“Hey, would you hand me those dikes?”

“What!? How am I gonna give you the huge rocks!?”

(In geology, a dike is a barrier used to regulate or hold back water from a river, lake, or even the ocean.)

You might get confused when you heard the above conversation. But actually, the “dikes” that they refer to are a kind of hand tools called “Diagonal Pliers”.

It is called “dikes” owing to the portmanteau of "Diagonal Cutters" is pronounced "dikes". This is a normal jargon that used especially in the US electrical industry to describe the tools which is intended to cut wires. What a cute and lovely nickname!

Besides “dikes”, have you ever heard of “Bullnose Plane”? Is a type of plane that is bullnose-alike? Absolutely not! A bullnose plane is a kind of tool for shaping woodworks. With a blade flush with the edges of the plane, you can easily trimming right up to the edge of a wood. It gets this cute little name because it has a front end that looks just like a rounded nose.

What are the other cute or bizarre names of hand tools have you ever heard of? You are more than welcome to share with us!