A US-style simple manual crimping/wire stripper tool is a pair of opposing blades much like scissors or wire cutters.

[1] The design was refined by Herman Gerhard Jan Voogd of the Netherlands eliminating the awkward 4 bar mechanism taking on the general outline that it has kept since.

To use it, one simply places the wire in the jaws at the cutting slot matching the size of the conductor and squeezes the handles together.

The compound automatic wire stripper's cutter must be short, because it causes the jaws to twist, as described by Wood in the 1943 patent.

If the cutter opening is too small it will impinge on the conductor causing excess friction and more tension than the wire can withstand.

If the cutter opening is too large the tension required to tear the remaining annulus of uncut insulation may be greater than the wire can withstand.