Vampire Tool’s patented VamPLIERS are advertised as a multipurpose screw remover, and they’re very good at it. The jaws have vertical serrations as well as the standard horizontal ones, making it much easier to grip and remove screws. I was able to remove the round head screw from the simple demo block Vampire Tools sent with my trusty Leatherman, but the truss head proved more difficult. I encountered a lot of slip during the process, and had to put a ton of pressure on my tool to get the truss head removed. With the Vampliers, I didn’t have any problems removing both screws while holding the tool vertically, and met little resistance in the form of slip.
One of the minor downsides to the VamPLIERS is the small gap left between the jaws upon closing. It measures in at a measly 0.025″, but that’s enough to prevent you from grasping anything much thinner than 1/32″. Thankfully, grasping thin materials isn’t what the VamPLIERS are meant for, so this should be easy to overlook. The wire cutters do close flush, meaning you won’t find a wire too small to snip.
Unlike a lot of sprung, hinged hand tools, the VamPLIERS spring is of high quality, and embedded deep into each handle, and extremely unlikely to get loose or damaged. If you prefer tools that take up as little space as possible, like me, you may be a bit disappointed to find that these pliers will stay open in your toolbox. A simple lock would’ve been great, but the overall high quality of this tool makes that pretty easy to overlook.
As Sean found with the PH-55 Scissors, the VamPLIERS designers have given into the temptation to “sexify” the handles with highly stylized moldings. Nevertheless, I think they look fantastic, although they definitely aren’t “cushioned,” as the packaging claims. Thankfully though, they aren’t uncomfortable, and there’s no way you’ll set them down because of their lack of “cushiness.” Another neat aesthetic feature of the VamPLIERS is the option to get one of the jaws custom engraved for that special handyperson in your life.
The $35 price tag is definitely extreme, but overall these pliers are rugged, great to look at, and perform a useful and unusual function very well.
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