gfirob
Well-known member
Well, after some consideration, I thought I would write a review of Abel nippers. I do this with a little hesitation, because in some ways they are kind of ridiculous, the sort of over-the-top consumerist excess that is almost a joke. I mean, really, $50 nippers?
So let me qualify this by describing my approach to fly fishing gear generally. I am unrelentingly cheap. All of my reels are used, but grand old reels (Hardys, Pfluegars, JW Young and so on). My main reel is a magnificent 1927 Hardy Perfect with a big bite out of the frame, (so I got it cheap). Works great and it’s just a superb little piece of fishing machinery (exposed ball bearings? Agate line guide?). The sound of it alone is worth the price of admission…
My waders (new) and wading jacket (used) are Reddington. My only new rod is a Reddington Classic Trout, bought as a remainder. My go-to rod is a 1950 8.5’ Phillipson Pacemaker 5 wt bamboo (found cheap), second favorite is a 7.5’ Chinese Zhu 5 wt bamboo, $100). I have a used 9.5’ Thomas and Thomas 7wt graphite for larger bass. It’s about 11 years old.
And the fact is that even though I love fly fishing, I’m really not terribly good at it, so the idea of spending big money on this hobby seems inappropriate.
But if I get a little windfall money over the transom, I sometimes indulge myself in an unlikely treat, which is why I have a Nor vise (a truly great vise, once you figure out how to fly it), a Vedavoo Tightline Deluxe Sling pack (the best there is) and finally, the Abel nippers.
So that’s the context. Here is the review:
How often do we experience something that never disappoints? Not in marriage. Not in our profession. Not in our politicians. Not even in our children. And often not in our fly fishing equipment, regardless of price. Well, the Abel nippers never disappoint. Not ever. They just do their job with heavy, faithful competency every time.
Standing in a river, how many times to we clip leader or tippet? More than almost any other repeated action. We do it over and over again. And then we try to thread the tippet through a tiny little hook eye, and if the tippet has been mashed by a dull nipper and the hook is small, it becomes a struggle. And maybe its cold. And maybe the light is fading. And maybe we have aging eyesight. And maybe the fish are rising all round us. And maybe it fails to cut at all on the first or second clip.
It is of small disappointments that torment is built.
I like to think I came on the decision to buy these nippers honestly, by first using the cheapest nippers I could find, no-name fly shot nippers, one after the other, then graduating to Dr. Slick in annoyance, then to Fishpond Pitchfork nippers in exasperation (ridiculous at $23, but who can stand the annoyance?).
By this time (my wife pointed out) the cumulative nipper expense was about the same as if I had purchased the Abel nippers in the first place, so after Fishpond told me on the phone that they could not replace the blades for me after they became dull, and suggested helpfully that I could try to sharpen them myself on a whetting stone, I had suffered enough. When the money gods smiled on me by surprise one day, I bought the Abel nippers, in conservative black.
I will compare them to the old Hardy Perfect reel rather than an Abel reel (which, after all, is too expensive for me to own). At the time Hardy made that old reel, England was still an industrial powerhouse, with very high standards, and Hardy hand-made these reels, heavily over-engineering them so that 87 years later, after having had the **** fished out of it, the finish worn off and a big bite taken out of the frame, its ball bearings run quiet and true and it gives complete fishing satisfaction.
Of course the Abel nippers don’t have ball bearings, but they feel like they do. Like the Hardy Perfect, these nippers are also ridiculously over engineered, with heavy castings, thick enamel and relentlessly sharp blades. Listen to what Don Swanson, the president of Abel, says about those blades:
“The critical cutting edge jaw is Crucible CPM S35VN, an American-made and developed premium grade stainless steel created especially for knives. It is powder-made steel with a uniform carbide distribution and clean steel properties. The steel is heat treated and hardened to a Rockwell factor of 58-60. As a blade material, it offers excellent corrosion resistance and superb edge qualities,”
Thank you, Don.
Now if the president of the company can spend 60 words describing just the blades, you know they are probably not going to tell you to go out and sharpen them on your own whet stone if you are unhappy with them.
These blades have a two year warranty and are replaceable and they tell you they will cut anything you ask them to (80 pound fluorocarbon or braided line or whatever) though I haven’t experienced anything more demanding than 6x tippet. I also understand that you can clip your fingernails with them too, if you decide you need some grooming while fishing, but I have never tried that either. The nippers also include a superb hook-eye cleaner too, something which also never disappoints.
The only real downside to them (other than the cost) is that the legitimate fear of dropping them in the river demands some form of security system for them. Abel sells a lanyard ($25) which puts the combined cost of the nippers then at $75 (!) but I use a Gear-Keeper heavy duty zinger at $12, which I already had for a camera. Not only is it more versatile but doesn’t hang around my neck (and I already had one, so it was free). The camera will just have to take its chances…
Abel also makes a similar heavy duty zinger made of “6061-T651 cold finished aerospace grade aluminum” but it costs $50 too. I mean, really, $50 for a zinger?
Finally there is the pleasure of use which any great piece of equipment brings you. After all, $50 is a modest dinner for two (without drinks) or not quite a tank of gas, or any of a whole menu of ordinary life-expenses which we shrug off with more or less minor annoyance.
