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West Marine Sailing Tool

Chako · 39 · 16191

us Offline x86Daddy

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #30 on: August 25, 2010, 08:28:03 PM
I thought someone mentioned the price is 50 but it is 70. have these gone up in proces or is there some where selling them for less?
The West Marine website listed it on sale for $50.  It's now 70... same page. :(


us Offline yud

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #31 on: August 25, 2010, 09:19:50 PM
I thought someone mentioned the price is 50 but it is 70. have these gone up in proces or is there some where selling them for less?
The West Marine website listed it on sale for $50.  It's now 70... same page. :(
$50 was on sale ;)


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spam Offline scrappy

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #32 on: August 26, 2010, 01:18:25 AM
okay, thanks.


us Offline Lynn LeFey

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #33 on: May 28, 2015, 06:14:59 PM
Sorry about the thread necro, but I recently had one of these pass through my hands, and wanted to give my impressions on the tool.

I found it on ebay, in a very wrong category ('pliers' I think?) so it sold pretty cheap. I got it only because I thought another member of the boards here might be interested in the tool, and ended up trading it for a Leatherman Rebar.

First, the tool seems to be mostly rock solid. The hinged tool cover (which can be removed) would be the only exception. I like the addition of the gear covers compared to older SOGs. I LOVE the fairly well polished stainless steel, particularly for a marine environment. The down side to that is the philips and file are both matte finish, and both showed signs of rust. There was also a bit of rust in the plier jaws. Overall, I'd call the construction EXCEPTIONAL.

But the construction isn't the problem. The problem is the design. While built on the Powerassist model, it has no blade assist, and opening the blade with the thumb stud was VERY difficult. The Marlin Spike required so much force to open with the 'nail nick' that it damaged the quick under my nail. I have VERY strong nails. Other folks' nails would most likely have broken first. The better option is to fish the Marlin Spike out by its tip. Once open, the blade locks for both blade and Marlin Spike were so resistant to being opened that they left dents in my thumb. Forget one hand closing. I managed it once with the blade, but it felt extremely precarious. The slide-buttons on the tool locks seemed to have the right amount of force required to turn on or off, but had sharp corners, and were a bit painful to operate.

On the other side, I already mentioned the tool cover, which i didn't like. It feels flimsy on an otherwise rock-solid build. AND it's an annoying additional step to get to tools. With so many other ergonomic fails on this tool, I don't see why they'd bother with this cover here. The tools inside were difficult to extract. I'm not sure how much of it might have been due to rust, so I'll give that a partial pass. The Hex wrench has a nail nick at the head, which I found essentially impossible to get ahold of. Instead, I fished it out by the hex holes. The philips seems to be nothing special. I've probably noted this before, but I'm fairly certain that with that big nail nick cutout in the flathead driver/cap lifter, that the total cross section of metal is considerably less than the flathead on a 91mm Victorinox, and probably more like the total cross section on a Micra's flathead. Meaning... I don't think it'd be very strong, and as the main pry tool on an MT, I WANT it really strong. The can opener remains an utter POS, as was my experience with my first Powerlock. While I'm sure a shackle key on the file is SUPER useful for marine applications, it does hamper the file's usefulness. The piano locks SUCK! I vastly prefer the single lock I've seen on the Powerlock.

And the plier head. Every time I handle a full size SOG... I LOVE that plier head. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. On a tool I'd otherwise easily write off as not worth my time. SO frustrating.

It feels to me like, minus the plier head design, the rest of the tool is VERY badly designed, and VERY NICELY constructed.

Frustrating beyond belief.

This tool went on to JNieporte. I hope he'll give his thoughts on it when it gets there.


us Offline JNieporte

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #34 on: May 29, 2015, 07:48:31 PM
When the tool gets here Lynn, I'll post my comments. However, I do own its cousin, the BlackTip. A few observations...
-The safety sliders are unnecessary, so I superglued them to the "off" position.
-The whole tool benefits from a disassembly, cleaning (there was so much factory grease that it actually slowed down the deployment of the tools) reassembly, and lubricating.
-The thumb stud deployment can be improved by opening the blade a few hundred times while watching TV, or in my case, switching the two washers around.
This is gonna hurt...


us Offline buck

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #35 on: May 29, 2015, 11:13:37 PM
Mine was new in the package and it's the only multitool I'd include in the same class as the SwissTool in terms of fit and finish.

My other SOGs are just as nice though you can't really compare black oxide to polished stainless, but they are all new.
PM me if you want one of my kidneys for your SOG TiNi multitool.

OK, both my kidneys.


us Offline JNieporte

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #36 on: June 01, 2015, 10:34:55 PM
The West Marine arrived today from Lynn LeFey. Apart from above, my observations are:
-The safety sliders are very loose on this one, so the super glue is necessary.
-The Torx screws were stripped, so no adjusting them. Instead, to correct the tightness, I lubricated everything and inserted a business card between the tools to loosen it up. After about 200 opening and closing cycles, it's ideal.
-I had no problem deploying any of the tools, inside or out, after lubricating the pivots with Tuff Glide.
-The tool has piano locks; I miss them.
-I don't know what sizes the three hex cut-outs are for, but none of them are 1/4" despite being listed as #8, #10, and 1/4"
-The marlin spike is shorter than I imagined, but well-formed.

I should also add that the tool I have came used, so I'm not sure how these are right out of the package. also, I'm not using this for sailing, but for paracord projects. It has a nice array of tools for that: pliers, marlin spike, serrated blade, hex holes for me to secure hitches for a short time, and the pliers open with just one hand.

EDITed to add:
Oh yeah, the impossible-to-use crimpers are impossible to use, unless you want to put an extra "crimp" in whatever you're crimping. A Dremel will fix this.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2015, 10:40:39 PM by JNieporte »
This is gonna hurt...


us Offline BASguy

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #37 on: June 02, 2015, 03:51:28 AM
It looks like an interesting tool.  Marlin spikes are cool


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us Offline toolguy

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Re: West Marine Sailing Tool
Reply #38 on: July 27, 2015, 09:59:53 PM
I can't add anymore to the description of this tool than have the previous posters.I will comment about the availability of these tools.They do pop up occasionally on ebay and most of the time they're priced too high but sometimes the seller is open to an offer.The seller,who I approached with an offer,was amenable to my offer and I bought it for a fair price.

Here it is compared to the West Marine fishing tool.

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* DSCN2255.JPG (Filesize: 187.89 KB)
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* DSCN2256.JPG (Filesize: 185.86 KB)
DSCN2257.JPG
* DSCN2257.JPG (Filesize: 186.96 KB)
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* DSCN2258.JPG (Filesize: 193.98 KB)
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