It's been a long time....

[doctorwayne]

....What I could really use in the near future is a good pair of wire nippers for phosphor bronze wire Tichy provides for the grabs....

Shane, are you bending the grabirons yourself, using Tichy's phosphor-bronze wire, or using their pre-formed ones?
On closed cars, I simply add a spacer between the grabirons and the body shell, then press the wire tight to the spacer, and use the backside of a #11 blade in an X-Acto handle to fold-over the wire protruding into the car.

With the spacer still in-place, but not touching the grabs at the points where they enter the bodyshell, I use an old #11 blade (in a handle, of course) to apply ca inside the car at each place where the wires come through.  (If the spacer touches the grabs where they enter the bodyshell, the ca will wick-out and cement the spacer in-place, too.)

The same procedure can be used on open cars, too, but after the ca has hardened, I simply slip the old blade between the bodyshell and the bent-over portion of each grabiron, then straighten (or overstraighten) the protruding portion of the wire until it fatigues and breaks-off.

On the other hand, if you wish to bend your grabirons from the Tichy wire, and then cut the bent portions to a particular length, an easy way to do so is by using the heel of an older number 11 blade.
Place the grabiron, upside down, on a hard surface (I use a sheet of glass), then, while restraining the portion you wish to keep, using a fingertip or two, press the heel of the blade firmly at the point where you want to make the cuts.  Those portions usually fly off somewhere, never to be seen again, although I usually find most of them, and simply toss the remnants into a disposable plastic container (the bubble portion from a Krazy Glue package is my usual go-to).  After I get a pretty good collection of metal bits (old staples, removed from paper items before it goes into the recycling bin can be added, too), I pour in some A-West "Blacken-It" or even some gun-bluing solution, and in a couple of days, have a well-rusted load of scrap for a gondola.

For cutting most small diameter wire, I prefer the old X-Acto blade-on-glass method.  It will also work on some thicker types of wire, including not-overly-thick piano wire.  To make cuts with the thicker (or harder small wire), I place a strip of masking tape on the glass, then use the heel of the blade to roll the wire back and forth, until it wears its way through - take care to ensure the cut-off piece doesn't leave the scene of the crime.

Wayne