Thoughts on a SOG Crosscut?

[nuphoria]

I think I did a little bit, but it never seemed to catch on anything

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

You're getting ANOTHER S4? Guess you liked that first one, huh? Also, did the wife snag that first one? I SEEM to recall you posting that was the case, but I'm getting old and occasionally lose small details... like who I am... where I am...

Yeah, I have to say, I've come to like the S4 a lot...  I like the ergonomics of the tool much better than the Style CS; I find it easier to open, hold and operate the scissors, and I really like the tool layout it has.  There are some things about it that are definitely sucky though...  the bottle opener and the blade both stink, and I've had issues particularly with the blade.  Despite those faults of the S4, I've come to like it more than my small SAKs, either my Exec or my Evo 88.

The one place the Style CS, and the Evo 88, definitely beat the S4 is on the bottle opener; The carabiner/bottle-opener of the CS definitely works much better, in my experience, than either the bottle opener on the S4 or the Evo 88, though the one on the Evo 88 is also much better than the one on the S4.  But, the bottle opener on the S4 works serviceably once you get the hang of it, and I don't open bottles all the much anymore any way. 

I'll be making a little leather pouch for it too, just like the one you included with the one you sent me from our trade last summer.  In fact, I want to make a little double pouch that will hold the S4 and my Q-Mini AA together.   

[Lynn LeFey]

Yeah. I open about 3 bottles a week, at most (always on Friday night... strangely enough). So bottle opener is WAY low priority for me. Even ones that are bad will open a bottle usually on the third or fourth try, and that's a total of maybe 30 seconds a week of extra effort. Okay... maybe a little more on bottle #3.

I'm not in love with the chisel grind of Leatherman Keychain tools (or the Crosscut), but they have never been more than slightly annoying. They've never been terrible, and in fact my Crosscut's chisel grind blade went 15 years without needing to be sharpened.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Yeah. I open about 3 bottles a week, at most (always on Friday night... strangely enough). So bottle opener is WAY low priority for me. Even ones that are bad will open a bottle usually on the third or fourth try, and that's a total of maybe 30 seconds a week of extra effort. Okay... maybe a little more on bottle #3.

I'm not in love with the chisel grind of Leatherman Keychain tools (or the Crosscut), but they have never been more than slightly annoying. They've never been terrible, and in fact my Crosscut's chisel grind blade went 15 years without needing to be sharpened.

Yeah, I think that's the real issue with those little Leatherman blades... the angle of the factory edge grind is too steep IMHO.  I had a Style CS some time ago that I abused a little bit, and ended up dulling the blade.  Turned out the heat treat on the blade was bad or something like that, because I could never get the thing to take a decent edge again after that.  Heck, I'd pay an extra $5 to $8 for a decent little blade on them, something like VG10 would be awesome.

[Lynn LeFey]

I did a halfway decent reprofiling on the blade of my new Crosscut 2.0, to change it to a standard grind. It took about half an hour or so, and is paper cutting sharp along most of it. I don't know if you'd considered trying that.

As for better steel... I've never needed a blade so much that it mattered, but folks use their tools in a lot of different ways, so I respect that this MIGHT be an issue for others.

[Cupboard]

it's not that hard to change re-profile the edge on the Squirt either, but the whole blade is ground so the side away from the rest of the tool is heading for parallel with the edge and the inside has much more of an angle to it.

Still, you can get it shaving sharp and unlike a certain other mini MT I have you don't get vast quantities of filings off it when sharpening!

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Like I said, I only use a Leatherman's blade if I don't have anything else with me.  Sometimes my needs aren't anything more than opening an envelope or a box, or starting an orange, but at this point in time, I won't even consider using one of the little Leatherman blades for anything more than that.  I have occasionally used the blade on one of my Juices for things like whittling a stick for my wife's dog when out on a walk, but for stuff like that I usually have a regular SAK on me.

Honestly, I'd like to see LM make a Juice without a knife blade in it...  Lower cost, less security issues, and a more balanced design in the tool.  I already usually have a SAK or a folder available, so one of LM's crappy small blades is just useless weight, bulk, and expense in my book.

[Monrogue]

I have never found tweezers on an MT which are as good as a stand alone pair. Just my experience this far, but the Micra ones are truly useless!

A long time ago when I wouldn't leave the house without my Micra, I decided to cut half the tweezers off and sharpen the other half, making a very useful sharp pointy thing!

Nuph, I think your photo here has just inspired me to do the same thing   I have little use for the tweezers on my Micra, and would probably get more use out of a needle/pointy thing.  Nice job on yours btw   How did you sharpen it?

[tosh]

I agree with Lynn.

If you want a crosscut then track down one of the original ones - the new version is by all accounts just garbage.
I recently uploaded a picture of mine after another member posted a coment about the pliers not working right on their "New" crosscut.

  Jeez, SOG should bury their heads in shame. The comparison pics were just mind boggling.

My advice echos Lynn's - Stay away from the current version.

[nuphoria]

@Monrogue

I just used a stone to take the overall width down and then profile the point a bit. I'm no sharpening expert or anything, but this was easy

[Monrogue]

@Monrogue

I just used a stone to take the overall width down and then profile the point a bit. I'm no sharpening expert or anything, but this was easy

Cool.  I'm no expert myself, and I have no sharpening stones.  I do have a few diamond files kicking around though;)

Sent from my XT901 using Tapatalk 2

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Hey all...

I've decided I'm not going to get a CrossCut for now, as I have found a replacement S4.

I have decided, though, to pick up another Style CS, so I compare the two back to back.

Not sure when that'll happen, but I'll post a review when it does.