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Retailers have shared that Channellock is soon coming out with new locking pliers.
Presumably made by Grip-on, the Channellock locking pliers feature drop forged jaws, rugged teeth, and epoxy resin coating, and extended no-pinch release lever.
Shown here are Grip-on 10-inch curved jaw locking pliers, with an epoxy resin coating in orange and black. Channellock’s colors are black with blue accents.
Even if you recognize the style, what you might not know is that Channellock offered these locking pliers before.
You can see a pair of Channellock-branded locking pliers in this 2011 photo of some of my favorite tools. It doesn’t look like the design has changed at all in the 12 years since then.
I bought 3 sets of Channellock locking pliers back in 2009 when they were on closeout – two for use and one for spares. The clearance pricing was great, where I bought a total of 6 locking pliers for less than it would have cost me for 2 of the same tools under Grip-on branding.
I have found that Grip-on locking pliers, whether self-branded or made for other brands such as Channellock, are decent performers. I would buy them again if the pricing was right.
Channellock’s locking pliers were already on clearance when I first started reporting on the tool industry, and so I didn’t know much about what happened. It’s good to see them revive things, but what’s different now compared to 14 years ago?
It will be interesting to see what Channellock will do now in the locking pliers space.
Channellock’s PR firm could not provide any imagery or product information, and so everything we know so far comes from the single teaser image shared by a tool dealer in a public newsletter. Thank you to Fred for the tip!
