Used Leatherman Rev (Lynn's $15 MT Challenge)

[Lynn LeFey]

This tool review is part of a challenge, to see what the best tool is I can find at the $15 price point, with shipping and tax included. Here's a link to the main thread of the challenge, so you can see how it stacks up, and what other tools were found for the challenge.
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,76694.0.html

This tool was purchased as part of a lot of 2 tools, for a total cost (with shipping) of $25. So, this tool cost me $12.50.

The Rev was introduced in 2015 as an entry-level tool, using some of the components of the already-existing Wingman and Sidekick tools. Several changes were made that appear to have been aimed at decreasing production cost, such as making the plier head non-spring loaded, removing one of the outside access tools, and forming each handle from two pieces of metal, instead of one.

The tool is all stainless steel, and weighs 5.9 oz. (168g). It has an external pocket clip. The condition of the tool seemed like new when I received it.

The only problem I had immediately upon first inspection is that I REALLY didn't like the width of handle splay when the pliers were deployed.



One of the earliest mods I did to a multitool was taking a Wingman apart to decrease the handle splay, so I decided to do the same with this. The tool is held together with standard Torx bits (#10 if i remember correctly), and comes apart quite easily. I removed both handles, and filed down the backstop on the plier head on both sides to decrease the handle splay. It might not look like a huge amount in the photo, but was quite noticeable in hand.



Taking the tool apart gave me a a better look at its construction, and the change in manufacture, making the handles out of two pieces instead of one has me a bit troubled. The seam between the two pieces goes right down the middle of where the plier head's backstop rests against the handle. I fear that serious force on the plier head could force the two halves of the handle apart. It would take a LOT of force, but I don't think it's impossible, and it's the first part of the construction of this tool that didn't thrill me.

The second part is that the backspring tension for the tools in the handles in the Rev comes just from metal tabs formed from the handles... which, remember, are split. So there's less metal being bent as the spring, so less retention strength in all tools, compared to the Wingman and Sidekick.

The tool is not exactly off to the best start with me, but we'll see how it proceeds.

[an0nemus]

 

[Don Pablo]

Break it! 

[Don Pablo]

New avater? 

[ReamerPunch]

Oh my. 

[an0nemus]

New avater? 

Somehow it feels like New Year

[Lynn LeFey]

Before I get into a review of the function of the pliers, I wanted to correct, or verify something from the first post. I checked this morning, and the Rev is indeed held together with T10 Torx screws. I wanted to wait until after midnight last night to post the initial post, so as to leave no doubt that this wasn't an April Fool's joke, and because of that, hubby was asleep, and i couldn't go digging through my tools to check the torx bit. I got up this morning and checked.

On to the review of the pliers.

The pliers on this tool have absolutely no play in the joint. I think I've only had three or four MTs like that. You can feel the blades of the bypass cutters press against each other when you close them. The jaws are well formed, and the tips are ground very precisely. The thicker tool handle on the picket clip side rubs slightly against the flat of the plier head and has scuffed it. I don't know if this is a product of my disassembling it or not, but seem to recall that the problem was there before I took it apart. Ergonomics on the tool are... mmm... 'good'. Not great. The rounded edges are much more comfortable than something like a PST, but aren't nearly as good as a solid surface like the Gerber MP600. The curve on the handles makes it feel, at least to me that my hand wants to slide forward toward the plier head while applying high force on the tool.

The pliers' needle nose portion would grab the small self tapping screws in my ductwork well, and maintain good grip.


The regular plier portion was good for the 3/8" bolts holding my storage shelves together


They were also good for the large 1/2" nuts holding the stair treads together in my basement.


I will say that, had I not modified the handle splay, I don't know if I would have been able to get a grip on the tool with the pliers open that far.

I had absolutely no difficulty using the pliers to pick a needle off of a flat surface. The nose of these are incredibly precise.


The wire cutters would just not QUITE cut headphone wire cleanly. They took several 'snips', but it also didn't completely mangle it. The hard wire cutter very comfortably cut 12 gauge solid copper wire, and confidently cut a hard wire bail.


The scuffing I mentioned from the handle rubbing on the plier head can be seen in the above photo, at the plier pivot.

To be continued...

[Lynn LeFey]

Break it! 

Uh... ok.

I was going to save this test until I'd done everything else, but my curiosity got the better of me.

The NAIL TEST!

You know that 'Tim Leatherman stands on the handles of a Leatherman tool and cuts a nail in the hard wire cutter' thing?

Well... I found a BIG nail, and...



Nail 1, Rev 0.

I wanted to know if the tool would fail, and if so, if it would fail where I predicted.

And it was yes to both. The tool failed, and it (mostly) failed how i predicted, along the seam, splitting the two handle halves apart.

I have to be honest. This was a straight up abuse test, because I don't know that I own an MT that would have managed to cut that particular nail. It was a monster. And I had ALL of my weight on it, and had to bounce to get it to fail. I weight 200lbs. Yes, I'm fat. But that means this thing withstood that and i had to BOUNCE on the handle to get it to fail. There is no shame in this failure IMO.

