Hi Mike,

The chipping you mentioned when you tried to cut a heavy guage wire with the Swisstool is something that happened to me twice already when I tried cutting a wire with my Leatherman Supertool and later on also with my Leatherman Wave.
Both times it got repaired but it was a major pain in the *ss as the repair times for the Leathernmans in the Netherlands are quiet long.

With any normal pocket tool cutting anything harder then Brass wire has become a NoNo with me, these tools are just not made to handle this kind of abuse except perhaps the Gerber multitool with the hard metal triangular cutting blades that can be rotated when chipped or dull. The idea is great the Gerber tool is not.

Any $2.50-$5 pair of Taiwan pliers that I buy in a do it yourself shop has a stronger cutting part then those of the multitools which is not strange as they use Carbon toolsteel in making these cheap things and they are a lot thoughr then the normal multitool.

But, having said this all I still carry a Swisstool or Leatherman Wave and always the Micra with me, one just needs to be concious about the limitations they have especially in the cutting performance corner.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera