hi,

what are the opinions of the gerber 800 legend?
any extra con's or pro's on the tool beside the review on ETS? michael_nauts@hotmail.com

greetings,
mike

no experians with the gerber 800. But at the price of € 200 in holland compaired to the swisstools € 100 ( know a place where i can get one for less than € 70 ). i would get a swisstool (i have). Since you proberbly won't get twice the tool for twice the price with the gerber. I see you are a student, since student are usually low budget folks i would recommend european made stuff, since they give you much more bang for the buck, sort to speak.

btw are you from the dutch speaking side of belgium or the frensh speaking side ?

PC2K, I took the liberty of pasting in a post I put up on 12/10 about the gerber legend. Most people on this forum think it is not quite as good as the leatherman wave. I get the feeling that a lot of that is due to it's larger size. It is bulky but the bulk can be a real advantage in some circumstances.

"I am new to this forum and I'm not trying to start any trouble but I would like to freely disagree with the reviewer’s negative appraisal of the Gerber 800 Legend multitool as compared to the Leatherman wave review. I hope I don’t get kicked off this forum for this but I don’t intend this to be mean spirited. Please don’t kick me off. Just delete the post if you think it is too negative.

If you are a Leatherman-o-phile you may not agree with this but I am just trying to point out the positives a little. This review is a few years old but it is still posted so I wanted to comment on it. (Disclaimer: I do own a Legend but have spent a lot of time with a Wave in my hand)

***Almost every flaw mentioned with the Legend exists to one degree or another in the Wave also. My specific objections were:

1-The light treatment of the fact that only the blades lock on the Wave while everything locks on the Legend.

2- The Wave (and Leatherman in general) was used as the ‘standard’ by which the Legend was judged meaning that any differences between the two such as thicker tipped pliers, etc, had to either add nothing to the legend or be sub-par compared to the Wave. Differences make a difference, and sometimes the devil is in the differences as well as the details. Ford invented the car, but there was a time there when Toyota and Honda made them better.

3- The reviewer pointed out that the Legend is larger and heavier than the Wave but only weighs 11% more. 223g verses 250g. Definitely a negative if you want something to go in your pocket but a plus if you want a beefy tool. Part of the extra weight is that each tool on the Legend is significantly thicker and beefier than the Wave. A point the reviewer neglected to point out. True that it is a little bulky for a pocket tool but it isn’t a pocket tool. Because of it’s size and construction, it is kind of in it’s own class.

4-It’s true that the Phillips head driver is tricky to get out with your thumb nail. Try some of the tools on the Wave and you will have the same difficulty--they are buried deep in the tool and just as taxing on the thumb nail. The thin fingered will not find this a problem since the pinky slips in to grab the Phillips head. The file comes out nicely just by grabbing it by the side if you loosen the axles slightly.

5- I used the Fiskar scissors to cut through 3/16” rawhide and had no problems with the scissors jamming.

6- The beauty of the replaceable Tungsten carbide cutters isn’t that they can cut so much better than the Wave. Gerber never makes that claim, and so what if the Wave can cut through the same materials? I get the feeling the reviewer thought that they needed to prove the Wave was still equal here. The point is that you get three cutting surfaces, and more if you buy more. The Wave has one cutting surface and zero after it’s damaged or dull.

While I realize this was merely a multi-tool review and not a life raft review – fair is still fair. Every Wave owner I show the Legend to loves it and considers the Legend it’s equal or better. It may not live up to all the hype put out by Gerber but I believe it is still an alternative to seriously consider. Notice how I didn’t make a big deal about the replaceable jig saw blade or how I had no problem finding inserts at Home Depot. Neither did the reviewer, at least a big deal about how cool it is.

I too agree that the cordura belt holder is cheesy. A flaw with every Gerber tool. That’s why I made my own leather belt holder with a flashlight holder and a place for spare jig blades and how I got to test the scissors while I did. If someone has a website they will post a picture of it on so it can be placed in a post I will be happy to email it to them. If not, no biggy!

$65 to $69 at Walmart."

thanks for the reply,
I owned a wave and indeed the tools are hard to get out, even my blades work not so smooth, and i find that the handles become loose after some time(they swobble to much when i use one of the screwdrivers) it doesn't feel sturdy anymore ,these are the reasons why i'm probably going to buy the gerber legend, cause with the jig saw adapter u can customize your sawblade(very nice),and everything opens from the outside,and for the costs--> a friend of mine is going to the US so he can buy me a legend there, cause here in europe they are to expensive.

greetings mike <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

but it seems that nobody owns the gerber legend, i hoped for some more opinions or experiences with the tool,

the reviews,opinions or experiences area always welcome

greetings mike

Check this out:
Gerber Info

A major deficiency in the Legend is the very limited opening of the jaws. They open only 1" versus 1 7/16" for the Wave. I frequently need larger capacity pliers. I find the Leatherman Supertool to be significantly more useful due to their even wider opening.

Incidentally, the issue of which multitool is best has been a fertile source for discussion in this forum. You may want to do a broad search for various multitools and over a period of several years. Also set the search to cover the maximum number of results. That category is "Show" is limited to 100.

Good luck.

John

Well, despite the fact that my EDC multi-tool is a Leatherman Wave, I do own a pair of Gerbers; the Recoil and the 600 series Pro Scout. I honestly can't say I have a preference, as both brands have their own peculiar strengths and weaknesses. I like the replaceable saw blade feature of the Pro Scout (a feature shared by the Legend) but dislike the Gerber's combination knife. I like the fact that all the tools lock on the Gerber, as opposed to just a few on the Wave. I love the one-handed opening feature of the Wave's two knife blades, but dearly wish the tool had a ruler like the Pro Scout. Neither tool has a proper fishhook sharpener, which is unfortunate.

No one makes the 'perfect' multi-tool just yet, and probably never will. I would feel perfectly comfortable carrying either the Legend or the Wave. I want to get a Legend sometime in the near future, just as soon as I get a few Christmas bills paid off. Christmas at least gave me the opportunity to briefly play with one of my intended gifts: a Leatherman Super Tool 200. The Super Tool seemed pretty nice, though I still prefer the SwissTool I carry in my flight bag.

Yes, I probably have too many multi-tools.

thanks for the reply,
what are your experiences with the gerber recoil?
is it a nice tool,pro's and con's?

greetings,

mike

The Gerber Recoil currently lives in my bug-out bag. The spring-loaded pliers are definitely cool, and potentially quite handy if you need the pliers in a hurry. I also like the plain edge knife blade, as opposed to the combination blade found on the Pro Scout. The multi-use tools in either handle seem to work well enough, though the screwdrivers won't be very useful if you have to get into a tight spot.

The only real complaint I have is the sheath, which seems to be an endemic problem with the entire Gerber line. In all fairness though, I don't care much for the sheath on the Wave either, as it doesn't allow for horizontal carry.

Tom