Silverline LM Crunch clone

[kirk13]

FYI. the dress actually came from China, and was only ordered 13 days ago ! not bad, i wonder if the 'crunch clone' gets here from England any quicker ?

  Wait John,breath...and 

[xt60043f]

"it's here....!"
"it's here ... !"
 

well it might be going back  while it looks a great bit of kit for the money. actually quite well made from what i can see. the blade/drivers/file etc. don't seem to 'lock' into the closed position 
they lock lovely in the 'out' (deployed ?) I'll try and get a clear pic on here, after a bit more of a fiddle, see if it can be put right 
but I'll have to eat my words  'Royal Mail' & Amazon dispatch fairies

  

When you say 'don't lock', is the locking lever being jammed up by something (one of the metal tool separators) or is it a bit stiff and not being pushed down by the spring?


//still waiting for my SOG PG 

[Taxi Dad]

i'll try and describe without pics, not sure if they'd show the problem very clearly anyway.
when the blade (or diver/file) is deployed they lock up VERY possitively, with a pleasant 'snap' and feel rock solid.
but the tools still in the the handle still wobble in and out. the locking groove on the opposite radius, by the pivot, seems to be twice as wide as it needs to be 
(does that make any sence ? it does in my head but that doesn't always mean the rest of the world understands)

[AimlessWanderer]

Doesn't sound like that would affect performance, and was possible done purposefully to ensure that the deployed tool locks up without impairment. If the other groves were closer and a tool was slightly out of position inside and not noticed by the user, the deployed tool may fail to lock (again unnoticed) and fold in use leading to a cascade of colourful annunciation

EDIT: That's my 5555th post 

[xt60043f]

And now they sent the me the wrong SOG.

I am so disappointed.

[Taxi Dad]

i saw your post, what are you most disappointed about ? I'm no expert, but looks like the 'latest' model to me i think the piano locks came and went, because they weren't that good ? i have an old powerlock (that has been owned and used by a few members here) and that style of lock works pretty well !

[Taxi Dad]

Hope this shows the 'play' in the locked tools

[xt60043f]

From your pictures it very much looks like the lock clip is not engaging with the notch in the back of the tools. Are you able to look inside and see if you have a malformed tool or perhaps one of the spacers has become dislodged and rotated around?

[xt60043f]

Did you solve your closing lock issue Taxi Dad?

Here I have reground the rather naff sheeps foot, chisel ground, serrated blade to a more conventional double flat grind/serrated combo blade.  Excuse the crappy bevel, this is the first time I have ever re-ground a blade.  It is sharp enough to do the whole cutting paper in the air thing.  It will probably become a more traditional straitback point as the tip gets worn off.

[Taxi Dad]

looking good 
still not sorted my wiggle problem, watch this space !

[captain spaulding]

Is there anywhere to buy these in the states?

[xt60043f]

I do not think so, well not officially.  Leatherman's patents are probably quite enforceable on their home turf.  The best you could hope to do is to set up a deal with someone in the UK.

[hennypenny]

It currently cost £10 (US$15) on Amazon UK, but the postage to the US from the UK will be another £5, so would you be willing to pay £15 (US$23) for it, when you can probably get a used original Crunch in the US for almost similar price?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'd pay $25 for one of these, but then I'm a hard core Multitool junkie and I love oddities like this one, so I may be a bit biased!

Def

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[hennypenny]

I'd pay $25 for one of these, but then I'm a hard core Multitool junkie and I love oddities like this one, so I may be a bit biased!

Def

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I've just doubled checked the postal charge, and it will cost £7.20 (approx. US$11), due to the weight. I'm willing to help anyone who wants this tool to get one bought & posted for absolutely no profit. Just pm me. Same goes for the Silverline Waiters multitool (faux Flair).

[Maxintheuk]

Just got mine today, some thoughts ...

