Praise of the Leatherman Skeletool CX

First a little history: I received a PST when I was 10 or 12, then at some point lost it (which pains me to this day), not long after I started carrying a side clip (surprisingly similar to the CX) but the lack of a locking blade made me nervous, I have an original Wave that still sees use when I can justify the sheath (hunting, skiing, sailing), and a I have a Juice CS4 (the blue one with a corkscrew) that also sees use if I expect to open wine away from home, but this also lacks a locking blade.

About two years ago I bought my father a CX for his birthday, he loved it, his first Leatherman, I also liked it but I couldn’t justify the expense considering the number of multitools I already had. Generally I would carry some kind of folder (Spyderco Atlantic Salt or a bench made griptillion) in my right front pocket and the CS4 in my back left pocket. Not a bad setup.

I received the CX for Christmas from my girlfriend in 2009, in short, we were discussing it yesterday and we’re both afraid she’ll never be able to top it as a gift.

When I first received it, I was awkward. I didn’t know what to do. The CX lacked a lot of things I like such as a can opener, and a file, plus I was hesitant to replace a folder which is likely stronger and has a bigger blade. As a result I’d often carry a folder and the CX, etc. I’ve changed my procedures since. I always carry the CX. I’ve been in tight spots and so far it has gotten me out. If I’m going duck hunting, skiing, sailing, fishing, etc, I’ll supplement with a folder tucked into my waist band and/or the Wave in a sheath on my belt. That said, the Skeletool is carried and used every day and is always up to the task.

Take this past weekend as an example: Saturday it saw heavy use opening beers on the beach. Saturday evening I used it to cut rope to splice together a new mooring buoy tether, and Sunday afternoon it allowed me to close a broken casement window. I can’t even tell you how many other things it cut over the weekend. It has been used like this for roughly 18 months and besides a sharpening now and again has required no maintenance and shows no signs of damage. I have managed to rub a lot of the black anodizing off just from daily carry.

Bottom line – I’m not saying it is a full replacement for a Wave and a folder (or a fixed blade for that matter) but I now know it is sufficient for my regular daily use. It may have down sides, it lacks many tools, but I find what it has extremely useful, sure a S30V blade would be superior, all this aside, I highly recommend the Skeletool CX.

I find the Victorinox Swiss Army Locksmith Multi-Tool ends up making into the leather pouch (all are a perfect fit) more often than the other two. It is a quarter the price I paid for the Skeletool CX, has a more efficient knife blade than the Skeletool, is just lighter to carry etc. In fact I would even probably EDC a British Army knife (it at least has a can opener) over the CX. I find the CX just too much of a compromise. It does very little very well by comparison unless you specifically need pliers or wire cutters.

I had the same concern - and obviously this is a matter of opinion - over time I've found that it does what I need well enough. I do use the pliers all the time, the wirecutters less so, so perhaps that's the difference in our use. I also cannot carry a sheath most days (office job) so the fact that I can clip it inside my pocket or just let it hang out in the bottom of my pocket is a benefit for me. I also find it less bulky than my large frame SAK, thought it does have fewer tools.

It is expensive, I'll give you that, the "regular" skeletool is probably a better value.

R

Light, gorgeous, durable, exceptional pieces of gear. A year ago, I've given a couple out to knife-illiterate friends who abused the absolute Tartarus out of them. One managed to remove part of the coating by repeatedly opening cans of tuna with the blade (and then, presumably, washing the whole frame in the content). Both are still fully functional and both are very sharp.

Don't know about standard, but highly recommend the CX version.

I love the look and concept of the skeletool, but entirely the wrong composition of tools for my needs... No saw makes it a no-no in my book.

People on this forum? I've missed it! I just ran two Google queries: '"Skeletool CX" AND Broke OR Broken site:forums.equipped.org" and '"Skeletool" AND Broke OR Broken site:forums.equipped.org" and I haven't found any reference to the tool breaking. I'm not saying it is untrue, I'd just like to read how they broke so I might avoid breaking mine!

Thanks,

R

Also - re lack of saw: If the tool doesn't have what you need it just won't do! I like the saw on my Wave, but I LOVE the file, that said, I don't need it all that often and carrying it everyday and everyplace doesn't fit my lifestyle, so I try and have it when I need it and make do when I don't have it!

$20 say 90% of the people break plier jaws are doing something they shouldn't do with pliers that size. Compare it with the smallest pair of needle nose you have and you'll realize how small the jaws on multitools are, even the big heavy supersized ones. That plus weaker stainless steel it shouldn't be surprising.

