Question on closing gerber pliers

[SouthDakotan]

A while back I got a gerber 600 blunt nose. Not to long ago I noticed that when you close the pliers, right before the jaws touch it meets some resistance and click together. My dad has the exact same model but several years older. Is this a new design feature or did I mess it up?

 

[klattman]

A while back I got a gerber 600 blunt nose. Not to long ago I noticed that when you close the pliers, right before the jaws touch it meets some resistance and click together. My dad has the exact same model but several years older. Is this a new design feature or did I mess it up?

That slight resistance is probably the wire cutters meeting and overlapping. That's good, as it means the cutters are nice and tight. If it's a lot of resistance though, the wirecutters may be damaged and need to be sharpened or reshaped.

If your wirecutters can cut paper cleanly, they are sharp enough, and the pliers are lined up well. (If the paper slips in-between the cutters or gets mangled, then you might want to see if there is play in the plier joint or if the cutters are dull).

P.S. I don't own any gerber tools, so this is just a guess