2023 MultiTool Buyers Guide | Leatherman, Gerber, Victorinox, and More

today at Blade HQ we're going to help you unlock your inner MacGyver let's talk multi-tools [Music] speaking of MacGyver we're going to kick this party off with his multi-tool the one that he had in his pocket that whole time was the Victorinox tinker and I think he went pretty slim so the super Tinker is the one I got and then it has scissors but this one just that knife and the classic on all Swiss Army knives larger than the keychains with the can opener and bottle opener actually this one's the can opener this one's the bottle opener a very nice tool and if you've seen MacGyver you've seen the crazy kind of stuff he can do with this all the weird challenges he finds a way to resolve using only the simple tools on the Victorinox tinker and for thirty dollars it's really a solid tool to get and for only ten dollars working at the super zinker with the scissors and I mean I'm here to tell you to get that one because I think it's better but you do you that is just the first multi-tool of many on this table and they are gonna range in size in price in tool sets the big thing we're trying to teach you here is what multi-tool is right for you what brand what tool set whatever why you might want to carry a multi-tool and where to find one perfect for you for starting off with why you might want to carry one a lot of Us carry a knife and I'd say most of the people who will be watching this carry a knife in some way I have my Benchmade Griptilian here but a knife is a cutting tool but sometimes you need a screwdriver or you need a pry bar or you need a bottle opener or whatever and that's where a multi-tool slides in but multi-tools can do so much more than that so my brother-in-law was raised on a farm and he was telling me about an interesting time in his life when he was four miles out into the field tilling and something went wrong with the tractor and instead of having to hike all the way back to the workshop and get a real tool to fix the job or a real box of tools to get fix the problem he was just able to use his Leatherman surge and get the problem fixed right then and there no one's saying that these tools are going to be better than an entire toolbox but what they are is passable and good enough for the situation at hand but let's start with some Victorinox after that as well and this one we're just going to do that classic SD this one's the dessert Warrior exclusive we did but it comes in so many colors and it's one of the most collectible knives out there I'd also Venture that it's one of the most confiscated knives out there because it does have that knife so you can't take it on the airplane I'll bet you there's barrels of these at TSA but it's just got a little handy set of tools and what I like is it's got those scissors and I'm going to tell you the biggest secret of multi-tools these scissors on all of these are some of the best fingernail clippers the world will ever see because you're not bound to whatever the curve of your clippers are you can cut whatever nail at whatever angle great for trimming a hang nail or maybe trim a piece of thread off of your shirt if it's fraying or whatever a really great tool throw on your keychain Step It Up in size a little bit next up we have the cadet and this one I also let him stand in for the mo for the modders out there Swiss Army knives are some of the most mod friendly knives out there all you got to do is just knock these little pins off and the same things are hidden under these plastic scales on these ones and you can pull the knife apart you can customize whatever tools you want put it back together peeing your pins down or in this case get these flitanium scales that come with these torques heads that make it even more user serviceable but this one I think is sort of Bridging the Gap between the key chain and the slightly larger medium size it's only two layers it's got a knife it's got a little nail file and it's got some it's got those same can opener and bottle openers before a really useful tool for everyday life very similar in utility to the Tinker but a little bit smaller a little bit thinner and then from there we're going to move up to the a locks line and if you're looking at Victorinox keep a locks in the back of your head because it has it I feel like it's sort of a premium take on the Victorinox Wasabi knife and the reason being is these aluminum scales so if you have ever had one of these and you've like dropped it on a rock or onto concrete or something sometimes you can break these scales they're very tough but they're not indestructible if you want something that's a lot more durable go with these a-lock scales also these slip in and out of the pocket really nicely and they have this nice texture grips your hand really well I chose the farmer X here because it has both the saw and the scissors if I can draw them there they are it's got the saw and the scissors and it is just a great outdoor thing and my favorite thing about the a-locks actually is these reamers the reamers are usually here and I just find it easier to use it in this direction so I I like the a-locks for that and one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram is Bushcraft Kelso and he has a farmer X and he's actually turned his aluminum like he milled out a spot in there to uses a bearing block for making friction fires very interesting but modding and utility in the outdoors is a really great thing you can do with a Swiss army knife now my personal favorite has one of the plastic scales and that's the Huntsman I have the one with the gray camouflage and I love it so much so incredible what you can do with such a tiny tool and a bit of creativity and that's what I think people love so much about these another thing is Swiss Army knives are not threatening like they don't like a lot of these look fairly