For me it was the trade off of repeated disappointment and annoyance for dependable joy of use. Hard to beat, in the end.
So let me qualify this by describing my approach to fly fishing gear generally. I am unrelentingly cheap. All of my reels are used, but grand old reels (Hardys, Pfluegars, JW Young and so on). My main reel is a magnificent 1927 Hardy Perfect with a big bite out of the frame, (so I got it cheap). Works great and it’s just a superb little piece of fishing machinery (exposed ball bearings? Agate line guide?). The sound of it alone is worth the price of admission…
My waders (new) and wading jacket (used) are Reddington. My only new rod is a Reddington Classic Trout, bought as a remainder. My go-to rod is a 1950 8.5’ Phillipson Pacemaker 5 wt bamboo (found cheap), second favorite is a 7.5’ Chinese Zhu 5 wt bamboo, $100). I have a used 9.5’ Thomas and Thomas 7wt graphite for larger bass. It’s about 11 years old.
And the fact is that even though I love fly fishing, I’m really not terribly good at it, so the idea of spending big money on this hobby seems inappropriate.
But if I get a little windfall money over the transom, I sometimes indulge myself in an unlikely treat, which is why I have a Nor vise (a truly great vise, once you figure out how to fly it), a Vedavoo Tightline Deluxe Sling pack (the best there is) and finally, the Abel nippers.
So that’s the context. Here is the review:
How often do we experience something that never disappoints? Not in marriage. Not in our profession. Not in our politicians. Not even in our children. And often not in our fly fishing equipment, regardless of price. Well, the Abel nippers never disappoint. Not ever. They just do their job with heavy, faithful competency every time.
Standing in a river, how many times to we clip leader or tippet? More than almost any other repeated action. We do it over and over again. And then we try to thread the tippet through a tiny little hook eye, and if the tippet has been mashed by a dull nipper and the hook is small, it becomes a struggle. And maybe its cold. And maybe the light is fading. And maybe we have aging eyesight. And maybe the fish are rising all round us. And maybe it fails to cut at all on the first or second clip.
It is of small disappointments that torment is built.
I like to think I came on the decision to buy these nippers honestly, by first using the cheapest nippers I could find, no-name fly shot nippers, one after the other, then graduating to Dr. Slick in annoyance, then to Fishpond Pitchfork nippers in exasperation (ridiculous at $23, but who can stand the annoyance?).
By this time (my wife pointed out) the cumulative nipper expense was about the same as if I had purchased the Abel nippers in the first place, so after Fishpond told me on the phone that they could not replace the blades for me after they became dull, and suggested helpfully that I could try to sharpen them myself on a whetting stone, I had suffered enough. When the money gods smiled on me by surprise one day, I bought the Abel nippers, in conservative black.
I will compare them to the old Hardy Perfect reel rather than an Abel reel (which, after all, is too expensive for me to own). At the time Hardy made that old reel, England was still an industrial powerhouse, with very high standards, and Hardy hand-made these reels, heavily over-engineering them so that 87 years later, after having had the **** fished out of it, the finish worn off and a big bite taken out of the frame, its ball bearings run quiet and true and it gives complete fishing satisfaction.
Of course the Abel nippers don’t have ball bearings, but they feel like they do. Like the Hardy Perfect, these nippers are also ridiculously over engineered, with heavy castings, thick enamel and relentlessly sharp blades. Listen to what Don Swanson, the president of Abel, says about those blades:
“The critical cutting edge jaw is Crucible CPM S35VN, an American-made and developed premium grade stainless steel created especially for knives. It is powder-made steel with a uniform carbide distribution and clean steel properties. The steel is heat treated and hardened to a Rockwell factor of 58-60. As a blade material, it offers excellent corrosion resistance and superb edge qualities,”
Thank you, Don.
Now if the president of the company can spend 60 words describing just the blades, you know they are probably not going to tell you to go out and sharpen them on your own whet stone if you are unhappy with them.
These blades have a two year warranty and are replaceable and they tell you they will cut anything you ask them to (80 pound fluorocarbon or braided line or whatever) though I haven’t experienced anything more demanding than 6x tippet. I also understand that you can clip your fingernails with them too, if you decide you need some grooming while fishing, but I have never tried that either. The nippers also include a superb hook-eye cleaner too, something which also never disappoints.
The only real downside to them (other than the cost) is that the legitimate fear of dropping them in the river demands some form of security system for them. Abel sells a lanyard ($25) which puts the combined cost of the nippers then at $75 (!) but I use a Gear-Keeper heavy duty zinger at $12, which I already had for a camera. Not only is it more versatile but doesn’t hang around my neck (and I already had one, so it was free). The camera will just have to take its chances…
Abel also makes a similar heavy duty zinger made of “6061-T651 cold finished aerospace grade aluminum” but it costs $50 too. I mean, really, $50 for a zinger?
Finally there is the pleasure of use which any great piece of equipment brings you. After all, $50 is a modest dinner for two (without drinks) or not quite a tank of gas, or any of a whole menu of ordinary life-expenses which we shrug off with more or less minor annoyance.
For me it was the trade off of repeated disappointment and annoyance for dependable joy of use. Hard to beat, in the end.
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