Various types of pliers are used to hold and orient small items, especially during assembly and service of instruments, electronics and precision mechanics, also in surgery and cosmetic treatments.

For instance from US-A-4 829 858 a pliers according to the preamble of claim 1 is known, which is constructed with a view to the anatomy and anthropometry of the human hand for facilitating its manipulation.

The invention concerns a new configuration of the handles of the pliers to make it possible to handle and orient small items with higher precision than with previously known pliers.

This object is achieved by providing for a pliers as defined by claim 1.

An embodiment of the invention is described with reference to the figures, where figure 1 shows a side view of a pliers according to the invention, and figure 2 shows in a front view how the pliers is held in the hand during high precision work.

A pliers according to the invention is shown in figure 1 and comprises two shanks hingedly connected at a joint (13). In front of the joint the shanks are shaped as jaws (11,12) and behind the hinge as handles with covers of soft polymer material. The jaws (11,12) may be different according to their use, round, flat, curved or sharp edged. The handles consist of two portions, a rear portion (16,17) to be gripped by the palm of the hand, and a front portion (14,15) to be gripped with the thumb and index fingers.

Within the rear portion (16,17) the handles are curved to have a convex outer contour, and to let the widest span for a closed pliers, measured on the outside of the handles, be close to the center of the rear portion, not at the rear end (20,21) of it.

The front portion (14,15) is so shaped that when the pliers is closed the outsides (18,19) of the handle covers together form at least half of a rotational surface, preferably cylindrical or conical, which can be gripped with the thumb and index finger as shown in figure 2. The span measured on the outsides shall be smaller in the front portion then in the rear portion. In a cross-section through the front portion the outsides (18,19) will each form a circular arc of at least 90 degrees, preferably 120 degrees, and when the pliers is closed by squeezing the handles, the arcs will have substantially the same center, making the span in this section substantially equal to the diameter of the arcs. The effect of this is that the pliers can be easily twirled between the thumb and the index finger to orient the shanks and any item held between the jaws in any desired angular position. The force between the thumb and the index finger will not cause any resulting torque on the pliers or the item.

A corresponding motion with a pliers according to prior art where the handle covers do not form any cylindrical or conical front portion (14,15) will require either changing the grip of the palm, or performing the motion by rotating he whole hand, neither of which can be done with high precision. Compared to prior art, a pliers according to the invention will have handle covers with great lateral width, at least 70 % of the gripping span in the front portion when the pliers is closed.

A pliers according to the invention can be combined with return springs or locking means of known types.