Flik vs. Wave, comparison review.

[jzmtl]

I have just purchased a Gerber Flik, because I always thought Gerber’s sliding jaw is pretty neat. Since I already have a Wave, and both Flik and Wave are the bread and butter model for Gerber and Leatherman, so I thought I might do a comparison review.

Size wise, Flik is a tad longer and thicker than Wave. It also weights a bit more than Wave, although the difference is small enough to be negligible. Wave weights 240 grams, while Flik weights 249 grams.





The opening mechanism is obviously different. Wave opens butterfly style, same as most other multitools, such as those from SOG, and Victorinox. Flik pliers jaw slide in and out of the handle. Because of this, Flik deploys much quicker than Wave. Just grab the end of handle and flick it, and the jaws slide out to lock into place. It can also be closed easily with one hand by depress the two buttons on the side and slide the jaws back in. Wave can be flicked open to some degree, but due to design of the friction ramp on its jaw, it’s impossible to flick it open all the way. After Flik’s jaws slide out, open the handle a little will engage the anti-pinch mechanism. This mechanism prevents the handles from closing completely and pinch your hand if the jaws were to slide off any object, which previous Gerber multitools are (in)famous for. The anti-pinch mechanism is part of the casted jaw, and the flat surfaces work decently as a crimper if needed. The Wave however, does not need such mechanism, because the handle cannot close completely due to the way it’s designed. When in closed position, Flik’s jaw moves around a bit, but doesn’t rattle unless you are shaking it hard. This is inherent of sliding jaw design and is not an indication of product quality. In comparison, Wave’s components fit tightly together and do not move at all.

Both multitools have needle nose pliers, but Flik’s plier are stubbier and fatter than Wave’s. They both feel sturdy enough to hold up to medium work, but anything heavy duty you probably should use a real plier instead. Flik has an anvil type wire cutter, while Wave has a bypass type wire cutter with a hard wire notch. They both work quite well for their size. When squeezed hard, both multitools’ handles flex a small bit, but within acceptable range. Wave’s handle is more comfortable to use than Flik’s due to rounded corners.

Some other users reported Flik’s pliers can get stuck when sliding back in due to the anti-pinch mechanism, but I have not experienced it so far.



Moving onto the blades. Both multitools include plain edge blade and serrated edge blade. Wave’s plain edge is clip point, while Flik’s is wharncliffe. The serrated blades on both have no sharp point. To distinguish between two blades, Flik use little pictograms on side of handle to show which is plain edge and which is serrated edge. Wave however, simply machined a few grooves onto the spine of serrated blade, so a simple touch is all it’s needed to know which is which. Wave’s blades open smoother than Flik’s.

Wave’s blades lock open via liner lock, which feels quite secure. Flik use some sort of sliding lock that wedge itself against the spine of blades to keep them from closing. Both locking mechanism seems quite secure and passed my test of trying to force them close manually. I feel confident to say that if the lock functions, the blades will not close under normal use.

Both tools also include a wood saw. Wave’s saw tooth is biased toward pull cut, while Flik’s doesn’t bias toward either. Wave's teeth are angled toward handle like normal wood/hack saws whereas Flik's are pointing straight down. Wave's design appears more effective than Flik’s when tested on piece of 2x4. Granted they are designed to use on smaller objects, but right now it’s freezing outside and everything is covered under a few feet of snow, so I’m not going to test them on branches. Wave also includes a file, which Flik has scissor implemented in that location. The saws and file/scissor all lock open with the same mechanism as blades.





There are also smaller tools nested inside the handle. Due to Flik’s sliding jaw design, there just isn’t much room left, and the tools have to be shrunk in size. I knew about this beforehand, but I never realized how small the tools are until I had one in my hand they do work acceptably. Good news is even though they are small, they still work as intended. Wave on the other hand, have healthy sized screwdrivers and can/bottle opener. However Flik does have nice sized scissor compare to Wave

Gerber chose to round out every edge of components on Flik. While it seems like a good idea on paper but in practice it should not have been done on certain points. For example on tip of scissor spring and the handle it contacts, the round edge cause the spring to work itself sideways when scissor tip is used to nibble things, and pop out of contact. Another place is on blades’ thumb cutouts, which are already on the small side, with its rounded edge don't provide enough traction for thumb to hold onto, thus making opening one handed not as easy and smooth as it could be.

