Advice/Suggestions for EDC multi-tool

Heinz Doofenshmirtz · **Reply #60 on:** November 23, 2010, 11:59:11 AM

Hey all,

Okay, so the sickness has set in... I took my 2 y.o. daughter out today to buy her a new winter coat and a few other things. While out I succumbed to an impulse buy and picked up one of the green Crucials.

My wife busted me about spending the money, and insisted I return it, but after some thought I went ahead and ripped it out of the bubble pack anyway...

What I found was surprising. I thought the Crucial was a lower step in Gerber's line, but perhaps I was mistaken. It certainly has fewer tools, but some things about it surprised me. Overall it is a better built and higher quality tool than the Octane I just got.

First, the model I got has a corkscrew and a bottle opener. The ones I've seen in pics on various web-sellers just has the carabiner/opener thing.

The first thing I noticed was the Crucial has nice sturdy aluminum side plates, with an open structure that's bolted together. In contrast, the Octane has thinner, one piece folded steel handles on each side. The body shape of the two tools is also very different... the Octane's blade rides outboard of the body, and is in the opposite position from the clip, giving it an asymmetric shape when closed. The Crucial's handles line up and make the tool cleaner and makes it feel sturdier when closed, though this is also party a function of the thicker aluminum handles as well. One thing about the Crucial is that the end of the palm side of the body has a little flare that sticks out and so you have to grip the tool in just the right place in your hand to keep it from digging into your palm while using the pliers, making the tool harder to use if you have bigger hands (or wider hands, like I do) than other people. The Octane also has a slimmer overall body design, even with the outboard blade, than the Crucial. Over all though, for body design, the Crucial is better.

The Crucial's pocket clip is longer, but has less space between it and the body than on the Octane. This somewhat limits what you can clip the Crucial on to. Here it's a toss-up.

The blade on the Octane is about 3/8th of an inch longer, with more plain edge cutting area than the Crucial. However, the Octane's blade is harder to open because it only has a single small cut out for opening, whereas the Crucial has a pressed on plastic stud which makes OHO of the blade much easier and I feel more confident opening it with just my thumb than the blade on the Octane. The fact the stud is plastic may present some long term durability problems though. The Crucial's blade is also a little thicker as well, so it seems like it could handle more demanding tasks than the Octane's blade. Given the use for tools like this, I wouldn't want to use it for really demanding cutting jobs, so despite the awkardness of the opening cut-out, the Octane has the edge because it provides more useable cutting edge.

The tool-locks on the Crucial are liner locks, and I had pretty much sworn off them because of a bad experience I had with an old Paraframe I had, but on the Crucial they are stiff and work well. They can only be released with a deliberate action. Functionally, this works better than the slider locks on the Octane, which are stiff and difficult to get to release to fold the tool back up. I suppose the locks on the Octane will loosen up over time, but out of the box, the locks on the Crucial are better.

Lastly where I noticed differences are the pliers. the Octane's pliers jaws are thicker and a little shorter and stubbier, and the tip is wider. The Crucial's pliers are clearly lighter duty but longer with a finer tip on them, better for fine manipulation tasks with small items. Here I'd say the Octane has the advantage.

So to sum up, here's how these two tools compare in my opinion:

Body design and construction; the Crucial is superior.

Pocket clip; toss-up.

Blade; the Octane's blade is better for most uses.

Locks; no question in my mind, the Crucial's locks are superior, despite being liner locks and all the bad feelings I've had about liner locks in general for the last few years.

Pliers; here I have to say the Octane is slightly better, because they're thicker and a tad shorter than those of the Crucial. They should handle heavier jobs, and their not all that much less fine than those on the Crucial.

So there it is, a quick comparison of these two new tools I just got. At this point I'm going to put the Crucial on the strap of my bike bag where I've been carrying my SwissChamp so far. (I weighed them, and the Crucial is almost 3 oz. lighter.) I will probably clip carry the Octane in my right cargo pocket, opposite my Zebralight SC50w+ which I clip carry in my left cargo pocket.

Gareth · **Reply #61 on:** November 24, 2010, 12:30:15 AM

Thanks for your thoughts mate. I gotta say I played with a Crucial earlier this year and wasn't blown away by it, perhaps Gerber has upped their game or maybe you just got a good 'un. Whatever, I'm glad you like it.

I've not heard of it coming with a corkscrew either, any pics or a link would be very much appreciated.

Heinz Doofenshmirtz · **Reply #62 on:** November 25, 2010, 06:19:27 AM

The one I got is green (would have preferred a red or gray one, but the green is ok), and here is a pic of one with the corkscrew.

Overall, it's not like it's a fantastic tool, but it feels solid and well built in the hand. That by itself makes me feel it's a fairly good quality tool. The Octane is a little slimmer and the design is actually easier to hold because it doesn't have that funky little fin at the end of one side, but it doesn't have the same solid feeling. It feels looser, like the tools and bolts in it aren't really tightly fitting and have more slop in them than the Crucial does.

Now, if they made the Octane with the nice solid aluminum side plates and an inboard blade like the Crucial, that would be a nice tool.