEL shear-cutting MVA-200 pliers to various good quality 8.5-inch, 9-inch, and 9.5-inch traditional (pinch-cutting) lineman’s pliers that I have. They cut through three strands of 14 gauge wire (14/2 with ground romex) cleanly and easily, and required a similar amount of force on that cable as the pinch-cutters. Now, 3×14-gauge isn’t too much of a test and I expected to feel a greater difference moving up to 3×12-gauge, and that was the case. There the MVA-200s required less total force than even the 9.5-inch pinch cutters. Just for fun, I bundled three strands of 14-gauge with three strands of 12-gauge, and the difference was even more apparent, with the MVA-200s being, of course, easier to cut with.
Notice that I said “total” force in the sentence above. That’s because the MARVELs and the traditional lineman’s demanded the same initial force, but the cross-cutting MARVEL’s needed that force only at the very beginning of the cut, with the required force for the remaining cut falling off rapidly. By contrast, the traditional pinch-cutters needed that same initial force maintained throughout much of the entire cut. If you’re doing a lot of cable cuts in a day, that difference in the force curve can add up to a considerable difference in the total work done.
I found that the MVA-200’s were considerably easier to strip with (both romex and individual strands), no doubt due to the sharper knives.
Most quality pinch-cutting lineman’s will snip through thin line and twine of various materials (at least when new). The MVA-200s did likewise, even cleanly cutting through thin, slippery, soft #18 nylon mason’s line, which I thought might get bound up between the blades (it didn’t).
Grip, Pull, and Twist
The cross-hatched jaws of the MVA-200 grab and twist wires with the best of them. I was glad to see cross-hatched jaws on these Japanese pliers – for some reason uni-directional grooves are common on electrical plier jaws there, and I can’t understand why. American electricians will like the performance of the MVA-200 here.
Because there’s no jaw gap with these cross-cutting pliers, the fully-closing jaws can grab and pull on very thin materials. For example, they were able to latch onto and pull thin aluminum flashing easily (this same flashing slid right through the jaws of traditional pinch-cutting lineman’s pliers).
MARVEL JBS-180 Scissors
MARVEL also sent along a pair of their new JBS-180 scissors. These are very sharp, industrial-grade scissors, marketed as multi-purpose scissors to all the trades. They are very light (a mere 2 ounces) and very comfortable in the hand. They easily cut through any material that you’d consider jobsite scissors for. For example, they cut through aluminum flashing as easily as paper.
Scissors are commonly used by low-voltage electricians and communications installers because they are often more nimble and precise than pliers in working with the small-gauge wires used in those applications. In that light, the JBS-180s cleanly and effortlessly cut through 18-gauge solid wire and “zip cord” (two 14-gauge stranded wires). While they don’t have stripping notches on a blade back, they are very capable tools.
Low-voltage work aside, the JBS-180s are useful to almost any tradesperson. One thing we all do almost every day is reach for a pair of scissors, for some task or other, even if just opening packaging. I always have a pair in my bag. At almost nothing in weight and being very thin, the JBS-180s can ride in a tool pouch or bag and never be noticed, but welcome and more appropriate than a knife when you need it. They may be the tool you didn’t know you needed but are glad you found.
The JBS-180 scissors are available wholesale as of this writing — look for them soon at retail here (or you can contact MARVEL directly).
Bottom Line
We’d contacted MARVEL to see how we liked cross-cutting lineman’s compared to the pinch-cutting lineman’s that Americans are used to. And we like them, quite a bit!
I predict that cross-cut lineman’s will become more common in the States as electricians get more familiar with them, and that MARVEL will become more widely distributed here. Sparkys that spend a good deal of every day cutting copper cable in particular will appreciate the superior cutting ease. After all, 132,000 Australian electricians can’t be wrong!
