sure I care! it teaches me (us) and gives us your serious/tried view points and experiences which can help a newbie, you snob! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

of all the big boys (not counting Gerber because we know what they've become) Leatherman seems to get the most spotting and finish problems, and that worries me.

I've had the problem, and others that I've read in several forums have had the problem. I know all metal rusts and corrodes but some types do it faster, for whatever reason and I personally want the best steels and finishes out there on my MT. (with the best price!)

Granted the spotting has been easy to remove (on mine) but still, what if I left it on for months, it could get more serious.

again I also like LM, they started it all, they are hard at work doing more, and they have a very nice "in hand tool" which feels good.

I do question them and wonder;
-why so expensive (the most expensive of them all? in suggested retail and actual cost),
-why the plastic?
-why the spotting?
-why the inferior sheaths?
-why are they not keeping their new product deadline, like the skeletool which took way too long to come out when they promised it much earlier.
(I'm still waiting for the freestyle which was suppose to be out last year!)

I would hate to see this company go the gerber way and screw many users, new and old so I keep the rant up!

people ask the same thing about busse.

why so much and while we dont refer to it as "not keeping product deadline" since they dont really announce one,how many times have we waited and waited for a new knife from dan and jerry.

...{speaking of deadline,wheres the mple test that was supposed to happen last week dan...lol}.......

this also reminds me of kifaru.

why so much,why so long.

while i no nothing about them i would guess the plastic is for the "ultra-light" crowd.

a WAVE is heavy considering its size,which to me equals solid which equals quality.

what is it about the sheaths you dont like??

are they using some new style that sucks?i'm not up on their new stuff.

as far as the rust,do you own any non-coated,non-stainless knives.anything high carbon with a satin finish?i think its the same although i never even considered which one was best in that category.i wasnt aware of any problems.

all-in-all to be honest i'm not a huge multi-tool buff.i never even heard of the skeletool or freestyle.to me LM is kind of like the harley davidson of MT's.

other people make good ones but their not classics.

While I have had good luck (so far) with my LM Wave, I won't discount the sturdiness of the Victorinox MT (I have the Spirit).
The Vic tools are built with much more precison than any I've handled/owned over the years. Every single implement opens/closes with a definitive "click."

yeah I agree with leighman, Victorinox i.e. Swisstool and Spirit are more corrosion resistant, I believe it's in the treating. LMs are stainless but for some reason don't repel corrosion as well, but their not bad, just not as good.

yeah it's the new LM sheaths that suck! their like cheap plastic (theirs that word again!).

our many delays here is another bone to pick! grrrrr
it's coming.

While a quality MT should come with an equally sturdy sheath, we all know this isn't always the case.

I use a Spec-Ops brand single sheath as metal snaps have always lasted longer (for me) than a velcro closure. Plus, you can wear it vertically or horizontally on your belt/pack/etc. and is MOLLE compatible.

The snap flap itself also allows for adjustment (velcro on the inside) so that it will securely hold more than one size MT (or pistol mag, flashlight, etc.).

while not a multitool in the strictest sense, has anyone seen the new "survival" card from tool logic? normally i scoff at such things as gadgets for the sheeple, but the newest tool has a built in magnifing glass and a magnesium fire starter. might be a small nice addition to a jacket pocket.

I think any of the survival cards are interesting, not a bad thing but I would rather carry a SAK (like a Farmer) and a ferro rod (and whatever else) in a P.S.K. and know the knife/tool and other things work good and you can trust.

My only beef with magnifying glasses (i.e Victorinox SAK, fresnel lens, etc.) is actaully getting them to ignite ANYTHING other than steel wool.

It must be my poor technique as all I ever get from them are blackened holes in my tinder; never an ember enough to get the stuff blazing.

One issue I've had with Leatherman tools: on the Blast (which I like a lot, and tend to snap up extras of just to have redundant multi-tools all over my cars, office, person, kids, wife, etc.), notice that the locking mechanism consists of a simple steel lever--a lot like a seesaw--that pivots on a little, round rod of steel. That steel rod seems just to be held in place by friction. (I'm not really sure what holds it in place, but I don't see any obvious threading, etc.)

When that little round steel rod gives way (is lost, knocked out, or whatever), you don't just lose the locking ability for the blades on that side of the tool; because the locking assembly is what stops the blades at the right place when you fold them back out to use them, loss of the locking mechanism means that the blades keep folding out of the handle, and end up kind of flopping around. Picture a non-locking pocketknife: if the blade stops when it folds out to in line with the handle, you can use it--but if the blade does not stop there, but keeps folding out for another 100 degrees or so, it's much harder to use the knife. That's the kind of thing that happens when that little rod pivot for the locking mechanism on a Leatherman Blast fails. Kind of a small, delicate piece of steel for half of the tool to depend on. I found this out when I bought a Blast on eBay, for a lower price because the lock assembly was missing. I'd legitimately bargained for the tool with this part missing, so had no reason to be disappointed, but I'd assumed that the lack of a lock just meant that it wouldn't lock, not that it wouldn't be very usable. So: a durability concern. Now, I did contact Leatherman, and they did tell me it would be an under-warranty repair, and I did send it to them, and they sent it back fixed up perfectly (or maybe a new tool; I couldn't tell). So, a plus for Leatherman's customer service!

A question: the Swisstools I've seen all have non-pointy knife blades. Do they make Swisstools with pointy knife blades?

It's good to know that Leatherman stood behind their warranty. I have many Leathermans and have yet to have a warranty issue, but I have wondered about the integrity of certain parts, and how they would hold up under very extreme conditions.

I have one of the older model Swiss Tools and it has a pointy blade. Victorinox still makes them, I think the Swiss Tool Spirit S without the scissors has a pointy blade too.

Thanks, Rainwalker. Of course, I REALLY like scissors on a multi-tool (and Swiss Army Knife, which I used to use as my go-to everything tool until I really got serious about multi-tools). So, probably will stick with Leathermans (and a Gerber or two that I bought just to see what the hype was about) for now. For me, the really useful things are the knife blade, glasses screwdriver, saw, scissors--and, after that, Phillips screwdriver, file, can opener.

Incidentally, the same weak-point lock-pivot-rod issue may apply to the new-model Leatherman Wave (not the old model; that used frame locks on its locking tools), and possibly a few other models, as well.

Do you have a Core?
I am thinking about getting a custom sheath made for mine.The factory nylon sheath for it sucks.The sheath is a little to big for the tool.