Okay, I've never done this before but I'm gonna try.
My first impression of this little beauty "Ooooh, I like it". Having had for a few days now, I still feel that way. I do have some gripes, but we'll get to that.
Compact is the name of game here. You can check out the actual specs at the Leatherman site. But for me it is pefect pocket size. The pliers feel very very good in my hand and work well. I loosened up some bolts and such on my bike just so I could do this review and I was very happy. The overall tool is so small that I could get around relatively easily but still have enough leverage to get the job done. I love how tightly the pliers close. I mentioned in another thread that I used them to pull out a splinter. The small size of the tool combined with the thin needle nosed pliers worked perfectly in place of tweezers.
I didn't get a good shot of all the tools pulled out, but I will say I love these screwdrivers. I thought that the bit driver on the Wave was cool, but these are really neat. The three flatheads are on one side of the handle (knife blade side) and the phillips is all by itself on the other (corkscrew side), well the lanyard ring is on that side, but it's not a "tool" perse.
Again we have the large "sort of looks like a screwdriver but more like a pry bar" large flathead, a medium sized one, and a small one that it almost a jeweler's sized flat head. They all work well, I managed to find screws for all of them, but my favorite by far is the small one...works great on my glasses. The phillips head is very solid and I love the length...not too short not too long. It fits most of the screws around my apartment that I could find. So to me it's a pretty standard size. And I really like it. Now, having said all that I will say that while I like the "no clumping" feature, these little screwdrivers are really hard to get out. They are loosening up but they are nasty to try to get out at first. And the corners on the flat heads are very sharp and will bite you if you aren't careful.
Here's a random shot of what it looks like closed on either end. I gotta say that this tool looks impressive and very well put together before you even open it.
Now, the outside tools. The blade and scissors are on one side and I must say this is my biggest complaint about this tool. The scissors and knife blade open the same way and are right next to each other. I personally think this tool would be perfect if the scissors were on the same handle, but on the other side of it. It would make it much more efficient to use, IMO. The nail nick for the scissors is also very very recessed. I couldn't get a good shot of this with the camera , but trust me, you can barely see it let alone use it.
The knife itself is very nice. I love the desgin of it and it was pretty sharp out of the box. However, a few minutes on my sharpmaker made it hair popping sharp. It's a slipjoint style so no lock but it's very secure when opened. And the length is great too. I've cut open some letters and some tape on boxes and it worked very well. It also cuts through paracord like butter.
The scissors, despite being in an awkward place, are very nice. The cut flawlessly. At first they were really stiff, but they got better. They cut from base to tip which to me is also important because a lot of times you see scissors that will cut at the tip but not the bottom or the other way around. I hate that. They don't stick and the spring doesn't slip and pop out like I've seen other MT scissors do. I like the feel of these better than the ones on my Wave actually because they are a bit bigger and because the tool is smaller are easier to use.
The other outside tools are the corkscrew and can opener. I really don't have a lot to say about this because I haven't really used either one. However, I don't like the fact that you can't the corkscrew out without the can opener coming out as well. I suppose this is because LM intended these two features to work together. I can't imagine that I would need a corkscrew without using the canopener to help get the cork out, but I just think they should be independent of each other.
Over all, I just really really like this little tool. I will say that over all it is still incredibly stiff to open and close but it is loosening up quite a bit already. The wire cutters work great, by the way. I use zip ties for a lot of things around the house, so I use the wire cutters to cut those. Works really well.
So that's it. I hope that it was alright. If I missed anything let me know. I'm going to go ahead and post a review of the Pulse too.
Okay, I'll hush now. Let me know what you thought.
Gray
PS I forgot to mention that I love the color! I'd prefer a green one, but I do like this blue. I should also say that I can't wait to try out a Juice S2.
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