C.K Tools, a manufacturer of professional hand tools, has unveiled the relaunch of its best-selling range of pliers and cutters, Redline VDE, featuring a brand-new handle design meant for improved comfort and usability.
Following research into ergonomics, comfort, and safety – alongside feedback from users – the new-look pliers and cutters range has been re-developed with German manufacturing to deliver VDE-compliant tools. The company says these aim to offer quality, precision, and comfort – now with an additional tool tether for added safety when working at height.
Work-at-height safety is becoming more of a focus due to corporate responsibility and duty of care, but also because of lost time and injury. There is now a much more comprehensive understanding of the dangers of working at height.
Initially this focused on the worker themselves being safe at height, but now we are seeing a realisation that tools dropped from above can cause serious injury – or worse – with resulting authorities getting involved in investigations, increased insurance costs, and, of course, downtime. This is apart from the potentially devastating results of such incidents.
In 2023/24, there were 50 deaths in the UK and almost 5,000 non-fatal injuries from working at height, with dropped tools contributing to these numbers.
As a supplier, C.K Tools says it was logical to develop a range that not only provided VDE approved safety but also had working at height solutions integrated into it.
The new product line is launching nationwide today (1 July 2025) and features 19 SKUs, including side cutters, cable cutters, snipe nose pliers, combination pliers, and the Combicutter – available in a variety of sizes to accommodate different user preferences.
Brinley Buckley-Roberts, Head of Marketing at C.K Tools, comments, “We’re thrilled to bring this relaunched range to market, after years of expert research and development. We’ve remastered our best-selling range to ensure long-life performance, complete with induction hardened jaws, optimised geometry, and a two-component handle with improved ergonomics.
“The addition of a tool tether point ups-the-ante when it comes to safety and convenience – crucial factors for us when launching products to market. The relaunch of the Redline VDR has also given us the opportunity to push harder into industrial and renewables sectors, where we’ve seen a real demand for this type of feature.”
For more from C.K Tools, click here.