tactical but these just look Scout camp they're they're there's nothing too crazy about them but if you want to get a little bit bigger and a little bit more hardcore check out the large ones this one's the work champ by the way the Champ series is interesting so if you see a champ in it that means it has as many tools as could reasonably fit on a knife like that now you can get the crazy rare ones where it has every single tool and it's like this wide so this one's not quite that crazy it's got your knife what I like about this this one is it included these pliers and these are true monolithic pliers there's nothing folding going on just two pieces of metal and you just run with your finger and you're thinking well that can't grip hard enough well the test I always use I call the torture test you take this and you grip your thumbnail and if you start pulling and you feel like you could rip your thumbnail out I think that means you have plenty of grip for your purposes and this this definitely does it it just grips just went just right great mechanical advantage and then of course it has the toothpick and the tweezers we've all come to know and love in the classic Swiss army knife that is the Victorinox line if you're looking for a multi-tool that's very everyday carry friendly that'll slide right into your pocket don't sleep on Victorinox they have a lot of cool options and just about any combination of tools that you can dream up they have next up we're going to talk about another big name in the out in the multi-tool industry Gerber and Gerber has a few interesting tricks up their sleeves first we're going to talk about this Center Drive and one of its features is available on a lot of multi-tools and that's these out the front pliers you just kind of snap out there and I like them because they're spring loaded but they're really big so like if you're upside down and you're trying to get into something your Pliers are going to open up easy you don't like pinch them and drop them or anything they just open for you they have these replaceable carbide wire cutters too they just chew through hardwire like it's not even there and then the other Stellar feature of these because it has a bunch of the other tools that you'll see on a lot of these but it has this Center driving so the Center Drive name of the screwdriver so that way instead of let's take this free and I'll demonstrate what I'm talking about here so you have your screwdriver here if you're going to screw in something you're going to have to adjust your grip around the multi-tool quite a few times to make it screw straight but not so with this because it's perfectly down the middle so it's a lot faster and more natural to keep it spinning right down the middle which is really helpful if you're screwing in some of those more difficult to reach screws love me the Center Drive and the Center Drive has a big brother that's fairly new and its name is the Dual Force just like the Center Drive it's got that big old screwdriver that can really reach in there and Spins perfectly centered but it also has these slip joint pliers so you can just open it like that and you can grab really big nuts or whatever in fact when this came out Gerber sent us a sort of a box with a demonstration sample they have this two by six full of like little screws all the way up to huge wood bolts and you could tighten every single one of them using just the Dual Force which I think was really cool and one thing I like about Gerbers is they offer these exchangeable bits which is really convenient because you can use whatever bit you need and this one has storage right on board so you have another bit there and another bit there kind of cool and you don't get that feature on the Center Drive but in this sheath which allows both vertical and horizontal carry you can have you have this little bit set so it has whatever you need whatever job you're working on these tools can help you out and even though they are pretty big like pushing six inches closed they're really great in the hand but sometimes on the Belt that might like jab you in the side but if you wear the belt if you wear it sideways on either of these it's going to be really easy to carry for you so I would probably carry these sideways and it has the secondary pocket too so these bits aren't going to get in the way of you sheathing your multi-tool really well thought out well designed tools made in the USA as well love me some Gerber and then those are both big tools though on the Belt I mean here I'll put this one in there as well on the Belt those are mean and they weigh nearly a half a pound but Gerber has got you covered there too with the arm bar Series so this is the arm bar Drive there's the armbar cork which has a dedicated Corkscrew with the lever and everything kind of cool but I prefer this one I don't I'm not much of a Wine Drinker but this one has a like a sheep's foot Blade with a liner lock on it which I really appreciate and then over here just a screwdriver which is built to the same spec in terms of toughness as the other ones are but it's just a really nice in the hand feel it's like it's like you're using a screwdriver but then it just folds down and it slides right into your pocket and then it also has a pair of scissors and a little scraper piece as well it definitely doesn't have the most tools of any of any multi-tool on the table but it has good tools and the tools that it has are very functional and then lastly it has this little like tapping Nails in and then a bottle opener as well really a great thing for in the pocket carry and Gerber's got you covered there as well and this is just a sampling of Gerber multi-tools if you're liking what you see here check out like the suspension and some others the suspension is the one that came to mind that's the one I got my nephew he loves it very much next brand we're going to