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#76415 - 11/10/06 07:36 AM Re: Leatherman or Gerber?
redflare Offline
Addict

Registered: 12/25/05
Posts: 647
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA
Drop me a PM, I might be able to special order one for you.

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#76416 - 11/10/06 11:24 AM Re: Leatherman or Gerber?
Anonymous
Unregistered


After losing my leatherman micra, which I had for several years, I stopped at a local sports shop to purchase a squirt P4 as a replacement. They were our of the squirts but had the gerber shortcut. I purchased the gerber and in less than 24 hours, with absolutely no use or abuse to the tool, the rivet at the scissors pivot point self destructed and I had two tools and no scissors. Luckily when I returned to the store the next day they had received a shipment of the leatherman squirts, took back the gerber without question, and I happily paid a little extra for a squirt P4. My reason for wanting a P4 is that the knife can do the majority of the tasks a scissors can do and I found with my old Micra I would sometimes be lacking for a small pair of pliers.
Its leatherman for me. Just my own experience.

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#76417 - 11/11/06 04:32 AM Re: Leatherman or Gerber?
smitty Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 11/01/06
Posts: 97
Loc: Missouri
I own several of the Leatherman Micra's, they are very good.
About a month ago I purchased the Gerber Shortcut. As I was taking it out of the plastic package, one of the torx drive rivet heads popped off. The diameter of the rivets is very small. I returned it for a refund the next morning.
I haven't been too impressed with Gerber's quality in recent years. Seems to me some of their items are good and others are not.
I own some older Gerber knives and they have gave me very good service. Personally, I would pass on the Gerber Shortcut.

Smitty

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#76418 - 11/11/06 07:07 AM Re: Leatherman or Gerber?
massacre Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 12/07/05
Posts: 781
Loc: Central Illinois
I own both Gerber and Leatherman equipment. I also own quite a few Fiskars items as well (they now own Gerber). Based on fairly extensive use of various knives and tools, I would say Leatherman "wins" for me. I think if you compare two similar Gerber and Leatherman items side by side, you'll see better LM build quality and metal. That's not saying there might be exceptions and certainly there are plenty of tools on both sides that have no comparable item from the other manufacturer. And you'll find that as the price goes up so does the quality of build and materials for both manufacturers.

But the Gerber Shortcut is made in china and looks like it. Just the milling of the metal looks kinda half-a$$ed to me. I've read other reviews about how cheaply it's put together, not including the ones here. Gerber makes some decent items, but their quality has gone down and they have outsourced most if not all of their new tools to China and the change shows.

Anyway, make up your own mind... you may get a nicely built Shortcut, but my Micra has been through the ringer. I've used every tool on it many times, and some of them quite extensively. It looks the same as it did the day I took it from the package despite EDC with other metal items in my pocket and heavy use.

I carry the LM Micra and New Wave and e307x on an EDC basis. I used to carry a small Gerber knife and multiplier, and they were both good. But, I didn't like the "looseness" of the pliers, nor the fact that you had to open it completely to take out any other tool. I'm not saying I couldn't be swung back by a killer design and quality, but for now, and the forseable future, LM is it for me. I've used other tools from SOG and a few other manufacturers, but I've either not liked their design, their weight-to-tool ratio, or their quality.

Let us know your experience once you make a decision. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Oh, and if you saw some stuff about LM and made in the USA, this helps clear it up: http://www.leatherman.com/news/press-releases/article.asp?section=2&articleID=207
_________________________
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

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