In the past: manual wire stripping
“Everything was better in the old days“ – we’ve all heard this sentence before and thought it to ourselves every now and then. In terms of tools for electricans, however, this is certainly not true. These have changed a lot through the years – thanks to a number of some very bright minds.
The goal of wire stripping is to separate the insulation material from the wire without damaging the latter. And that wasn’t exactly easy before tools like our No. 5 were invented.
Prior to every stripping process, a small adjustment wheel (see photo) had to be set by hand, so the edge of the wire stripper would only cut the cable sheath open as deeply as required. Thus, good visual judgement and dexterity were needed.
In addition, this method was very time-consuming and used up a lot of material, as you had to carefully figure out the right setting by stripping the wire several times.
Today, you can still buy these manual wire strippers. And working with them is not a mission impossible, but why making things more complicated, when they can be so much easier?