talk about is SOG so this one is the power access Deluxe so power access I think is a fun name for this because SOG offers a very interesting mechanism you'll be able to catch this in b-roll or I see I can catch the Light there see if you can follow those gears turning you see those those gears are making a compound leverage situation here on the plier tips so that means it just magnifies your grip string so you're getting incredible grip strengths especially nice if you're trying to get through wire some of those bigger wires you just come in and you're just crunching right through them because you have extra leverage helping you out that gets you a few other interesting features too which one of my favorites is this little section back here so this is another one that comes with a bit set and this bit set has a few extra tricks up its sleeve so you can get your bits set say you want to use this but you go to this little section here and you might be able to see there's a magnet right there just lay your bit in and then close it around like that and you have a rock solid grip on your bit and it's not going anywhere but say you need a little bit more leverage or a little bit more reach they have this little doodad this little thing is a quarter inch square to quarter inch hex adapter and if you dig a little bit here you can get to this little nubbin deep inside the multi-tool and you can take the square and launch it right there and then take that same bit we were using earlier and you have a little bit more reach which is a very nice but say you need a little bit more leverage you just hit this thing right there it locks sideways and I wasn't asking you will turn bolt I really appreciate that they they included right in the sheath where you can carry it every single day affordances for when you are using something that is really stuck in there or needs a little bit of reach or uses a weird head or whatever you've got going on SOG is looking out for you and making a great tool for you as well then lastly on the sheath with this power access it has a Molly compatible back gear so you can put it on whatever pack you're using or use your belt and then it has this big loop on the side to put a flashlight through it turns it into a very useful kit piece of kit that you can put anywhere but I hear you say these are all really big what if I want something small and pocketable that also runs pliers well SOG has you covered there too with the power pint so this thing is very much like the power access Deluxe but it's so much smaller it fits in your coin pocket and it has a lot of useful tools too so you get tumor here from the back and just like every not every tool here on the table it's got a knife this one has both serrated and plain Edge it's got scissors it's got a reamer it's got it all and it's super small still with that compound leverage still with that quarter inch bit holder right there just a really nice tool that you can really use like it's big enough to actually use the pliers but it's small enough that right there just goes right in your fifth pocket no trouble at all but if you're looking for something where you're like Pliers are nice to have but I'm looking for a one tool option that I can carry every single day without any trouble that is mostly the knife because that's what I'm going to be using then I would advise you check out this guy right here the flash Mt so Flash series from SOG is known for their assisted actions and you get that here this is the fastest to get to knife of any tool here on the table because of that assist and then she's got a liner Lock super one hand operable secondary lock right there but if you want open it up there's your pliers compound leverage still and if you give this thing a little slippy you see that right there that is more bits that will go right here into your driver without any trouble these are a little bit smaller though so you might have to get some of those smaller bits you can get at the hardware store but if you wanted to trade out this one for whatever else you want to use but you keep it all right there deep carry pocket clip it's an everyday carry tool through and through but it it offers several really useful tools next up we're going to go to the brand we've all been waiting for and that is Leatherman I'm personally a Leatherman guy my Uncle Jim and I always get into it because he's a gerber guy he's like I love to be able to flick the pliers out and that's just the tool I've been using since I was a chap and now I'm waist deep in my 60s and I know it I use it I love it it's great you know what I'm waist deep in my 20s and all I've ever known is Leatherman so I'm a Leatherman guy but Leatherman surge is the first one here and this thing is large very big so the wave is the most popular Leatherman there is and here is a size comparison of wave to Surge The Surge weighs over a half a pound it's just it's big but it is a beast of a tool I'm thinking like if I work on a construction site or from a farmer in fact my brother-in-law mentioned earlier his entire family carries surges because they're just so good for everything they need because it's big enough best of all in his eyes is this little section right here it has this replaceable piece here so this one has a saw I'm going to set this here for just a moment here in the sheath you have a little sleeve that has a file in it but it has room for another one I think so you can get a spare of these but he was saying you know my mom is always out there cleaning out the circles and she has to get in there and clean out the sprinkler nozzles and sometimes they get Dusty dirty whatever and it would be so nice if there was just like a really stiff piece of Steel that was as thick as the saw but just a little rot that I could clean out those nozzles with does Letterman make one of those and I'm like as far as I'm aware they don't