How to Strip Wires Safely: Tools, Techniques, and Expert Tips

Stripping wires is something that electricians, audio-visual technicians, mechanics, and many other tradespeople need to do on a daily basis. For the home DIY handyman, wire insulation removal is something that you may only need to do once or twice a year.

Stripping a wire refers to removing the outer insulation, typically a plastic coating, that surrounds the bare metal wire. This can be done in many different ways, for different reasons, with different tools and methods.

In this article we’ll cover why, when, and how you’d strip a wire, and introduce some of the best tools for the job.

Why Would You Need To Strip A Wire?

The main reason you’d want to strip a wire is to expose the bare metal core, to create a clean, conductive surface for making a new connection, or repairing one that has broken. The outer layer surrounding wires and cables prevents short-circuits and shocks, by ensuring the live wire it protects doesn’t touch against anything else conductive.

However, to connect wires to each other, or to terminals or other components, the metal needs to make a clean connection, without the insulation layer interfering. Whether you’re installing a sound system in your car, repairing a light fixture in your home, fixing a busted connection in your child’s electronic toy, or grounding a wire to prevent electrical fault, stripping wires is usually a necessary step.

Learning to strip a wire properly is important to maintain safety and integrity in electronics. If you strip away too much of the housing, you risk exposed wires touching each other or other conductive surfaces, which can cause short circuits, electrical fires, damage, and shocks. Stripping away just enough insulation to ensure a clean connection without exposing too much is a key consideration.

Proper electric wire stripping is also essential for maintaining signal integrity in telecommunications and data transfer. Improperly stripping Ethernet cables can cause transmission issues, and improper stripping of coaxial (television antenna) cable, can interfere with your TV signal.

How To Strip A Wire Without Wire Strippers

While it is possible to strip wire without wire strippers, and it’s likely how many of us were initially taught to strip wires by friends or family when we were younger, it requires care to avoid damaging the core.

Particularly when stripping thin, low gauge wires, like the kinds used in consumer electronics, circuitry and headphones, it’s very easy to cut through the entire wire when you’re just trying to take off the housing.

Here are some simple steps you can take for stripping wire at home, without using wire-stripping tools.

How To Strip Wire With Scissors Or A Knife

Step 1: Choose A Sharp Tool: A utility knife, pocket knife or a pair of sharp scissors works best for this step, but anything sharp, with a small and easily controllable blade, will do.

Step 2: Score The Insulation: Hold the wire carefully on your work surface and make small, light cuts around the housing with your utility knife. If using scissors, you can place the wire gently between the blades, and rotate the scissors around the wire. You’re trying to cut through the housing, without damaging the wires within it.

Step 3: Bend The Wire: When you’ve cut through most of the housing, gently bend the wire at the scored line and roll it around. The point here is to break through the last bit of rubber/plastic insulation. 

Step 4: Remove The Insulation: Once the insulation is loose, pull it off using your fingers or the blade. At this point, some people even like to use their teeth to pull off the housing. If you think you can do it without breaking the wires inside, you’re welcome to try!

Step 5: Inspect the Wire: Check the exposed wire to ensure it isn’t damaged. If the core consists of multiple threads of thin copper wire, it’s good practice to lightly twist them together.

How To Strip Wire With Nail Clippers

Nail clippers are certainly not the best tool to strip wire, but they might work in a pinch. The trick is to gently grasp the section of wire you want to strip between the blades of the clippers, and cut through the plastic housing without cutting through the wire (this is the tricky part), while sliding the housing off.

Techniques For Stripping Cable Using Pliers

You can strip wire and cable with a pair of pliers in two different ways. Because most pliers have a set of blades toward the back of the jaws, you can use these blades just like you would if you were stripping wire with scissors. That is, score the insulation, bend the wire, and slide the insulation completely off. 

You can also use the same method as you would with a pair of nail clippers - but you need to be careful, because it’s very easy to cut through the fine wire if you do it like that. If that happens, you’ll need to start again, or break out the soldering iron and start a repair job!

What’s The Easiest Way To Strip Electrical Wire?

Electrical wire is fragile and easy to cut through if you use the wrong method. Stripping it with nail clippers, scissors, a utility knife, or a pair of pliers can accidentally nick the important, current-carrying fine wire beneath - which you certainly don’t want to do. It’s also a tricky, multi-step, and finicky process.

The easiest method to strip wire, as is true of most things, is to use the right tool for the job. That is: a wire stripper.

Why Use A Wire Stripper Tool?

In most cases, using a specialized wire stripping tool is the best idea, as it enhances safety, efficiency, and the quality of the result. Wire strippers offer precision, as they’re designed to cut to a specific depth, and safely strip insulation without damaging the bare metal core. This ensures a clean, intact connection for the current to flow through.

Additionally, using a specialty tool saves time. You can avoid spending precious seconds carefully scoring the housing over and over to cut through it without causing damage, and you can avoid wasting time after you accidentally cut through the metal core and have to start again. Simply set the wire size, put the wire in, and let the tool do its job. You’ll have stripped wires and clean connections in just a couple of seconds.