I actually have seen the bit retention spring lost, on my father’s CX (leatherman replaced it) but he had “cleaned it” and while I wasn’t there sometimes my father can be a bit aggressive in cleaning things. So it could be either a design/manufacture problem or some over aggressive cleaning. Either way, I haven’t experienced the issue with my tool. Regarding the pocket clip, I clip it to my pocket everyday and in a year and a half it hasn’t broke. I do worry about the bail on the carbineer, but I almost never use that and so far it hasn’t failed.

The pliers are perhaps the most disturbing issue. They do appear to be some wild amalgamate, not regular stainless steel, though I do not see any air bubbles in that photo. Maybe I need to blow it up or something? Anyways, through relatively normal use I haven’t broken mine. I’m sure I could, but I try not to beat on things too hard unless I’m really in a pinch.

I’ll say this about pretty much everything I own, I have to be relatively careful with it. If I wanted to, I could break just about anything. I guess that is a talent? A talent I bet I share with at least some others on this forum!

All good problems to be aware of, thankfully I’ve experienced none of them on my tool!

Not sure what do you mean regular, but the jaws are casted not rolled sheet metal like other parts. It's the standard methods and there is only one MT on the market I'm aware of that doesn't use casted jaws, but wire EDM cut tool steel jaws, and of course the price reflects that.

I guess it is just regular cast stainless - it just looks so grainy, but let's be honest, I'm no metallurgist, welder, or anything of the like. When I've occasionally broken cast pieces I think they've mostly been common steel and I'm not accustomed to the grainy looking interior. Regardless, they seem to suit my needs! Out of curiosity who uses cut tool steel?

All heat treated steel will looks like that on the inside, what you see the grain of the steel. On properly heat treated steel will looks satin gray but no visible individual grains.

Multitasker tools (the 2.0 version, not earliest) use billet cut tool steel jaws, but it's made to service AR15 mostly so not particularly useful for everyday use.

I have a Colt match target rifle, so I suppose that may be some justification, but probably not enough!

Heat treated steal looks like that! Interesting. I guess I've mostly (only?) broken untempered stuff then!

Thanks for the interesting info.

I bought a Skeletool CX a while ago. Very cool tool, no question. But I don't find it comfortable to use, and I'm scared to push it too hard. So I'm going to sell it.

I still have a couple of the old SideClips for occasions where I need to go thin and light. Otherwise the Wave II is pretty much the minimum for me.

Yeah, there is always the feeling when using the blade on the CX, that a slip of the hand could prove to be very nasty. The CX is also pretty slippery with or without sweaty hands.

The cast jaws of the pliers on the CX breaking in the way they have doesn't surprise me either. The crack propagation seems to have originated at the bottom of lower surface cut out (serves nothing to lower the weight of the tool but seems to weaken the tool considerably). I had a similar issue with one of the tips of the long nose pliers on a LM Core (apparently their toughest tool) breaking off.



It was surprisingly easy to snap (break off) the top of 3-4 mm opposing tip using a vice then file up the broken tips to give the modification shown above.

I still have my sideclip and like it, however, the one hand quasi-locking opening blade on the CX makes it the prefered knife for me. Despite some solide negative publicity here I'm sticking w/my high praise, if and until it fails me under normal use.

R

I recently had a chance to try a variety of multi tools for the only task I need them: wire cutting (everything else is on my swiss champ). All but the ones with rounded edges were nearly worthless. I struggled to get through even a soft metal coat hanger with them because the edges cut into my hand.
Clear winner was the SOG where the gearing meant it could cut through 3 coat hangers at once. Even stil fitting barbed wire into the cutter is going to be tricky.
A BIG advantage of a bayonet is the wire cutter.
The Sock

Interesting! I don't have this hand digging in problem personally - but I never cut barbed wire - so I may just be cutting wimpier stuff.

I've had various Leathermans from an original PST to a top end Charge with the S30V blades.

They are not my first choice of tool. That honor belongs to the Victorinox tool range. I use one day in, day out for work. Various tasks including wire cutting. They take a licking and keep right on ticking.

I know that some people are fans of the Gerber range, but I have not, thus far, been impressed. To me they come into the better than nothing category.

As for Leatherman tools, well, they ain't bad but they are let down by a lack of hardening on the pliers and most of the knife blades are poor quality steel. I know that a multi-tool blade is supposed to be a secondary blade, but that is, to me at least, a poor excuse. Victorinox put a decent quality blade on theirs so why cannot Leatherman follow suite?

>A BIG advantage of a bayonet is the wire cutter.

On that note; any bayonet with a wire cutter could people recommend as general purpose knife?
The Sock