Since this site has no review of the core yet, I thought I'd wright one.
I got the core sometime in April 2006 and this review is based on my use over this time as well as some tests I just performed.
Handles: They are very comfortable to use although a bit big, but they were easy to grip with big gloves.
Pliers: The needlenose design works well and are very sturdy although gripping bolts can be difficult, but I have never thought the needlenose was great for turning bolts so I prefer to use a visegrip.
Wirecutters: They cut small electrical wire good and the large wire cutter handle a 12.5 guage piece of wire very well.
Regular Knife Blade: I don't use the blade on it much, prefering to use my utility knife, but the times I've use it it has performed satisfactory.
Serrated Knife Blade: It cut through twine and pop bottle well. It also does an ok job of sawing through clamshell packaging although the serration design of the swisstool does work better.
File: I was able to cut though a piece of steel 1/4" by 1/8" in about 2 minutes 20 seconds, although the were a few 2-3 second breaks in that time. The file also performed good filing wood and the same steel I used the metal saw on.
Wood Saw: I was able to cut through a piece of a pine 2x2 in about 12 seconds and has performed well in the past for me.
Phillips Screwdriver: Nice and long and in the test did a very good job of putting a wood screw into a board which for some reason took a lot of torque to screw in. One thing I don't like about the screwdriver is that it is a bit soft and has rounded a tiny bit. However I most multitools I've used seem to have soft screwdrivers with the exception of maybe the SOG powerlock.
Flathead Screwdrivers: The large one was used in the test to insert another wood screw into a board and was met with the same resistance of the phillips wood screw. The nice sqaure edges kept slipping to a minimum. The medium and small flathead work very well and leatherman did a good job of making the tips to fit many of the standard flathead screws I've encountered. Once again I wish the screwdrivers were a little harder.
Awl: It did a good job of boring into wood and a pop bottle cap I had on hand.
Can Opener: I haven't used this one much although I've used a very similar one on my wave and it performs good. I can't comment on the bottle opener because I've never used it.
Side Note: An interesting thing that happened after the test was when I got back inside my house I discovered that the pivot point at the pliers seemed a little looser. Part of this I attribute to the cold because it is about 0 degrees outside at the time a was doing this in an unheated garage. After warming it a bit up it feels a little tighter, but it is still feels a little loose although this is hard for me to determine since I didn't pay much attention to the tighness of the pivots before. I'm going to keep an eye on this to determine if it really got any looser.
To sum it all up I feel that the core is a great tool and does its job well. I have had other tools that did certain jobs better than the core, but lost to the core in other areas. Simply put the core does all its jobs well with few shortcomings in it implements.
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