Finally, wire stripper tools improve safety. There’s far less chance of slipping and accidentally cutting yourself, as you might if you were using scissors, a utility knife, or a razor blade. And the connection quality will be top-notch, meaning fewer shorts and shocks.

Types Of Wire Strippers

There are many different types of wire strippers on the market that come in different sizes. Choosing the correct wire stripper for your application is essential, as each one offers distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s take a look at some of the common varieties of wire strippers available.

Pull-Type Wire Strippers

This is probably the most common type of wire stripper available, and one of the most versatile. This variety requires you to close the jaws of the tools around the wire, press down, and pull the tool away - stripping the insulating housing with it.

These typically have multiple different sized notches in the jaws, allowing you to strip different thicknesses of wire. This is one of the simpler and most user-friendly types of wire stripper, but it requires some physical effort to pull the tool away, and sometimes (when working with delicate wires) this can damage the metal core.

These wire strippers are often used for general electric wire stripping, such as AWG wires, as the notches are standardized to match the AWG gauges.

Jaw-Type Wire Strippers

Jaw-type wire strippers are more automatic than pull-type strippers. These tools typically have two jaws rather than one. The first jaw holds the wire in-place, and cuts the housing with a blade, and the second jaw pulls away the housing for you - without requiring much manual effort.

You simply set the tool to the desired wire gauge (if adjustable), place the wire between both sets of jaws, and compress the handles. As the handles compress, in a single motion, the housing will be cut and pulled away.

These are very efficient, and the clean cut and smooth stripping motion reduces the risk of damaging the wire core. It also makes it super easy to strip many wires one after the other, increasing work efficiency. 

Jaw-type wire strippers are commonly made for VA and VVF wires, which are often used in residential construction, where the quick, repetitive stripping of many cables is required.

Coaxial Cable Strippers

Coaxial cables are quite special. Used most often for TV antenna and internet connections, these cables feature a thick metal core, surrounded by an inner layer of insulation, coated with a braided copper mesh or foil shield (or both), and finally an outer layer of insulation.

To strip coaxial cables, generally you want to strip each layer at a different length, with the metal core being the longest, followed by the inner insulation then the shielding, then the outer insulation. To strip a coaxial cable without a special tool requires multiple steps, stripping multiple materials.

Coaxial cable strippers can usually strip each layer to the ideal length with a single motion.

How to Use Wire Strippers?

Using a wire stripping tool is pretty straightforward, but you should still do it with care, to ensure you don’t damage the metal core.

When using a wire stripper with multiple slots, make sure you put the wire in the correct-sized notch, so you don’t cut too deep or too shallow. For an adjustable wire stripper, ensure you set it to the right size.

Place the wire within the jaws - ensuring you’re cutting away enough, but not too much, insulation. For most general electrical wires, you only need about an inch or so of exposed wire. 

Compress the handles. If you’re using a jaw-type wire stripper, this should be the final step, as it will cut and strip the wire with a single motion.

If you’re using a pull-type wire stripper, hold the wire and tool securely, and firmly but gently pull the tool away from the wire.

Finally, inspect the exposed wire to ensure there’s no damage, and twist the threads together if necessary.

Best Wire Strippers Every Pro and DIYer Should Own

There are different kinds of wire strippers available at Daitool, each for a different wire size or electrical application.

Take a look at some of our favorites to find your next best tool.

Engineer Wire Stripper for Thick Wire PA-07

This pull-type wire stripper is the best choice if you are looking for a high-spec tool with excellent sharpness and durability. It’s suitable for stripping both solid and stranded wires, and the blade is made out of a special, corrosion-resistant carbon steel.

It’s great for stripping most general wires from 0.8mm to 2.5mm thick.

Fujiya VA Wire Stripper FVA101

This jaw-type wire stripper is designed for quickly and easily stripping VA and VVF wires used in residential construction. It can make light work of whatever is covering the core - whether there’s a jacket, sheath, or standard insulation. Simply place the wire between the jaws and squeeze. It’s as simple as that!

This is suitable for VA and VVF cables from 1.5mm to 2mm thick, with two or three cores.

Lobster Easy Adjustable Wire Stripper For 0.1 - 5.5mm Wires

Long gone are the days of carefully cutting through cable housing with a knife, or worse yet, scissors - ever desperate not to damage the fragile wires within. These super-versatile, adjustable jaw-type wire strippers can strip a large range of wire sizes, from 0.1mm to 5.5mm thick.

They even have a built-in wire cutter in the handle so you can snip your wire to the desired length!

Lobster Rotary Dual-Blade Coaxial Cable Stripper For 3C & 5C Cable

This dual-blade coaxial cable stripper works on all sizes of coaxial cable from 3C to 5C. The process is simple: Insert the cable, press down firmly, rotate 5+ times, and slide the cable housing right off.

The result is a coaxial cable perfectly stripped: Core wire the longest, then the shielding after that, and finally the housing just beyond.

So now you know how, why, and when to strip wires. Whether you’re a professional working with high-gauge cables, or a home DIY specialist repairing a pair of old headphones, stripping wires is something you should do the right way the first time around.

Avoid shocks, short-circuits, and the headache of accidentally cutting through the core by using a professional wire stripper - as using the right tool for the job is always the best bet!