Other than being that I bought it locally for cheap, the main reason I chose an older Surge was that when my ST300 pliers were broken when loaned to a moron, they broke right at the base of the cutters (I feel the milling out for the cutters created a weak point) and that if Leatherman goes out of business the cutters might not be available years down the road. Back in the fifties, a company made a pair of pliers with replaceable cutters, and the replaceable cutters can't be found (plus they must have been a really bad idea--no dedicated pair of pliers is made with replaceable cutters today). In my mind, if you avoid cutting any heavy steel wire (esp. spring steel) and stay out of live current, you shouldn't ever need to replace the cutters. I have a pair of linesman's pliers with nippers on the sides specifically for hard wire, and those are what I typically carry