There are some easy fixes for scissor spring if this happens to you. You can either partially disassemble the tool and bend the spring toward the handle, or file a slant surface on both contact points to pin the spring against handle.



Fit and finish on both are great, however when comes to detail, the Wave excels. For example, on my Flik both serrated blade and saw have considerable amount of burr left over from sharpening process, while Wave has none.

Due to the sliding jaw, anti-pinch mechanism, and the sliding lock, Flik appears to have considerable more parts than Wave. While they all function smoothly for now, I don’t know how well this will work out in long term. Wave is all metal construction, while Flik have four plastic parts. I haven’t broke any yet, but I’m willing to bet they don’t last as long as if they were made of metal.

Both come with nylon sheath, and fit the tools like a glove. Although some Wave comes with fake leather sheath, which in my opinion is down right horrible. Wave’s sheath can be wore both horizontally and vertically on belt while Flik’s sheath can only be worn vertically. One thing to note is when Flik is placed jaw down in sheath, the jaws can slide partially out if wearer undergo physical activity (skiing in my case). But this doesn’t really hurt anything I suppose.



Wave has several accessories available, include quick detach pocket clip and lanyard ring (both tools already have folding lanyard ring). It also have array of different screwdriver bits available for its driver. Flik has no accessory available as of this writing.

[prime77]

Really good comparison jzmtl.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Great review, and interesting comparison mate , it's odd but my Diesel had a lot off swarf on it too , the edge was fine underneath, it obviously escaped final inspection though

[Benner]

Great review buddy.  Just makes me want them both even more though. 

[J-sews]

Thanks for the in-depth analysis jzmtl. I'm wondering about the Flik's saw blade. You say the teeth aren't biased at all? Have you had a chance to try it out yet?

[Leatherman123]

Great comparison! I had a question- how does your WAVE inner tools clump? LM solved this problem with putting washers!

[jzmtl]

Thanks, it's the first review I've ever written. 

I tried the saw on some 2x4, with leatherman's saw I can definately feel the difference when pulling, and it cuts more as well. With gerber there's no difference. Leatherman's teeth are angled toward handle like normal wood/hack saws whereas gerber's are pointing straight down. Leatherman's design appears more effective than gerbers from when I tested on 2x4, although both are PIA to use due to short length and fear of breaking them when flex, compare to a real saw anyway. But neither are designed to be used on 2x4 I suppose. It's a couple feet of snow outside so I'm not gona go find a tree branch to try them on. 

As for clumping. Wave does have washers, but they are free rotating, so at times (rarely) the tools still clump a little. Gerber did something clever, they have nubs on the washer that inserts into a slot on frame to prevent it from rotating. Although to be honest I don't mind tool clumping at all, especially on flik, makes getting smaller tools out a whole lot easier.



Something just occured to me. With the way jaw and handle have two different pivot points, they could've done something like on avation snip and added compound leverage. But maybe it's too much trouble so they didn't.

[jzmtl]

Urg, annoying problem found. Whenever I use only the tip of scissors to nibble at something, and without releasing spring tension, the tip of spring will work itself sideways and pop out of contact with scissor handle in only three or four cuts. This has never happened with Wave’s scissor, or any other scissor I used. Pics added to first post.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That is a bit of an annoying problem

[Benner]

Have any other Flik owners noticed this?

[Grant Lamontagne]

No, but rest assured I am digging out my Flik and trying this out!

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Nope...

Not having this problem with mine.  I just cut apart a single sheet of paper, then folded it on itself twice and cut all the way through the equivalent of 4 sheets of paper with no issues.  I made cuts only using the tips of the scissors, keeping it under constant spring tension and making zigzag cuts to see if there were any pressure changes on the spring, and I saw nothign like what you are describing.

What were you cutting? 

Def

[jzmtl]

Doesn't matter what I'm cutting, it always pop out.

It's fixed now. I filed the contact surfaces slant instead of flat so it pins the spring against the other half of scissor, now it doesn't pop out anymore, easy fix.