but if I mean I I imagine if there was a market for them there'd be a what a thriving aftermarket of people making things that can slide right into your Surge and make all of your all of your lifelong dreams come true anyway Leatherman surge is big and super useful and I have nothing bad to say about it except for the fact that it is absolutely huge so I think for my everyday use I'm going to stick with my wave it's a bit thinner smaller lighter but it's a great tool all around in fact on a loan I've mentioned that show a lot mostly because the thing with alone is it's gear it's people choose a very specific set of gear that they know how to use and they take it and I forget what the Fella's name is but he shot a moose and he ended up winning the whole thing and he used just his leather and surge to break down an entire moose and he like I remember he had a shot of it he's like well I get to use this knife to break down that moose and I suppose that's kind of what we've been trying to talk about here with all these tools is they're not as good as a dedicated tool for anything but it does have a tool that can get you by for almost anything and that's what Leatherman Leatherman and all these multi-tools are great for however I wonder if he might have been better served he went with a true survival multi-tool like this Leatherman signal so Leatherman in fact clay Hayes one of the winners of alone used the free P4 we'll talk about in a minute but nobody tends to take this I don't know why it's got a Ferro rod on it that if you just grab this little nubbin it'll come out and it has a whistle and then it still has those pliers replaceable jaws and I'm thinking if I'm fishing pliers and fishing are so so nice it also has a sharpener so you just hit this lock here it's got the sharpener and then of course a knife and a saw but it's a it's a tool that has useful tools for the survivalist and I really appreciate that and then lastly it's got the little thumping end and a little Carabiner hook to put on your pack a great tool for the outdoors I really appreciate it I think it kind of flies under the radar sometimes a lot of survivalists tend to just opt for one of these others that they're used to but yeah we'll have to try that one out in the woods one of these days anyway back on the free series this one is I mean let's be honest if you've made it this far in the video you have watched me struggle with fishing tools out of these things and that's one of the things with multi-tools is they pack so much utility in so densely that sometimes my chubby little fingers I have a hard time getting them out but that's where the Leatherman free series came in to fix it so this here I'm just going to put this hand right here now I'm not going to move this hand and I'm going to get to any tool you want in this up you want a knife up one hand put it away with one hand you want pliers up one hand I'm just gonna attempts to ballet flip it use my tummy there pliers open close all that one hand operable every single tool on the Leatherman free one head operable and this is just I mean this is the big one the free P4 there's also the free P2 which a little slimmed down there's the T Series which reminds me a lot of a Swiss army knife and there's also the K series which is a it's a true folding knife and then it just a few of these little tools that are just thumb operators super well done super easy to actuate and a great tool for everyday use or hard use or whatever and the secret to its success is magnets I know what you're saying I'm a mechanic and I change oil all day well my buddy Aaron over at Gideon's tactical solved all our problems because he literally soaked his Leatherman free in iron filings and yeah it got a little in there and it was a little dirty like a Leatherman should be but it's still ran smooth still one hand operable super nice nice deep Curry pocket clip you can remove it if you want nice gray sheath as well last multi-tool on the table is my personal one and the one that I carry every single day it's the Leatherman Wave I used to have a sheath like this one but I carried it so much that it started to wear out so I got this Kydex one from clip and carry by the way clipping carry makes cheese that can fit a lot of multi-tools here on the table so check them out in my eyes it's the best one because I know it I know this tool so well I've used I mean the charge which is very much like this sort of a premium version of this was my first knife ever and the wave I opted for because I feel like Leatherman's are something that you kind of use and abuse and because of that I don't necessarily need the more premium Steels but it really is just a great everyday carry thing and I don't know how many times I've used it I don't know how many weird situations I found myself in where I have my Leatherman on me and a very specific tool on it needs to be used in fact you might remember a few videos ago I talked about how I broke my flathead screwdriver I hope you understand now that multi-tools are a really great thing to carry I hope you know which one to get I know you know what brand to look for what tool set you're looking for and best of all I hope you find the perfect multi-tool for you at Blade HQ thank you for joining us and we'll see on the next one foreign [Music]

Channel: Blade HQ

Views: 344,387

Keywords: Blade HQ, BladeHQ, Knife Show, Sharp, Knives, Knife, Pocket Knife, Knife Life, Cut Anything, EDC, Everyday Carry, pocket knives, Best Knives, Best Pocket Knives, knife sharpening, Knife tools, Survival Knives, Bushcraft Knives, Pocket Knives, multi-tools, multi tool, multi tools, buyers guide, multi tool buyers guide, multi tool buying guide, best multitools, best leatherman, best swiss knife, best gerber multi tool, best leatherman multi tool, best sog multi tool

Id: QcJpcoti6kI

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2023