The stripping tool has a pair of relatively pivoted handles (14,16) arranged in the form of a pistol grip and squeezed together to operate a pair of cooperating jaws (217) carrying cutters for the lead insulation, moved in the direction of the wire end. Pref. at least one of the jaws (217) is supported by a pendulum mounting and is spring-loaded. Each of the jaws pref. has a number of different sections with respective cutting edges, used to strip lead wires of different dia. Alternatively the jaws and cutters are interchangeable in dependence of the dia. of the lead wires to be stripped.
