IDEAL Industries 45-124 T-Strippers

The IDEAL 45-124 T-Stripper is cut for 6 to 14 AWG solid and 8 to 16 AWG stranded. That covers the bulk of branch circuit work, 12 and 14 AWG romex conductors up through 6 AWG solid for ranges and subfeeds. If your work is mostly control, thermostat, or low voltage wire below 16 AWG stranded, this is the wrong gauge range and you want a smaller stripper.

Yes. 12 and 14 AWG solid both fall inside the 6 to 14 AWG solid range, and the tool uses form-ground, knife-type blades sized per gauge so the insulation shears off without nicking the conductor. That matters on solid copper, where a nick is where the wire breaks later under a device screw.

Loops are built in. The T-Stripper has looping holes in the jaws for forming the hook that goes under a receptacle or switch screw, plus wire cutters and a plier nose for pulling and shaping. For standard device work that is one tool in the pouch instead of three.

Order IDEAL Industries model 45-124. That is the manufacturer part number, and it is the T-8 T-Stripper configured for 6 to 14 AWG solid and 8 to 16 AWG stranded. Other numbers in the T-Stripper line cover different gauge ranges, so match the number, not just the family name.

No. The stranded range stops at 16 AWG, so 18 and 20 AWG conductors will fall through the 16 AWG notch and either slip or get cut. For fixture leads, thermostat cable, and low voltage control runs you need a stripper whose smallest notch reaches those gauges.

It is built from steel with a corrosion-resistant black oxide finish, so it holds up better than a bare steel tool in a truck box or on a wet site. The spring-loaded automatic opening also means it resets itself between strips, which is what you want when you are terminating a panel full of conductors.

The wire gauge markings are laser etched rather than printed, so they stay legible instead of wearing off the way ink or paint does. On a tool that gets used all day and rides loose in a pouch, that is the difference between finding the right notch by eye and finding it by trial.