Chris Reeve Electric......how many electricians are stripping wire with a Sebenza?

kidcongo

kidcongo

Joined
Jan 12, 2013
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Not trying to be nosey, but how many electrical workers / electricians are on this forum? I'm one. Its a great occupation for a knife guy as you need one all the time at work.
 
I am a Stagehand who deals mostly with lighting, what is called an Entertainment Electrician (IATSE instead of IBEW), so while pulling wire is not the main focus of my job I have stripped more than a few with a Sebenza or Umnumzaan. I feel a good pocket knife should be able to cut through 12/3 SO or a few fingers of THHN without undue wear of tear.
 
Electrician of 8 years - 2 years using a box cutter and lots of blades...2 years of cheaper knives and the last 4 various sebenzas.
 
Mr. Sparky at your service!! Haha! Electrician here too. Although I don't have a sebbie I use on the job currently.
 
I'm a carpenter and i have done it and more but i did it because i could not because it was the smart thing to do....the smart thing is to use the proper tool for the job.

I have very inexpensive knives that will strip wire as good or better than any Reeve.

I once used Sebenza to pry open a elevator door because thats all i had.

I once used a Sebenza to jump the solonoid on my Harley because thats all i had....lol.
 
Im an electrician. I use my 21 to strip wires all the time. Its funny cuz my work partner gives me a hard time about "such an expensive knife to do so"
 
I'm an electrician (going on 20 years) and have never used a Chris Reeve knife at all. I have handled them. If anyone wants to send me one I will gladly use it. Just PM me.
 
Odog27 said:
I'm an electrician (going on 20 years) and have never used a Chris Reeve knife at all. I have handled them. If anyone wants to send me one I will gladly use it. Just PM me.
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The Sebenza is by no mean the perfect electricians knife by design (the electrically conductive handle for one); however, the best knife is often the knife you have on you, so I use my sebbies a lot at work just because I don't have something purpose built close at hand, then after time you just start using it for everything. Its also fun to incorporate your hobby with your job. Justifies the expense too. What I hadn't considered is that I could probably make all of my CRKs a tax write off as artisan tools for my trade. :eek::thumbup:
 
Hi Cody, I'm not an electrician by trade but if I don't have my wire strippers with me, guess who's doing the work. Yep, my Sebe, well now maybe my Zaan...:D
 
Not a sebenza, but I have used my umnumzaan everyday at work. Even though there may be better tools for the job, I actually enjoy using the umnumzaan or sebenza.

Here it is making short work of some scrap wire

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I'm not an electrician but I do quite a bit of electrical work for myself and at my moms property, this was recently wiring up an auxiliary box for my new shop.

 
Cereal_killer said:
I'm not an electrician but I do quite a bit of electrical work for myself and at my moms property, this was recently wiring up an auxiliary box for my new shop.

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Hmmm.....don't let the inspector see that. Just a few code violations. :( If I felt you were going to burn your house down I'd list them, but looks safe enough.
 
kidcongo said:
Hmmm.....don't let the inspector see that. Just a few code violations. :( If I felt you were going to burn your house down I'd list them, but looks safe enough.
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For instance, there appears to be a knife sitting on your breakers ;)
 
Yea I know I know. It's not meant to be up to code (actually it's designed this way to be movable from rental house to rental house and now from our newly purchased home into the garage we'll be building). The timer box runs my exhaust fan (hard wired), the whole thing is on a breaker from the main panel, the only thing that runs off this is a few shop lights and the outlets I need for my shop equipment (mill, other equipment and welder) and only one piece of equipment is ran at a time so there's not much draw (welder draws ~20A 220v, it and the mill share the same 30A breaker, everything else is just small power tools and other 110 stuff)

I've been doing "backyard" electrical work for 10 years now, never had any issues and only gotten shocked a few dozen times lol (I actually just got shocked today but that was welding and not due to an electrical fault). All of my permanent electrical work is done up to code. In fact first thing I did to the new house when we moved in 3 months ago was to bring all the boxes out flush with the wall, they were all recessed >1/2".

If you see something that's super unsafe please do let me know, you won't hurt my feelings any- I have 3 kids, 3 dogs and of course my knife and firearm collection so by all means constructive criticism is more than welcome. Again this isn't anything permanent, we will be building a garage sometime in the near future at which point my shop will move out there with up-to-code wiring. This is the same setup I've moved from our previous two rented houses and I've never had any problems but if you see something I absolutely need to correct to be safe I can get on it ASAP.
 
Cereal_killer,

A couple things id look into are.

1. You should put some kind of connector on the wires entering the panel. A kid or animal or something could snag them and pull them enough to cause problems.

2. Since you are feeding this from another panel. You should seperate the equipment grounds and neutral wires. By putting them together you are essentially paralleling the nuetral and not getting a seperate path back to the source (main panel)
In the event that you get a ground fault on the main cord you could potentially not get that feeder breaker to trip fast enough and cause the cord to over heat and start a fire.

3. You have 3 different brands of breakers in the box which looks to be a square d hom box. The one in the middle concerns me I have no idea what kind that is. The siemens double 30 is okay as they stab on the same as a hom I wouldnt worry too much about that one.

Also what size breaker are you feeding the sub panel with? That looks like 10/4 cord which if im not mistaken is only rated for 25 amps with 3 current carrying conductors. And if you are running it for a long distance id be concerned about voltage drop when running your 20 amp 240v load.

Keep it safe out there.
 
Steel_Addiction said:
Cereal_killer,

A couple things id look into are.

1. You should put some kind of connector on the wires entering the panel. A kid or animal or something could snag them and pull them enough to cause problems.
this is gonna sound really bad but what do you mean by connector? Can you link me to an example?

2. Since you are feeding this from another panel. You should seperate the equipment grounds and neutral wires. By putting them together you are essentially paralleling the nuetral and not getting a seperate path back to the source (main panel)
In the event that you get a ground fault on the main cord you could potentially not get that feeder breaker to trip fast enough and cause the cord to over heat and start a fire.

so should I add in another bar? What's the best way to do this? All of the outlets on this aux panel are GFCI, does this mean they won't work?

3. You have 3 different brands of breakers in the box which looks to be a square d hom box. The one in the middle concerns me I have no idea what kind that is. The siemens double 30 is okay as they stab on the same as a hom I wouldnt worry too much about that one.
self explanatory, I'll get on it today

Also what size breaker are you feeding the sub panel with? That looks like 10/4 cord which if im not mistaken is only rated for 25 amps with 3 current carrying conductors. And if you are running it for a long distance id be concerned about voltage drop when running your 20 amp 240v load.
the feed beaker 40A, wire is 8-4 with all 4 wires insulated, is this sufficient? Also the main panel is only a few feet away, the cable is 6' between them.

Keep it safe out there.
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Thanks for your assistance, my answers in blue above :thumbup:
 
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