Gerber Recoil Auto-Plier. Info and thoughts.

[gerleatherberman]

Yesterday I was at work and one of our long time vendors came in. He knows I really enjoy MTs, so he came over and put an MT in my hand and said "picked this up for you". I saw it was a Recoil and told him they are kind of hard to find and asked how much I owed him and he said "nothing". I was thrilled with the gift and threw it in my pocked. Got home and cleaned tons of grime, dirt and rust spots off of it. Cleaned up VERY well and I am really glad to have it to add to the Gerber collection.
Now, with all of that being said and it was awesome it was a gift, I have some thoughts about it and would like to see what other people who have one have to say.
This tool seems like a good idea gone horribly wrong. The plier head juts out at the speed of light, which can be dangerous in the pocket. The plier safety system is easily defeated as well. IMO
So, the tool selection (or lack thereof), is unique to say the least. All the tools are outside and lock in place with Gerber's lock system. The knife and scissors are very cool and the same as the knife and scissors on the MP400. The two combination tools are so crazy I had to do a double take when I pulled them out. One is a phillips #1/#2, bottle opener, and clam shell opener thing all in one. That tool isn't so bad. The other combination tool is a 1/4 flat head driver, can opener, wire stripper all in one. The can opener seems like a nightmare to use and the drivers have almost no reach if you take into account the bottle opener and can opener on each combo tools.
The plier jaws don't really open much and the plier head is tiny. But, the nature of the auto-release hinders the function.

The whole tool's party trick is the auto deploy pliers, but pushing the heavy sprung plier head back in is ridiculously difficult and I have pinched my hand a few times before I thought to just push them in on the floor or workbench.

Anyway, after ranting, I have to admit the Recoil is very cool as a collector's piece and something fun to play with. It has the 'wow' factor with the light speed pliers and crazy combo tools as well.

Would I buy one to use? No.
Will it grace my Gerber collection? Heck yeah!

Anyway, the weight is 7.964oz, and the dimensions are: 4.5" long bottom to plier tip, 1.6" wide from lock release to lock release, and about 1" thick from the top of the safety button to the screw head on the other side.

So, any thoughts on the Gerber Recoil?

[detron]

ask Chako about the affects the Recoil can have on your manhood.   

EDIT,

found the article,  Read this

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,12469.msg232685.html#msg232685

[gerleatherberman]

ask Chako about the affects the Recoil can have on your manhood.   

EDIT,

found the article,  Read this

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,12469.msg232685.html#msg232685

Wow. Thanks for posting that detron! I kind of knew after seeing the spring force not to put this thing in my pocket, but it is good to know I was not being paranoid.

*-Sorry Chako. Sounds like an MT nightmare. Hope it has been long enough that all is well and we can have a small laugh!*

[detron]

ask Chako about the affects the Recoil can have on your manhood.   

EDIT,

found the article,  Read this

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,12469.msg232685.html#msg232685

Wow. Thanks for posting that detron! I kind of knew after seeing the spring force not to put this thing in my pocket, but it is good to know I was not being paranoid.

*-Sorry Chako. Sounds like an MT nightmare. Hope it has been long enough that all is well and we can have a small laugh!*

I felt SO guilty after I read that post,  guilty because I laughed SO hard while reading that that I got light headed, and almost passed out.  that was a whole new level of laughing.

[gerleatherberman]

ask Chako about the affects the Recoil can have on your manhood.   

EDIT,

found the article,  Read this

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,12469.msg232685.html#msg232685

Wow. Thanks for posting that detron! I kind of knew after seeing the spring force not to put this thing in my pocket, but it is good to know I was not being paranoid.

*-Sorry Chako. Sounds like an MT nightmare. Hope it has been long enough that all is well and we can have a small laugh!*

I felt SO guilty after I read that post,  guilty because I laughed SO hard while reading that that I got light headed, and almost passed out.  that was a whole new level of laughing.

The Recoil should be called the Recall, because it really should have been when it came out. How many men must suffer a recoil-auto-nut-flik before a company rethinks the product.

On a serious note: the springs are absolutely too strong for the purpose. They could have achieved the same function with a quarter of the tension.

[Poncho65]

Awesome news about getting a Recoil

That is another on my want list

I also thought about that exact thread when reading your first post

[Chako]

 

That is all I am going to say about that incident. 

 

 

[Chako]

I should probably add that although that happened years ago...this is my reaction to this day....

[Mechanickal]

Your pics just made me realise that I can add the knife from my broken Suspension on my bladeless MP600 that will (hopefully) arrive today.
It'll be a perfect fit...

[Don Pablo]

I should probably add that although that happened years ago...this is my reaction to this day....

Your pics just made me realise that I can add the knife from my broken Suspension on my bladeless MP600 that will (hopefully) arrive today.
It'll be a perfect fit...

[Mechanickal]

I should probably add that although that happened years ago...this is my reaction to this day....

Your pics just made me realise that I can add the knife from my broken Suspension on my bladeless MP600 that will (hopefully) arrive today.
It'll be a perfect fit...

Woops.
Quoted the wrong guy it seems.
It does look silly that way

[Poncho65]

 

To the naughty step that has been recently resurrected 

[Mechanickal]

To the naughty step that has been recently resurrected 

This forum IS the naughty step

[Lynn LeFey]

This was probably the tool I owned for the least amount of time before deciding to sell, and get rid of.

Gerleatherberman, I think you're dead on about good idea gone wrong. And yeah, those are some absurd combo tools.

Sad, because I think the tool looks nice. But i think the gravity 'flick' of the MP400/600 pliers works just as well for one-hand deploy. And every other function of the tool, maybe scissors excluded, seems horribly compromised to allow for the one (dangerous) trick.

[sLaughterMed]

I always wanted one of those. Pretty neat little tool, although the novelty will probably wear off quickly as I pocket carry my tools.

[gerleatherberman]

This was probably the tool I owned for the least amount of time before deciding to sell, and get rid of.

Gerleatherberman, I think you're dead on about good idea gone wrong. And yeah, those are some absurd combo tools.

Sad, because I think the tool looks nice. But i think the gravity 'flick' of the MP400/600 pliers works just as well for one-hand deploy. And every other function of the tool, maybe scissors excluded, seems horribly compromised to allow for the one (dangerous) trick.

Indeed. Many of their designs in the last fifteen years were great ideas executed poorly. Recently the MP1 was one that several members tried out. It was fantastic, except the odd plier head was very weak.
Gerber could have had some classics with them, especially the Recoil, but the engineering budget was probably exceeded by the spring system for the Recoil pliers.
The MP400/600 is hard to beat! The Diesel is even more refined and for the money, really good.
Thanks for the response!