Great list!#5 is what really speaks to me. I feel like in the last few years Gerber and Leatherman have tried their best to appear to offer new innovative products each year but often opt to simply cut their MTs in half and make "knife versions" of the same tools. Or they will change the color options that are available for well received tools or knives from prior years. This tells me that they are eager to give us something while keeping their costs down. This makes it All-The-More frustrating that we never get a new Signal with a PE blade. If they did, I would buy a second Signal without hesitation! It drives me crazy!!!
Agree and disagree.AGREE that the companies want to give us something new and at the same time dont want to stay too far from a formula for success and want to keep costs down. Sometimes I think we get too much choice, but that's the way of the marketplace, I guess.DISAGREE that the Signal should have to have a plain edge version. It is an emergency survival tool. Having the tip end plain allows for skinning, having the choil or hilt end serrated allows for better cutting of rope and such. I dont own a Signal, but seriously am considering putting one in my hiking bag
Flathead screwdrivers...well, a very small one for fine work, a medium one for typical work and, although rare, those large flatheads are still good for older door hinge screws and work on car radiator worm gear clamps. So to me, they gotta stay. Make them permanent, non bit drivers. Go ahead. They are thin and dont take up much more than a washer's worth of space anyway.
A flathead which takes only a washer space and made with 420 steel will eventually deform and render useless. I'm totally in for one permanent medium flathead if they make it from tool steel. Till then, bit adapter is far superior as it allows many possibilities and replacements if you lost bits.
1. Wasted spaceThick washers, gaps, tools shorter than they could be. This irritates me. It is not common in higher-end tools, thankfully. Still, whenever I see a washer the width of an implement, I die a little inside. Why not add four or so implements more? Or make existing implements thicker, like the Phillips? Or eliminate the wasted space and make the tool thinner? Not to mention that all that space will attract more crud over time.
5. Dubious design choices/Alleged user demand/Marketing fluffCombo blades, no retention, fish scalers, glass breaker at sub-optimal location, a dozen flatheads with no other functions. The list goes on and on, and yet again, designers do not seem to take the hint. Nine out of ten people criticize the combo blade of the Wingman, Signal, Free P2 ect. Why are we still stuck with these? Three flatheads and two Phillips drivers on the Bucktool? Really, Buck?
6. Careless designBlade tip accessible through cut-outs, blades prone to unfolding, spring-loaded pliers releasing in your pocket, can openers that create shrapnel. This goes beyond dubious design choices or even quality control. You put a combo edge blade on it, fine. You missed the uneven bevel, ok. Those are not issues that can directly injure a user.