Thoughts on a SOG Crosscut?

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Okay, as some of you may know by now, my sweet little Squirt S4 got appropriated by some baggage handler on US Airways, somewhere between SFO and Boston's Logan airport.

That said, I'm considering a Crosscut as a replacement.  They're inexpensive, have a good toolset, and Lynn raves about hers.  So, anyone have any thoughts about the Crosscut?  I may be able to find another S4, but in the mean time, I'm considering a Crosscut.  Not real fond of the Style CS.

[Metropolicity]

Okay, as some of you may know by now, my sweet little Squirt S4 got appropriated by some baggage handler on US Airways, somewhere between SFO and Boston's Logan airport.

That said, I'm considering a Crosscut as a replacement.  They're inexpensive, have a good toolset, and Lynn raves about hers.  So, anyone have any thoughts about the Crosscut?  I may be able to find another S4, but in the mean time, I'm considering a Crosscut.  Not real fond of the Style CS.

It's alright, the compound is nice.

If you are looking for another s4, I have a bunch coming in, I'll see if I can clean one up for you.

[Chako]

A great little tool. I don't think you will be disappointed if you do get one.

[wndrstrck]

I personally love them both but the S4 wins out in the ergonomics department. Not to mention the outside accessable tools.

Sent from my Galaxy Note II

[Zed]

I personally love them both but the S4 wins out in the ergonomics department. Not to mention the outside accessable tools.

Sent from my Galaxy Note II

This is why I prefer my p4 over my micra 

[AimlessWanderer]

I have a TiNi Crosscut, and while I like it, I've never carried it. I've never owned a S4 but I didn't have great luck with the quality of my P4s so I avoided buying one. I do have a Micra, and that gets little carry either. It tends to sit in my "micro tool tin" in a light rucksack

On the whole I generally feel happier carrying a SAK with scissors, and have found myself carrying one of the variations of the Wenger Traveller a lot. Paired with a modest pliers tool (4" or less) that's equipped with a Philips, I'm ready for most things that turn up in my daily life. As a back up I also have a Manager on my keys, and a Mini Buck and Screwzall in my wallet

[Taxi Dad]

I really didn't like the cross cut ! after cutting up the packaging it was delivered in i chucked it in my collection box till i rehomed it with Grumpy Barry.
the Squirt gets my vote EVERY time
(just my 2 cents worth)

[Lynn LeFey]

This is an embarrassing truth: part of what I did over the past year was try as many things as I could afford, to see if there was anything better than the Crosscut, which had served me faithfully for 15 years.

One of the things I tried was the 'new and improved' Crosscut 2.0. which is the one currently available.

So, my suggestion is... don't get a Crosscut. Get a Micra. The new Crosscut is not what it used to be.

If you're going for scissors, look at my Scissor test thread to see what's best. The Crosscut is still a decent tool, but I'd put the Micra over it these days, by a little bit. If the Micra's tweezers didn't suck so much, I'd put it WAY above the Crosscut.

I am sorry to have to admit this. It makes me sad.

EDIT:
Here's a link to the post where I weight the results of my testing, and created a list for what I feel is most realistic scissor use.
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,36798.75.html

The BIG selling point for me with the Crosscut was the scissors, and with side-by-side testing showing me that there are better options, there's not a lot left on the tool as a big selling point that you can't get on other tools.

[Nhoj]

It's a sad day for Lynn when she recommends the micra...

[Lynn LeFey]

 

Don't get me wrong. it's still a good tool. it's just not a GREAT tool. Not anymore.

[jekostas]

Get the Micra.  The new Crosscut... well, really isn't that good.  It's also difficult to make more than a few cuts with it because the gigantic pivot gets in the way.

[Lynn LeFey]

The pivot only gets in the way if you're cutting something like corrugated cardboard.

Also, the tool isn't terrible. It isn't even bad. I'd call it good. Just not as good as it was, and there are better tools out there.

There are still things I like about the Crosscut. The toothpick and tweezers can't be lost, like on swiss army knives. The all-stainless construction make them wear VERY well. The file is better than the one on the Micra and Vic 58mms.

It suffers from the same problem as all Leatherman keychain size tools in that the blade is chisel-ground. In theory, that would make it much more difficult to sharpen. In practice, I had my first Crosscut for 15 years, and never sharpened it.

The tweezers on my first Crosscut were insanely awesome. I got a pair of expensive eyebrow tweezers once, and the Crosscut's were just as precise. The pair on my new Corsscut 2.0 were much less precise. They are still better than those on the 58mm Vics, and light years better than the just-short-of-pointless tweezers on the Micra.

The file is aggressive enough to potentially be some use beyond fingernails, but not much beyond that.

The small screwdriver is ACTUALLY useful with glasses. I have needed them in the past, so I find this important.

The advantages the Micra has over the Crosscut: Phillips driver, better scissors. Advantages the Crosscut has over Micra: toothpick, better tweezers. Since I rate the importance of Scissors WAY above tweezers, the Micra wins out.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Thanks for the info everyone.  It turns out another member has an S4 he's willing to part with, so we've worked out a trade. 

[nuphoria]

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!

[Lynn LeFey]

Thanks for the info everyone.  It turns out another member has an S4 he's willing to part with, so we've worked out a trade.

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...

Nuph... I love general pokey-stabby bits! I assume you have it bent so it doesn't cause problems when closed snagging on stuff?

[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!

(Image removed from quote.)

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.

[xt60043f]

A wise choice.  I just got a 'new' crosscut.  Flimsy as a noodle bag and a chisel ground blade.