Ruiss LM Juice XE6 Lookalike - Overview

[EddieEnzyme]

Hi,

Well here's a bit of a look at the Chinese made Ruiss Juice XE6 lookalike which sells for around $18-20 US (roughly £12!) including postage from China!

Here it is, side by side with a LM XE6:

It's an exact lookalike although a bit larger. The aluminium scales are quite a bit thinner than the LM which is a shame as they do flex and are easily caught and lifted by a fingernail which makes it feel a bit cheap. Main construction is of steel (type unknown) though, not skeletonised as the LM is so it's quite heavy - 190g for the LM. 260g for the Ruiss.





The plier heads are identical but proportionately larger (as are all of the tools)



Inside tools. You can see that the Phillips driver is smaller.



Tools side 1.
The file is not great. No diamond file here I'm afraid. It's a bit of a nail breaker too!
The serrated blade is fine, the bottle opener/can opener seems ok, corkscrew has sucessfully screwed a cork!



Tools side 2.
The blade is pretty good actually. Needed a bit of a sharpen but it's stayed sharp since then with some light use.
Scissors do cut well but the spring mechanism is sticky. I'll see if I can improve it.
Awl is an awl, as sharp as the LM one (ie not very) and the saw is fine too although it's very difficult to deploy. Stiff spring and a hard to get to nail nick. (You can't get a fingernail under the tip as you can on the LM.)



Ok, I've picked out the negatives now for the positives.

Quite simply,It's a good tool!
It feels generally solid, though there is a bit of side to side movement when it's closed, most of the tools open smoothly and snap nicely into place (only the file and saw are difficult to open,) the pliers are perfectly capable for light/medium tasks and it's UK legal!

For the princely sum of £12 including postage I think it's a bit of a bargain, you could have 8 of these for the price of the LM, though of course the LM feels much nicer and will last a lifetime.

Of course side-by-side with a genuine Leatherman the difference is obvious, but this is a pretty nice little tool for not a lot of money!

[Landrew]

Hi,

Well here's a bit of a look at the Chinese made Ruiss Juice XE6 lookalike which sells for around $18-20 US (roughly £12!) including postage from China!

Here it is, side by side with a LM XE6:

It's an exact lookalike although a bit larger. The aluminium scales are quite a bit thinner than the LM which is a shame as they do flex and are easily caught and lifted by a fingernail which makes it feel a bit cheap. Main construction is of steel (type unknown) though, not skeletonised as the LM is so it's quite heavy - 190g for the LM. 260g for the Ruiss.



The plier heads are identical but proportionately larger (as are all of the tools)


Inside tools. You can see that the Phillips driver is smaller.


Tools side 1.
The file is not great. No diamond file here I'm afraid. It's a bit of a nail breaker too!
The serrated blade is fine, the bottle opener/can opener seems ok, corkscrew has sucessfully screwed a cork!


Tools side 2.
The blade is pretty good actually. Needed a bit of a sharpen but it's stayed sharp since then with some light use.
Scissors do cut well but the spring mechanism is sticky. I'll see if I can improve it.
Awl is an awl, as sharp as the LM one (ie not very) and the saw is fine too although it's very difficult to deploy. Stiff spring and a hard to get to nail nick. (You can't get a fingernail under the tip as you can on the LM.)


Ok, I've picked out the negatives now for the positives.

Quite simply,It's a good tool!
It feels generally solid, though there is a bit of side to side movement when it's closed, most of the tools open smoothly and snap nicely into place (only the file and saw are difficult to open,) the pliers are perfectly capable for light/medium tasks and it's UK legal!

For the princely sum of £12 including postage I think it's a bit of a bargain, you could have 8 of these for the price of the LM, though of course the LM feels much nicer and will last a lifetime.

Of course side-by-side with a genuine Leatherman the difference is obvious, but this is a pretty nice little tool for not a lot of money!

I'm guessing that someone said, "copy this, but make it a bit larger" not realizing the whole point of a Juice is the perfect size to utility configuration.

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice overview  I have the same one and I'd pretty much echo your findings.

Do your scissors not quite go all the way down? That's the problem with getting to the saw's nail nick on mine. It's as though it needs a little gringing off the scissors arm for it to go "home" properly. Awl is blunt, scissors don't stow properly, can opener is not very sharp, flat drivers bite you .... they really put some effort into copying the Leatherman offerings didn't they

As you say the two biggest tell tale signs are the file, which I would assume is little more than a textured slab or steel, and I wouldn't risk tackling anything much harder than finger nails with it - but of course the biggest giveaway that this is a cheapo tool - a really piss poor Phillips.

The XE6 is certainly the superior tool, and that's even with my frustration over the Juice line ... HOWEVER ... I would say the clone is probably the better value for money!!! Yes the tool isn't up to the same standard in a number of ways, but at such a tiny fraction of the price for something which on the whole is quite usable, I think I'll be hanging onto mine, even though I traded the XE6 away 

[EddieEnzyme]

Nice overview  I have the same one and I'd pretty much echo your findings.

Do your scissors not quite go all the way down? That's the problem with getting to the saw's nail nick on mine. It's as though it needs a little gringing off the scissors arm for it to go "home" properly. Awl is blunt, scissors don't stow properly, can opener is not very sharp, flat drivers bite you .... they really put some effort into copying the Leatherman offerings didn't they

As you say the two biggest tell tale signs are the file, which I would assume is little more than a textured slab or steel, and I wouldn't risk tackling anything much harder than finger nails with it - but of course the biggest giveaway that this is a cheapo tool - a really piss poor Phillips.