Well, the locking pliers work great, nice design, good fit and finish, neat and compact.  As a compact folding locking plier it is great - the rest of it is not so good!  Surprised to say people have said it is 90% a LM because that says little for LM Crunch quality TBH.  The blade is really so small and crappy with deep serrations (more like a bread knife) as to be unusable.  Worse though the pivot is poor quality (very loose on mine) and the small very oddly shaped washers between the tools all get in the way to stop the blades locking or locking very randomly.  Additionally the locking lever bar is milled at an angle so again does little to lock.

Mine is back to Amazon for replacement to see if they are all like this - happy to fettle it to get it working better but want to see if I just got a lemon first.

As a £10 locking plier it is great but as for the other tools they are a kind of anti-bonus...

[xt60043f]

It sounds like you got a total lemon.

[xt60043f]

Here is an Italian ebay seller who sells the crunch knock-off.  It looks like he also provides shipping to USA for only 6 Euro!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MultiTool-Pinza-Multiuso-in-Metallo-con-Accessori-Multifunzione-mod-2000-/200721532605?pt=Utensili_manuali&hash=item2ebbef86bd

[hennypenny]

Here is an Italian ebay seller who sells the crunch knock-off.  It looks like he also provides shipping to USA for only 6 Euro!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MultiTool-Pinza-Multiuso-in-Metallo-con-Accessori-Multifunzione-mod-2000-/200721532605?pt=Utensili_manuali&hash=item2ebbef86bd

Just a word of caution. My dealings with Italian sellers on ebay (twice) have not been the most straight forward.

[xt60043f]

To be fair he does have over 22000 feedback.

[Maxintheuk]

It sounds like you got a total lemon.

I got the replacement today, much better.

[gregozedobe]

It sounds like you got a total lemon.

I got the replacement today, much better.

Good to hear that you are happy now.  So, what is your assessment of the %ge of Crunch functionality now you have a non-lemon ?

[Maxintheuk]

Much the same really!  I cannot comment on quality compared to a LM but the locking plier element is handy but nothing a £5 'normal' Chinese locking plier (or Molegrip as we say here) would do.

It's kind of useful to fold it up and fun to play with but this is not an EDC and for me was bought to keep in my Land Rover alongside other tools 'just in case' as well as the lust for trying a 'Crunch' but thank goodness I didn't pay the silly LM price for this.  I'm a big LM fan and owner of 6 LM's but the clone at £10 is priced right - I wouldn't spend £15 on one and as for the real thing at £111 in the UK...

 

As for the other tools they may be useful in an emergency and are a bonus but fiddly to extract.  As mentioned the 'breadknife' is so so...

[rickboone]

Can these be found in US?


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[tosh]

Can these be found in US?


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They were on amazon uk, but I recently had a look and couldn't find them. So whether they've ceased production I can't say. But I'm pretty certain they'll be available online someplace.

[jsutter]

The LM Crunch is my favorite full sized multitool, but it is quite expensive. I would love to have a couple extra of these to keep around. Unfortunately, for 20 Euros (including shipping) that makes it about $27-28 and I might as well just buy another used one of ebay.

Maybe if I could get 2 or 3 of the knock off Crunches in a package and shipped together it would be a better deal.     

[scrappy]

The Italian seller listed above still has a few left. 27 dollars shipped to the US is still cheaper than a used crunch but I would rather pay a little extra and get the crunch. If it was available for 20 or less i would say to for it.
27 is just too much for a knock off to me.

[xt60043f]

The faux crunch has some shortcomings.

--The file is not hardened.  This makes it practically useless for filing metal.
--The wire cutter is smurf.  It cannot cut a coat hanger (the de-facto MT wire cutter test).
--The 'grooves' on the plier jaw grip surface are poorly formed.

If you can get a real crunch, second hand at a slightly more expensive price, I would go for the real one every time.

However if you want a mostly working disposable crunch, the faux crunch is OK.

I have actually come around to the bread knife...

[Rorschach]

Anyone seen these available recently? Amazon don't have any and neither does ebay. I can't justify a crunch but a modded silverline would be a great addition to my lightweight tool box

[scrappy]

Available here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MultiTool-Pinza-Multiuso-in-Metallo-con-Accessori-Multifunzione-mod-2000-/200721532605?pt=Utensili_manuali&hash=item2ebbef86bd