Bearing tool is a lot safer. Pliers can mess up the bearing/seat and generally the tool is a lot easier too.
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Yeah I can see that happening. Itās also possible that you scratch the yo with the pliers.
The key to it is just being mindful and gentle. Iām not too worried about it honestly.
Think Iāll go buy a shotgun now. I really do need a hair cut. Thanks for the tip @Glenacius_K!!
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I use both 
As long as you donāt force anything, the pliers work fine. Iāve never damaged a bearing once with pliers ā all it takes is a light grip and a little finesse.
The premise of this argument reminds me of an old infomercial that advertised an automatic toothpaste dispenser. The beginning of the infomercial started off with a guy saying:
Donāt you hate it when this happens?
Then it showed several short clips of people in despair who were apparently having epileptic seizures while trying to brush their teeth [lmboooo]. They would like spazz out and squeeze a half a tube of toothpaste all over their toothbrush; because apparently itās an epidemic.
Anyway, kudos on making me laugh with your shotgun analogy, Glen 
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fyi that sort of product is advertised primarily for people with limited physical ability or mobility. It can appear funny in the advertisement but thereās a real purpose for it.
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I use a bearing tool when I can, but a lot of them arenāt very good in my opinion. I do like the idea that @Glenacius_K has with the drill bit, hadnāt thought of that before. To be honest though, Iāve used pliers mostly when removing bearings. After youāve scratched your first yoyo you tend to be more careful next time around. I havenāt damaged one since, knock on wood. A bit of cardboard wrapped around the claws of the pliers and a wiggle normally does the job. You can take axles out the same way using card/cloth around it and then pliers.
Itās fine as long as youāre careful.
I see the point of using locktite on axles but I find it unnecessary as Iāve not come across an axle that really needs to be echanged. I might have messed around with axles when I started, but I tend to just let the yoyo do its own thing. I do lube bearings from time to time and the occasional silicone response job, but I do try to avoid opening the yoyo in general.
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Itās been so long since Iāve seen infomercials like those, my recollection of them must be frozen in my elementary school aged memory. Makes sense though.
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I use a cloth inbetween the bearing and the circular part in the pliers. Ive never damaged anything by placing a protective layer between the metals.
But I can see where it is safer to use a bearing tool.
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I usually put a fat elastic band between the bearing and pliers. However, most of the time I use a YYF bearing tool.
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Iād venture to say that pretty much every household has a set of pliers. That being the case, why would a single bearing tool ever get sold?
Good question.
The purpose of plyers is to wrench something away from something else. This is not for precision parts.
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Not picking a side here, but I personally feel much more comfortable with a bearing removal tool. Even if it were perfectly safe to use pliers on the bearing, I worry about scuffing the yo-yo with the pliers if my grip slips at all.
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I have never seen a bearing puller specifically for yo-yos that didnāt have a hole in the middle for the axle. What kind of tool are you using?
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I totally love my MKF Conspiracy. Itās awesome in every way. I also love my G2 wolf. But i think those 2 make everyone else feel ehhhā¦ with the exception of my Ti-vader. The vader blows my mind everytime.
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When a bearing seat is super tight, I find that more side-to-side rocking of the removal tool is usually required than is possible with the axle stuck up inside the removal tool barrel. Removing the axle is then the only remedy if one is trying to avoid using pliers.
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I usually put my a bit of my shirt around the axle, then use a needlenose pliers to loosen it enough to take it out. I donāt like using pliers for bearings, yyf multitools work fine 99% of the time.
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Preface: I keep a few yoyos in my kitchen because I find that a lot of my throwing time is spent there waiting for meals to be done. In the last couple weeks I had a small Christmas display to the side with my shiny new gold titanium 888 along with a couple other yoyos in Christmas-style themes and colors just to add to the decor.
Well, today I was throwing it waiting for my pizza to be done, and I took some time to admire it. And to my dismay I found a ding! Wtf, I never dinged this yoyoā¦ wait, somebody over the holidays (I work night shift so I missed most of the festivities) dinged my most expensive yoyo! So right now im hating some anonymous probably drunk moron who decided that he wanted to try and play with someone elses toy. I know that yoyos are supposed to be played with, but the first ding in a $300+ yoyo should be done by the owner. Or at least in the presence of the owner. Guess I learned my lesson, but im still a bit put off.
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This is why I opt to not purchase anodized titanium yoyos anymore -
Dings drastically reduce the price, raw is boring but a safer investment in my experience.
Sorry to hear about it nonetheless, stinks 
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Yeah, I had something similar happen recently to a yoyo I was planning on selling.
Had my G2 Covenant on my desk at work, and I never dinged it before, but found some dingsā¦
I had it so that I can make up my mind if I want to keep or sell as well.
I donāt mind my yoyos getting dinged really, unless itās one I plan to sell in the future so that was a bit sad. 
But I canāt imagine what it must feel to get a $300 yoyo dinged when you didnāt do it yourself.
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Im honestly a little annoyed because I considered trading it for the other Ti-888s, but I decided on a solution: buy the Ti-888 I want with the orange hubstacks from YYE before they sell out! But in the end, I learned my lesson not to show-case expensive collectible yoyos when im not around to supervise. I also removed my BA Santa 5 Star from the X-mas display. And well, Christmas is over anyways, so ill just leave my normal yoyos in the kitchen for now.
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I just donāt get the mentality other people have that they are entitled to touch anything that belongs to other people. Iām sure the person was like āoh a yo-yo, cool toy ā
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