I have been looking at the Gerber Cricial and now have cause to re-think the whole thing. I need to replace my EDC tool in the next few months.

Thanks for all the great info!

I need help with my Leatherman Wave. I have to disassemble it for cleaning but I can't find a suitable screwdriver bit. Apparently they are not available locally. Can anyone tell me the exact description of the bit and where can I get it in the net? Your input will be highly appreciated.

I think that depends on the model, my son (12) has a Gerber Octane and I haven't encountered any problems using any of the tools and he is quite happy with it (plus he likes the one-hand opening pliers). On the other hand, a friend of mine just got the Gerber Bear Grylls Ultimate Multi-Tool and I found some of the tools were noticeably more difficult to use.

Personally, I like the minimalist aspect of the Skeletool and, if I needed to buy a new EDC tool again today I'd stick with the Skeletool for my needs.

Thanks for the tip. I'm afraid I can't send it to the US, as I live in Argentina. I tried to buy Torx bits but the ones that are available do not have a center hole. I'll try to get a set in ebay.

Here is the information for the local distributor. They will honor the warranty:
http://www.leatherman.com/find-store/int.asp?country=ARGENTINA

Could you clean it by simply dunking it in boiling water, then air drying and lubricating?

You can certainly sent it in to Leatherman as others have suggested; in your shoes I would expect excellent service from them.

When I've needed to clean my Leatherman tools, I've used copious amounts of clean water followed by careful lubrication (almost any decent lubricant will do but I use Tuf-Cloth and Tuf-Glide). I've been able to work out all kinds of nasty things by working the blades carefully under running water or in a basin of clean water. A bit of dish soap may help. If there's visible corrosion, use some steel wool and scrub it off.

I have no affiliation with Sentry Solutions or Leatherman other than as a customer.

The swiss tool/spirit are well made tools, but their big downside is the high polish surface is very slippery when your hands are wet or oily.

That's always been one of my gripes with Victorinox. They love everything to be a near mirror polish. It makes the tools look great (and I'm sure helps with corrosion resistance), but can make both the tool itself and the screwdriver bits slippery.

My other gripe was that Victorinox didn't seem to understand the benefit of one-handed opening blades, but they slowly seem to be getting it. Unfortunately not in the pliers-based multitool line yet, though.

That's because half of them would replace the slide-lock scale with a regular scale, removing the lock completely. Can't do that with the liner-lock.

Personally, I couldn't stand the old slide lock. I never found it to be a reliable locking mechanism. When they came out with the linerlock models, I bought one of them and couldn't have been happier. Then when they came out with the one-handed liner-lock models, I bought a one-handed Trailmaster (now Trekker?). IMO, the best SAK they ever made (though I never really liked the serrations, so I ground them off, which also made for a much nicer point).

When they came out with that one-handed Trailmaster, I can remember thinking to myself....this should be the new Soldier's knife. Sure enough, I just bought myself a new Soldiers knife....which is just a Trailmaster with different scales and no tweezers/toothpick.