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I saw these pliers being abused for something they’re probably not meant for.

What are these pliers actually for, and what do you call them?

Enter image description here

Peter Mortensen
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Philipp
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  • So bottle opener, where is the tool for removing stones from horses hooves? – Solar Mike Aug 20 '23 at 08:40
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    Not sure why we have VtC on this question. It seems rather legitimate to me and well along the lines of all they other [tag:identify-a-tool] questions that have been asked. Sure, I guess they're all opinion based, but so are many of our questions here, including this holy war on drywall hanging. – FreeMan Aug 21 '23 at 12:13

3 Answers3

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@RockPaperLz nailed it. After some reverse image searching, these appear to be a model of fishing pliers popularized by ABU (now ABU Garcia) - can't tell if this is a knockoff or ABU-brand pliers from your photo.

Here is a photo from this Etsy listing (archive link), with the various details translated from Swedish via Google translate:

pliers sitting on top of a descriptive leaflet in Swedish

Original:

ABU Fisketång är ett för sportfiskare, jägare och övrigt friluftsfolk mycket praktiskt universalverktyg.

ABU Fisketång har alla dessa funktioner:

  1. Lossar krok
  2. Fjällar fisk
  3. Trimmar blysänken
  4. Biter av tråd o dyl
  5. Plattar till sänken o dyl
  6. Öppnar burkar
  7. Öppnar flaskor

Translated (with help from @ghellquist)

ABU Fishing Pliers is a very practical universal tool for anglers, hunters and other outdoorsmen.

ABU Fishing Pliers have all these functions:

  1. Releases hook
  2. Scales fish
  3. Trims the lead sinker
  4. Cuts pieces of thread and similar
  5. Flattens fishing sinker and similar
  6. Opens cans
  7. Opens bottles

Additionally, here is an Ebay listing (archive link) with 4 of these types of pliers, noting that they are "4 vintage ABU fishing pliers from the 60's to the 90's."

TylerW
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  • Cuts Pieces of thread and similar 5. Flattens fishing sinker and similar (dyl is short for dylikt meaning "such things")
  • – ghellquist Aug 20 '23 at 19:15
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    So, with #6 you can open a can of fish if you fail to catch any yourself? This tool has you covered - now you just have to remember to bring a can of fish... – rob74 Aug 21 '23 at 08:26