I took the tool apart to attempt repairs. Here's a look at the damage...


And a look from the other side, where you can see the metal actually sheared.


Some hammering to get the handles back in shape and it's ... not anywhere near as good as new but functional.

[Don Pablo]

 

[Lynn LeFey]

As a summary of the pliers.

With a little minor modification to decrease handle splay, they work great... for light and medium duty tasks. The frame design is kind of flawed, and will not stand up to hard use.

As pliers: PASS
As Needlenose pliers: PASS
As Wire cutters: PASS
Trying to cut the world's largest nail: FAIL

[ThePeacent]

As a summary of the pliers.

With a little minor modification to decrease handle splay, they work great... for light and medium duty tasks. The frame design is kind of flawed, and will not stand up to hard use.

As pliers: PASS
As Needlenose pliers: PASS
As Wire cutters: PASS
Trying to cut the world's largest nail: FAIL

but, would they repair it if you snet the tool in and said in the full disclosure the you "energetically jumped on the tool to try and cut a thick nail with the wire cutters"?    

[Lynn LeFey]

but, would they repair it if you snet the tool in and said in the full disclosure the you "energetically jumped on the tool to try and cut a thick nail with the wire cutters"?    

I'm not sure, but my guess is that they would. However, I'm not going to do that, because I'd feel bad about abusing their warranty. It sometimes sucks having a conscience.

I'm sure they get tools in all the time, with blast marks from trying to cut live wires. "YOUR tool just spontaneously exploded while I was trying to cut an apple with it."

[Lynn LeFey]

The Blade!

I like this blade. Honestly. Look at that. Not a stupid serration to be found (I'm looking at YOU, Wingman). It has a good shape, decent length, and strangely enough, I am able to open it one handed, although I'm not sure that's normal. It helps that i just reassembled the tool to fix the plier head issue, and adjusted the tension on the screw to my liking. The blade has no side-to-side play, but does have a bit of forward/back play in the locked position. Locking seems extremely solid, and the blade felt very secure during use. Ergonomics were good, but not stellar. The back end of the tool seemed to dig into the heel of my hand a bit with prolonged use.

As I received it, the blade was sharp, and free of any nicks. It cleanly cut receipt paper but had a couple spots that showed some hesitation.

I gave the blade 10 passes through corrugated cardboard.


Afterward, I tried the thin receipt paper, and there was a bit more hesitation in cutting, but it still cut.

I gave the blade 20 strokes per side on ceramic rods, and it it popped back to incredibly sharp (sharper than when i received it).

I don't think there's a lot more to say. The metal isn't great, but is perfectly serviceable for general use. Length is fine for light and moderate duty work. The lockup is solid enough to make it feel like a safe tool. I would have preferred the OHO hole like the Wingman/Sidekick, but... 

Blade for basic cutting tasks: PASS

[Lynn LeFey]

Screw Drivers...

The tool has three screw drivers, an almost-flat phillips, a large flathead, and a smaller flathead on the end of the file.

I skipped straight to a long woodscrew for the phillips. I mentioned in the first post that i had some concern about retention on these tools with the lighter backsprings of the Rev compared to a Wingman or Sidekick. However, I had no issue with the phillips driver in this regard. It had no problem turning a long wood screw holding two 2x10s together. There was no feeling like the driver head was trying to cam out, either.



The large flathead would JUST slot into the big flathead screws holding my door hinges together.


While it had no problem turning the screws, I DID have a partial collapse of the tool closing. I caught it before I smashed a finger, but it could be an issue. I also find this size flathead to be less than ideal, at least as an actual screwdriver. I just don't encounter many screws with that large of head. It seems more the thickness than width. A little modification with a file would probably fix it, but I won't bother.

Where the large flathead works GREAT is as a sturdy pry tool. I gave it a go at the 'crusty paint can' test, and it was effortless success.


This is really one of the best pry tools on MTs. The beefiness that makes it less than a stellar flathead driver makes it a very reliable pry tool.

Finally, there is a smaller flathead on the end of the file. This is the 'go to' flat driver for smaller tasks, like the screws on the faceplate of light switches, latch plates, etc.


Here's a word of warning about it, though. That file is hardened. That makes this tool susceptible to shattering under a surprisingly low amount of torque. DO NOT apply too much force to it. If the tool starts to flex at all, you're about to reach its limit.

Overall, this is a pretty good set of basic drivers. With a little file work, you could make the large flathead much more useful. Just undstand that with the light tool retention, these are mostly limited to light duty work.

[Lynn LeFey]

We're down to miscellaneous functions now.

The package opener will cut through the tape on a package well, and if you want to save your blade some wear, will also cut through corrugated cardboard.


It will also cut cordage pretty well, and cut through 550 paracord with one pull (although it takes some force to make this cut).


It would PROBABLY work as a safety cutter for seatbelts, but I don't have any seatbelt material to test, and certainly wouldn't stake my life on that assumption.

