July 2008

I CALL MY LEATHERMAN 'THE HULK'!

Just 6 years ago I had never seen, much less heard of, a 'multi-tool'. The first one I saw was a real 'cheap-o' in my dad's grocery store. I didn't think too much about it at the time. About a year later I moved to MS and took a job in a warehouse. I very quickly found that the first thing you’d better have if you're working in a warehouse is a good knife. My sister bought me a nice 'cheapie' for about a dollar. It worked fine for just cutting open boxes, but before long I knew I needed something more. I was always running into situations where I needed either some pliers, or a screwdriver, or a really good blade that could handle having to cut through an extra heavy cardboard box. There were also plenty of times that having a saw around sure would have helped! I noticed that there were plenty of times my boss carried around several tools with him on a tool belt so he wouldn't have to keep stopping whatever he was doing just to hunt down a tool he needed. I didn't like the idea of having to carry around all of that hardware. I figured there had to be a better way.

One day, while my sister and I were at a store, I spotted a multi-tool much like the cheap one I had seen in my dad's store. It was only about $5, and so I thought "What the heck?" I bought it, and it turned out to be pretty useful. It did everything I needed for a while. Problem was, the blade wore out very quickly, it had no lock-back mechanism (which meant you ran the risk of cutting your hand), and under heavy pressure, the pliers actually bent!

I met a delivery man who was sporting a really cool looking Gerber multi-tool. It seemed to be of much higher quality, so I bought one. I went all out too. I bought the one with the tungsten carbide cutters in the jaws of its pliers. When I got it home that night, I figured I give the tungsten carbide cutters a test. I found a small nail (to represent some of the small, yet hard, wire I often have to work with) and tried out my new toy. The carbide cutters in the jaws broke within about 2 bites!! I thought "All that money and they break that easily! Are you kidding me!!?” I went back that night to get a refund! Next, I tried a SOG multi-tool. The jaws bent after only a few days of heavy use!

So, one day I was out with my sister's middle son, who was about 24 at the time, and we were walking around Home Depot. I spotted some multi-tools that looked pretty cool. My nephew also saw them and said "Uncle Tom, where I work, my boss gave each of us one of those Leatherman Waves to use. Those are the best! Those can really put out the work!" I took his word for it and bought one. He was absolutely right! I've had to use most every tool on my Leatherman Wave and not one has failed! Even under heavy use, the blades still hold an edge, the wire cutter has always come through, and the plier jaws have never bent!! I still use it, and it is still a great, all purpose pocket tool! Now, if Leatherman would just come out with a multi-tool with a hammer on it, I would be real happy!! Ha!! But in the meantime, the tool I presently have, which I've nicknamed ' The Hulk ', will be fine. Thanks Leatherman!

Tommy W.
Ridgeland, MS