Curious on other's thoughts.
Similar to most individuals here, we all own multi tools and all have our preferences. Be it country of origin, design, brand and other factors. Now I don't think it's possible for a perfect multi tool to exist, as perfection would mean the zenith and I just don't see a one size fits all with multi tools. That said, for the work and EDC I use this for the now discontinued USA made of global components Gerber MP1 Pro is exceptional. While the MP400 and MP600 have the greatest ease of use with opening the tool, these do not have a prybar, chisel, gut hook with the knife, 1/4 inch stand alone driver non metallic handles with grip surfaces and a berry compliant sheath. Conversely, the MP600 Pro Scout is a great concept as this has scissors, a sheep foot blade, file, u shank jig saw blade adapter and the specialized Phillip driver where you can use other drive sizes is quite great in some respects, but lacks some of the most used components I mentioned earlier. Curious on other's thoughts.
When it comes to best tolerance and great QC, Victorinox will have my vote. It is just hard to imagine how they could keep it up for so many decades with such high degree of consistency, and I could really respect that.
There is never going to be an ultimate multitool that suits everybody's needs, which is why there are so many varied multitools out there.
I got my hand on the MP1 as well a little whole ago, and I to was beyond impressed. I particularly appreciated the lack of the “terrible” carbide cutters they keep touting and the length of the needle nose is exceptional. I also found the serrated blade with the hook at the end to be excellent. However....the weakening of the pry tool in order to accommodate a bottle opener irks me to no end. Bottle/can openers don’t belong on actual tools if they impair their primary use. I’ve also heard the plier head on the MP1 has issues over time. Cheers,H.G.
I think it all boils down to personal preference, to me, I value good design and functionality, but also tolerance and QC. Sometimes a tool might not have the best design in the industry, but with great tolerance and QC, at least I could feel the maker has a heart and is striving for excellency.I don't own the Gerber MP1, so can't comment on the design or the build quality. But of a dozen Gerber I owned(6 of which are full sized tools), I do have mixed feeling about their design and QC. I sure hope they have improved over the years, but would be quite hesitant to get another tool from them, unless I could handle one before the purchase.In comparison, I do like LM's tool design, even their QC has also been sliding over the years, but having said that, LM is still a step ahead of Gerber in that department. When it comes to best tolerance and great QC, Victorinox will have my vote. It is just hard to imagine how they could keep it up for so many decades with such high degree of consistency, and I could really respect that.
The SwissTool Spirit XC (serrated butter blade) is the closest I’ve found to my ultimate multitool. What separates it?- Ability to access the tool you want without opening other tools. All the tools on the Spirit can be accessed from the outside and the layout of the nail nicks makes it easy to only open the tool you want. Other tools I’ve tried required opening the plier handles to access tools or open multiple tools to access the one I wanted.- Good balance of tools, size weight. I find that the tools that I want are on the Spirit without a lot of extras that add weight. If a tool is too heavy or large then I don’t want it in my pocket and then it isn’t as useful. The Spirit meets a nice balance.- I absolutely love the utility and versatility of the chisel tool and find myself wishing other tools and SAKs had something similar.- I really like the lock released being on the side and lower profile as compared to some other tools- The ergonomics is very nice and comfortableThe Spirit could be even better if the scissors were as nice as the 91mm SAKs, it had both a plain and serrated blade, and one side of the file was a diamond file. With these changes, it might be perfection. Even without these changes it is still the best I’ve tried.