The XE6 is certainly the superior tool, and that's even with my frustration over the Juice line ... HOWEVER ... I would say the clone is probably the better value for money!!! Yes the tool isn't up to the same standard in a number of ways, but at such a tiny fraction of the price for something which on the whole is quite usable, I think I'll be hanging onto mine, even though I traded the XE6 away 

Hmmm, The scissors on mine stow quite happily but when you snip with 'em the return spring doesn't open 'em up entirely, if you know what I mean.
Sounds like there's a bit of inconsistency at the factory.
Edit: Aha, I see what you mean now, my scissors snap closed nicely but still obscure the nail nick of the saw...

I reckon the Leatheman is at least twice as good as this BUT this is 8 times cheaper - I'll stick with the LM for EDC though due to the size and weight difference (I agree with Landrew, the whole point of the Juice range was a pocket sized tool. Although this isn't so huge.)

Your description of the file is perfect!

[dks]

I posted some pictures of such tools branded Expedition, I think, sold in Ukraine, but they were priced at 40 Euros so there was no point buying them instead of the LM one.

at $12...   

[Lynn LeFey]

Interesting. Design of a Juice, but done one the scale of a full-size Leatherman. This thing weighs as much (actually a little more) than a Wave.

Sounds reasonably nice for under $20.

Thank you for the review.

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice overview  I have the same one and I'd pretty much echo your findings.

Do your scissors not quite go all the way down? That's the problem with getting to the saw's nail nick on mine. It's as though it needs a little gringing off the scissors arm for it to go "home" properly. Awl is blunt, scissors don't stow properly, can opener is not very sharp, flat drivers bite you .... they really put some effort into copying the Leatherman offerings didn't they

As you say the two biggest tell tale signs are the file, which I would assume is little more than a textured slab or steel, and I wouldn't risk tackling anything much harder than finger nails with it - but of course the biggest giveaway that this is a cheapo tool - a really piss poor Phillips.

The XE6 is certainly the superior tool, and that's even with my frustration over the Juice line ... HOWEVER ... I would say the clone is probably the better value for money!!! Yes the tool isn't up to the same standard in a number of ways, but at such a tiny fraction of the price for something which on the whole is quite usable, I think I'll be hanging onto mine, even though I traded the XE6 away 

Hmmm, The scissors on mine stow quite happily but when you snip with 'em the return spring doesn't open 'em up entirely, if you know what I mean.
Sounds like there's a bit of inconsistency at the factory.
Edit: Aha, I see what you mean now, my scissors snap closed nicely but still obscure the nail nick of the saw...

I reckon the Leatheman is at least twice as good as this BUT this is 8 times cheaper - I'll stick with the LM for EDC though due to the size and weight difference (I agree with Landrew, the whole point of the Juice range was a pocket sized tool. Although this isn't so huge.)

Your description of the file is perfect!

... and if I look at the very tip of my scissors, they seem a little high. I think it's the scissor arm that's stopping them go lower as I can't see any other obstruction but there's a very definite and solid stop that you can actually hear. I might just trim it down a little to see if it makes a difference

I'll check out the scissors spring on mine tonight to see how it's behaving

[enki_ck]

Very interesting. thanks for this. I see them occasionally on ebay in different configurations. They at least make a black scaled "Juice" Never realized the size and weight difference though.

[Gareth]

Nice write-up mate.    I will say that as I find the Xe6 a bit thick and heavy for pocket carry I very much doubt I will be getting one of these.

[Metropolicity]

Nice write-up mate.    I will say that as I find the Xe6 a bit thick and heavy for pocket carry I very much doubt I will be getting one of these.

if they made a S2 copy, I'd get a WHOLE bunch of them and stash them in places around my house, car, shop, scooter...ANYWHERE!

[Gareth]

Nice write-up mate.    I will say that as I find the Xe6 a bit thick and heavy for pocket carry I very much doubt I will be getting one of these.

if they made a S2 copy, I'd get a WHOLE bunch of them and stash them in places around my house, car, shop, scooter...ANYWHERE!

agreed.

[AimlessWanderer]

I would agree ... if they'd revisit the Phillips situation 

@EddieEnzyme ... sorry pal, my scissor spring works just fine 

[EddieEnzyme]

I would agree ... if they'd revisit the Phillips situation 

@EddieEnzyme ... sorry pal, my scissor spring works just fine 

I must just have a sticky one!

I noticed there's another model for $12 posted (!!) with one less layer - kind of CS4 sized but with a different tool load - seems to have a file, plain edged blade, serrated blade and a couple of non-LM tools (bottle opener/driver and a can opener)

Of course I ordered one, it'd be rude not to....

[Metropolicity]

I would agree ... if they'd revisit the Phillips situation 

@EddieEnzyme ... sorry pal, my scissor spring works just fine 

I must just have a sticky one!

I noticed there's another model for $12 posted (!!) with one less layer - kind of CS4 sized but with a different tool load - seems to have a file, plain edged blade, serrated blade and a couple of non-LM tools (bottle opener/driver and a can opener)

Of course I ordered one, it'd be rude not to....

Where are you finding these jewels from the East?

[EddieEnzyme]

I would agree ... if they'd revisit the Phillips situation 

@EddieEnzyme ... sorry pal, my scissor spring works just fine 

I must just have a sticky one!

I noticed there's another model for $12 posted (!!) with one less layer - kind of CS4 sized but with a different tool load - seems to have a file, plain edged blade, serrated blade and a couple of non-LM tools (bottle opener/driver and a can opener)

Of course I ordered one, it'd be rude not to....

Where are you finding these jewels from the East?

Right here -

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=multi+tool&catId=0&manual=y