Going into the Shot Show this year, the tool that I was most excited with by far surely had to be the new Gerber Grappler. After all, locking plier multitools don't come along very often, and seldom stick around very long. The Kershaw A100 and the Schrade ST6 have long since fallen by the wayside, leaving only the original Leatherman Crunch to represent the category.
Kershaw A100
Schrade ST6
Leatherman Crunch
Gerber GrapplerThe Grappler takes a different approach to the concept by utilizing Gerber's trademark sliding jaw concept. In this case they do it one better though, by using only ONE push button lock instead of the usual two, making it even easier to deploy the pliers with only one hand. Lock up did not seem to suffer any by this change, but more testing will be in order of course.
The retractable sliding jaws makes the Grappler more compact to carry, and although it is still slightly longer when folded than the Crunch, it is much shorter to carry than the fixed jaw Kershaw and Schrade.
Another significant difference among these four locking multitools is the means of jaw adjustment. While the Crunch, Schrade, and Kershaw have a knurled knob near the pommel, the Grappler has a knob that is housed internally.
Hopefully this will not prove to be a weakness in the design. The adjustment knob is not as easy to access as its end-mounted competitors obviously, and one cannot help but wonder if it will be a source of frustration with cold or oily fingers.
The upside is that an internally mounted knob is better protected than an external one. And for those of you who might be wondering, the knob cannot really be made an larger in diameter and still slide down the handle channel.
We've made plenty of hay here at Multitool.org bashing Gerber multitools for their silly short screwdrivers, and the design department has listened. Notice that none of the blades on the Grappler are housed in the inboard channel, which is totally occupied by the plier head when retracted.
Instead, all four blades are outside openers, liner locking, and of a reasonable length.
There is a half-serrated knife blade to start with, with a thumbstud for one-hand opening. Was I the only one to feel that the thumb stud placement on a few previous Gerbers was incorrect? Maybe too close to the knife blade pivot, making it difficult to flick open? I'm happy to report that the one on the Grappler is just right.
Next up is a combination file/flathead screwdriver. I'm not a big fan of combining a file blade (which must be hard and therefore brittle in order to cut metal) with a screwdriver (which must be tough yet somewhat flexible so it doesn't shatter when being torqued) but when we spoke to the Gerber engineers about this concern, they assured us that the metallurgy and thickness on this one was suitable to both.
I assume a prybar was added to the Grappler because of the unsuitability of prying with the hard file/flathead combo blade. Gerber did it right on this one by including a nail head notch, something that the prybar on their Freehand multitool could probably benefit from as well. (Also the ruler on the Grappler was stamped on the correct edge, something they got backwards on the Freehand)
Last up is this combination can opener/wire stripper, phillips screwdriver blade. I love the length - Gerbers longest phillips ever - but I'm not real keen on the "flat" style. Although admittedly, there isn't really an option on the Grappler to go with the excellent square phillips like they used on the Octane and Strata.
Other observations include a real attention to small details by the designers. For instance, the signature "rattle" that we've come to expect from Gerber sliders has been addressed with the addition of a small latch mechanism. It is a similar set-up to what the Flik has, and it locks the tool up nicely when closed and eliminates the annoying rattle.
All-in-all, the Grappler seems to be a well made first foray by Gerber into the locking plier multitool arena. It has several distinct advantages over its only remaining competitor the Crunch, including faster plier deployment, faster blade deployment, and longer blades and drivers. The only unanswered questions I have about it are in regards to durability and ease of use out in the field, and we won't be able to answer those questions until the Grappler becomes available later this year.
By the way, don't miss Grant's pictures and first impressions of the Grappler in this thread here:
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,16682.0.html 
