Leatherman. Leathermans. Leathermen?

[Vard66]

I'm beginning to look away from SAKs. Had one in my pocket every day since I was 18, and I love them.

I just don't like the fact that you can't really... service them. You can't take them apart like you can a Leatherman and replace anything that's just ridiculously bent or blunted or broken. Not that I have actually had that issue with any of my Victorinox knives, but I have bent one or two bits now and then.

Anyway, that and the fact that the one I've been carrying for a couple of years now is technically illegal, being 3" and locking is making me wonder if a better daily carry would be a Leatherman.

So who uses them, (or used them and turned away and if so; why?) and what are your thoughts?

I'm struggling to decide which from amongst them would be the best option for a) general usage, and b) electronics.

Oh yeah. Also, g'day. Don't think I've actually posted in about two years now lol.

[james3990]

Third post this year Vard, pretty average for everyone at the moment.

Forget talking about knifes, how was the Mongol Rally in the end?

[Vard66]

It is?

Were the others useful?

Wait. Actually, easier to ask if the others were done sober.

It was tinky winky awesome. About 18,000 miles in total, over just under three months. Two breakdowns that stopped the car moving - both times just the fuel pump relay jumping out of the fusebox because of a pothole (/crater). That said, I did have to drive 200km without any form of brakes because the broken front shock absorber had kinda folded inwards and chewed through the line. That was interesting, particularly when we were stopped by a Kazakh officer, at which point I was downshifting and desperately trying to stop, whilst at the same time trying to look innocent and not draw attention to the fact that we had no brakes or front suspension. Turned out the only reason he wanted us to stop was so that we didn't get crushed by the T72 (no, I'm not joking) that was about to launch itself with a mighty thump off the verge and onto the road in front of us.

The Astra is still going strong, despite the many hideous noises it's making, and the utterly atrocious, almost constant stream of oil leaking out of it. I'm literally at this point trying to kill it off by taking it greenlaning, throwing it into 2' deep ditches full of water and big rocks. It's beyond reliable, it's bloody stubborn.

[mg-richard]

I have a wave.
Its good, but its a nail buster to get the bigger screw drivers out.
The pliers can stick on what you are cutting.
The tool is entirely made from very high grade stainless and can be brittle.
All in all I would defo recommend, compact and useful.

I might add, I wouldnt touch anything 'swiss army' with a barge pole, this is leagues ahead.

[Null_Byte]

Leatherman Squirt PS4 here

It's tiny, SAK size instead of a hulking great thing you have to keep on your belt, very usable set of pliers, useful range of tools, reasonably inexpensive. Its no use for serious work, and I shouldn't think any more serviceable than a SAK, but that's not really what I'd use a multitool for anyway. They did an electrical specific version E4 if you can still find it.

Never had much luck with the larger ones, found them too bulky to use anything particularly well, I'd just get frustrated and go and get a proper set of pliers/knife/screwdriver instead, which defeats the object.