Today I happened upon a special tool that’s no longer made to my knowledge, but is one of the best tools I have ever used for it’s task at hand. It’s a VAR 17 cable end crimper. It was made by VAR tools in France in the 70’s and leaves a perfect crimp on the cable ends of your bike every single time. Plus it fits into really tight situations such as remote levers for droppers etc, unlike most ferrule crimpers. The quality of it is right up there with any of the tools that I own from Abbey. From my research, apparently VAR made both a spoke cutter and cable crimps. Both had the same VAR 17 designation as the handles appear identical. The only difference is the cutting / crimping heads are different. But are easily replaceable and most likely interchangeable. In the catalog I found, the cable crimpers had “BIS” added to the designation.
If you haven’t heard of VAR tools before think of them as a European version of Park Tool
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