The file on the Wingman/Sidekick/Rev takes a lot of flack, but it IS a hardened file, and WILL do some actual work. Here, I've filed the point of a nail down.


You can either look at this as it being a bad, short, not very useful file, nowhere near as good as the file on a PST/Wave/etc. OR you can understand that it is better than literally every no-name generic multitool's file on the market. I choose the latter, but I DO understand it's (many) limitations.

The wire stripper actually worked pretty well to strip this 12-gauge wire...


The can opener opens cans just fine... HOWEVER, it left gouges in the rim and little metal burrs (I don't know how well they show up)

[Lynn LeFey]

The last function.

The tool has a pocket clip. The Rev weighs about half an ounce more than the original PST. With the pocket clip, it carries better. It is not as slim as the PST, but that is strongly offset by staying in place.

Here's that 'Lynn gets pelted with tomatoes' moment. I prefer the Rev to the PST. Mostly, I need a full size MT for two things, the pliers and the blade. The pliers on the Rev have better ergonomics, and the blade is both easier to access AND locks. You can say that the PST might survive the nail test where the Rev didn't, but I have NEVER needed to do the nail test in the real world, so that's kind of pointless. The only thing the PST does better than the Rev is as a file, which is another low priority function. I actually prefer the screw drivers of the Rev to the PST, although I VASTLY prefer the stronger retention of the Wingman and Sidekick drivers to the Rev.

I fully and freely admit that it's unlikely that 23 years from now I'll be able to pull a rusted Rev from a pawn shop and fairly easily bring it back to life. But I'm dealing with the tool I have in hand. I should also note that I DID find a PST at $15 at a pawn shop that I considered for this challenge, but since I've already covered a used PST, it seemed redundant. That tool was also pretty rusty. The Rev was in pretty close to new condition. Given the choice, I'd take the Rev.

I think we all understand that the Rev isn't going to win this challenge, but I also think it was WELL worth what I paid for it.

I went looking for what it would take to break this tool, and found it. I was not surprised that I could break it, but was honestly a little surprised about what it took to do it. It's stronger than I thought it was going to be. Also, I should note that there's no damage to the hard wire cutter from the nail attempt, AND I can still grip the tool with full grip force without the plier head popping over the handle backstops. It's damaged, not wrecked, and those T10 Torx screws make it easy to take apart for repair.

Yes, this is the bottom end for Leatherman tools. But I'm here to say that Leatherman's bottom end is still miles above generic MTs.

The tool is worth every cent of $12.50. I would NOT pay the current $35 retail new price, though. If you can find one used for cheap, it's worth it. Otherwise, buy a better quality used tool like a Rebar.

[an0nemus]

Wow. This review totally shattered my very low disregard for the Rev coming from an unfounded bias (or Youtube review). I now have a newfound respect for LM's lowest model in the midsize MT category.

Thank you, Lynn LeFey for this excellent review!


Two thumbs up! 

[gerleatherberman]

Excellent review, Lynn! Thank you for doing that!
The Rev plier head is my favorite of the rev/wingman/sidekick series. I don't care for sprung pliers or anvil(pinch) cutters, so the rev plier is very good in my mind. Several members here have put the rev pliers in the wingman/sidekick, so that is a nice mod you could do with the Rev pliers. That plier head is the same one the kid-friendly Leap uses. 

[Lynn LeFey]

I did a mod on a Sidekick some time back, that left me with half the Sidekick frame, the half that's cracked on the Rev. If I feel like it, I could swap out the Sidekick's frame for the borked Rev portion.

Yes, I am pretty amazed with the plier head. The Rev frame, though... I know i tortured it, but I also immediately saw the potential for failure right where it failed, so... Geez. Thinking about it, How smurfing strong is the Wingman/Sidekick frame if it took 200+ lbs of force to mess up the Rev? I actually DID cut a nail with the Wingman, but it was a smaller nail, and it required me bouncing slightly on the handle. That was back when i beat the Les Stroud tool to death.

I don't want to sugar coat or over-glorify the Rev, but it certainly did test better than I feared. I like the Wingman/Sidekick/Rev general design. I'm okay with them doing a tool with one fewer outside accessible tools. I just wish they'd kept the handles made from one piece, with better/stronger retention strength on the tools.

[SteveC]

Great test and review Lynn !   

[ironraven]

Thats a rather eye opening review, Lynn, thank you. I doubt any of us will ever make the Rev our go to tool, but I think from this I can say that if someone likes a Scout troop is thinking of making a group buy on an entry level tool I could recommend this on the condition they got a good price, or as a "burner" tool we could, say, leave at the "other office" we fly to once a month with a box of stuff like shampoo and soap.

[Lynn LeFey]

I would really not recommend it for something like a scout troop. I had to mod it for handle splay. That's probably beyond what a group of scouts would want to do. But who knows?

However, as a loaner/burner/fishing box type tool... yeah, 100%.

Again, if you found it used for cheap. I still wouldn't pay retail for one. Just too many other good options at that price, IMO.