If you only anticipate working on a few wire-stripping projects a year, then save yourself some cash and get the perfectly adequate Dowell 10-22 AWG Wire Stripper.
If you're a professional electrician who needs to strip hundreds of wires monthly, then you already have several high-quality wire-stripping tools. If you're like me, do like I did and get a Dowell 10-22 AWG Wire Stripper to help out with those two to three annual wiring projects.
This simple, low-cost wire-stripping tool has clearly marked slots for 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22-gauge wires. If that doesn't mean much to you, no worries: Anyone who is unfamiliar with wire gauges probably won't be dealing with wires outside that range, anyway. The jaws lock shut for safety and have a sturdy spring for ease of use, and there's a decent cutter set into the base of the jaws.
While many wire strippers allow for a perfect stripping of a one-inch section of wire with just a squeeze of the fingers, this lower-priced tool requires you to pull the section of cord to be stripped, through the blades. This can mean less precision and uniformity, but it also means you can strip much longer sections of casing, which can be useful for various projects, such as when you want to splice two wires together and want to ensure maximum surface area.
A product guide from ProductBrowsercalled this Dowell stripper lightweight and useful for "several other functions" beyond stripping, like crimping and cutting.
More than 250 people have reviews the Dowell 10-22 AWG on Amazon, where it has a 4.4-star rating as of this posting. One buyer wrote, "This is a case of 'you get what you pay for'" and "[It's a] good value, but not the best stripper ever," and added that the tool often cuts through far too much of stranded wire, requiring repeated attempts before a successful stripping.
Pros: Very low cost, can strip long lengths of cord, crimps and cuts as well
Cons: Often cuts through wire accidentally