I think this is caused by gerber's practice of round out every edge of component. While it seems like a good idea on paper but in practice it should not have been done on certain points. For example on scissor spring, which cause the spring to slide out. Whether yours slide out or not will depends on whoever did the grinding and how round the edge was made.

[EM745]

Urg, annoying problem found. Whenever I use only the tip of scissors to nibble at something, and without releasing spring tension, the tip of spring will work itself sideways and pop out of contact with scissor handle in only three or four cuts. This has never happened with Wave’s scissor, or any other scissor I used. Pics added to first post.

Oh yeah... Happened to me a few days ago. I was like "Oh $#!+!" 

The spring simply doesn't press against the scissors tightly enough.

To fix it I took mine apart and bent the spring slightly so that it "hugs" the scissors a lot tighter. Hasn't slipped since. 

[J-sews]

Just got my Flik today. During the initial play time with it, I remembered something the Gerber folks showed us: When accessing the small "inside" tools, slide the blade lock release backwards a bit. This lifts the tools slightly, allowing you to easily unfold the one you want.

[jzmtl]

Yep, I remember that from your SHOT thread, cause without it there is no way to even get them out. Of course this comes back to the nail pick position on phillip driver, how could they not catch this in testing phase? 

[Benner]

Yep, I remember that from your SHOT thread, cause without it there is no way to even get them out. Of course this comes back to the nail pick position on phillip driver, how could they not catch this in testing phase? 

Is it really that bad?  Any pics?

[J-sews]

Yep, I remember that from your SHOT thread, cause without it there is no way to even get them out. Of course this comes back to the nail pick position on phillip driver, how could they not catch this in testing phase? 

Is it really that bad?  Any pics?

You doing the picture jzmtl, or shall I?

[jzmtl]

I'll do it. It's not bad per se, you just have to take out the can opener first then grip it from the other side. But here you can see how deep down the pick is compare to the one on flat driver, and is completely inaccessable. The blue line I draw is where I think it's suppose to be.



I still don't know how could they miss it. It just take one guy to take a look at it, and say "oh this thing is too deep, let's move it up a little bit".

[Benner]

Thanks for that jzmtl.  It is amazing how things like that can be missed sometimes.

[J-sews]

Hmmm...looks like the location isn't very consistent either. 

[prime77]

I haven't had any problems with the scissors on my Flik. I even cut some paracord without any problems.
The nail nick on mine is slightly different as well.

[Benner]

I can't say I am surprised to see variations on this tool already.  It is a Gerber after all. 

[EM745]

Just got my Flik today. During the initial play time with it, I remembered something the Gerber folks showed us: When accessing the small "inside" tools, slide the blade lock release backwards a bit. This lifts the tools slightly, allowing you to easily unfold the one you want.

There's a note of this on the back of the Flik's blister pack. Gerber refers to it as "small tool access assist."

I haven't had any problems with the scissors on my Flik. I even cut some paracord without any problems.
The nail nick on mine is slightly different as well.
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Sweet! Can I play too? 



BTW, here's a pic of my Flik's scissors (viewed edge on) after my spring fix (notice the slight upward bow):



 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Does the fix seem to have cured it mate

[EM745]

Does the fix seem to have cured it mate

  I thought for sure the happy/gaga smiley ( ) would be a dead give-away that it did. 

FWIW, it hasn't acted up since the fix... And I doubt it will again  . The spring tip (the "important" part  ) is pressed hard against the scissors now--quite a bit harder than when I bought it.   

[jzmtl]

I always thought is the "oh smurf" smilie.

The filing work I did to the spring tip and handle side is working well, hasn't happened since.

[Benner]

I always thought is the "oh Colorful Enunciation" smilie.

The filing work I did to the spring tip and handle side is working well, hasn't happened since.

The    smilie is ahhhhhhh IMO. 

[jzmtl]

I just found something, when you take flik (or any other gerber sliding jaw) out of sheath, if you intentionally catch the side button on edge of sheath it'll deploy as you take it out, like wave on spyderco/emerson. 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I just found something, when you take flik (or any other gerber sliding jaw) out of sheath, if you intentionally catch the side button on edge of sheath it'll deploy as you take it out, like wave on spyderco/emerson. 

Now that's a cool feature