Surge Undocumented Feature?

[toytoy]

What does this feature do?  It does not show up on Surge's User's Guide.

I guess it may be a general purpose wire stripper.

[Grant Lamontagne]

That would be my guess as well, although it does work well on a fire steel too!

Def

[NeitherExtreme]

Yeah, that's a wire-stripper... I've seen it labeled on other LM tools. It works ok, after a bit of practice. Not great though, and I usually end up using the wire cutters.

While we're on the topic of Surge and wire-strippers... Don't you think it would be neat to have a Surge with wire-strippers where the scissors are? (If I keep asking for it, maybe it will happen, right? The squeaky wheel gets the oil...  )

[Anthony]

Leatherman should design an "electricians tool" to compete with the SOG PT series.  A wire stripper tool would be great for that.

Seriously, how many diffrent incarnations of the Super Tool or Wave do we need?  I think they've got every base covered with those designs.  Even if they took the Surge chassis and designed some new specialized impliments for it (like was done with the Powerlock more or less)

[J-sews]

Leatherman should design an "electricians tool" to compete with the SOG PT series.  A wire stripper tool would be great for that.

Seriously, how many diffrent incarnations of the Super Tool or Wave do we need?  I think they've got every base covered with those designs.  Even if they took the Surge chassis and designed some new specialized impliments for it (like was done with the Powerlock more or less)

Agreed! The little Squirt EL was a good start, but extremely light duty. A biggie-sized version would be nice 

[NeitherExtreme]

That's the spirit! Enough talk like that and there might be a chance to see it happen. Maybe the competition from Paladin could help move LM in that direction as well, since the PT series look like tools to be reckonned with...

I think the Surge is a great start for an electrical-work based tool. With the scissors swapped out for wire-strippers it would aready be most of the way there IMO. The three sets of cutters and a crimper in the pliar jaw are a good start as well. And the interchangable blade would be great for blade-dulling activities like cutting drywall, nails, conduit, etc. The bit drivers are also a good thing since there are a number of different drivers (especially squares) that get used for electric work, as well as for very small screws at times. I personally didn't use punch-down tools very often, but I'd think it would be pretty easy for LM to make a bit for the adapter that could cover that as well. Now if they could just make the handles insulated...

[Leatherman123]

Funny, on my user guides the wire-stripper is indeed labeled... But yeah Def using that is a great idea! I just tried it and it worked very well!

[toytoy]

Agreed! The little Squirt EL was a good start, but extremely light duty. A biggie-sized version would be nice 

A nice electrician's tool may have a smaller blade (e.g., the smaller blade of a Swiss Army knife).  Saved space may be used to store some screwdriver bits.  You only need a reasonably good general purpose wire-stripper because there are much better wire-stripper tools that most electrician would own and use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pliers_crimp_01CJC.png

[Grant Lamontagne]

Funny, on my user guides the wire-stripper is indeed labeled... But yeah Def using that is a great idea! I just tried it and it worked very well!

If you think that is impressive, try it with the file.

Def

[toytoy]

And the interchangable blade would be great for blade-dulling activities like cutting drywall, nails, conduit, etc. The bit drivers are also a good thing since there are a number of different drivers (especially squares)

I wish Leatherman would provide a better sheath that allows you to carry an Electrician's Surge, a few slightly longer saw blades (e.g, a concrete/fiberglass saw and a thin metal saw), a standard bit adapter and a small clear plastic ruler).  Surge's handle rulers are useless to me.  The two segments are difficult to use.

If only Leatherman could bundle the Universal Tool Adapter with Surge and drop the non-standard bits ...  I mean they may sell the Surge with a tool adapter for maybe $10 extra.  The sales of these Universal Tool Adapter would soar if they are bundled with Surge.

You may wear a pair of electrician's insulation gloves to use the tool safely.  This solves the painful palm problem.