R.I.P Leatherman Squirt

[coolhand68]

My guess is that their small tool lines likely end up needing warranty work more than the full size tools. This cuts into profits and eats up time. The accountants probably crunched the numbers and recommended they discontinue models that get returned for repair most often.

 

[Guy McVer]

My guess is that their small tool lines likely end up needing warranty work more than the full size tools. This cuts into profits and eats up time. The accountants probably crunched the numbers and recommended they discontinue models that get returned for repair most often.

Then why do they still have the Style PS, which has the same pliers and the same scissors as the Squirt PS4?

 

[Daedric Panther]

I’m half tempted to go on eBay and try to find one while they’re still available for relatively cheap. i carried one as a backup to my BM for a while until it got lost on a trip to the river. I suspect beer was involved.

 

[Guy McVer]

I’m half tempted to go on eBay and try to find one while they’re still available for relatively cheap.

I wouldn't be in a hurry. The squirt has apparently been out of production for a while now and they really haven't become terribly expensive or hard to find in all that time. There were so many of them made that they're never going to become rare. The only rare ones are the torx screw pivot models that were manufactured before they switched back to using riveted pivots. They only made those for a few months. The ES4 are also a lot less common (the ones with wire stripping pliers) and tend to go for a higher price, but that's it. Unless you are specifically looking for one of those, I wouldn't worry about it. You can take your time and try to find the best deal.

 

[Bomberman123]

Okay, but you really don't need to use power tools. When I made my custom Leatherman Juices, I replaced the riveted pivots with 1/8 inch barrel pivots from knifekits, and I had to enlarge the holes in the Juice to make the pivots fit. I just used sandpaper. It only took several minutes of sanding per hole. All I did was roll the sandpaper up and clamp the parts into a bench vise. Then I sanded the inside of each hole with the rolled up sandpaper until the pivot would fit through easily. It was pretty simple.

Anyway, that's how I did it, but do whatever works best for you.

When I talked to a guy from knifekits about the pivots not fitting, he said this was pretty common and that they were still within an acceptable deviation from 1/8th of an inch. When I looked at what other people who had used those pivots were saying, a lot of them had a similar issue in getting them to fit. They seem to be just a tiny bit too wide.

Have fun!

Quick update, I have replaced the rivet with pivot and screw in my black one. You was right, the pivot is a little larger than the holes and was not fitting. However, instead of sanded holes, i chose to sanded the pivot, which is not bad at all.

I still having the blue ones to replace the rivet.

Btw, the screw in original torx version is much shorter than the screw I ordered from knife_kits.

 

[Guy McVer]

instead of sanded holes, i chose to sanded the pivot, which is not bad at all.

The main reason I avoided that was concern about ruining the pivot by decreasing the strength of the pivot or causing irregularities in the roundness of the outside. ... I hope this doesn't cause any issues for you later.

Btw, the screw in original torx version is much shorter than the screw I ordered from knife_kits.

You can order them from any vendor in different lengths and with different heads and different alloys, just as long as the threading is the same. I went with phillips screws in stainless from a separate retailer. The screws that came from knifekits were a little too soft for me, and I prefer phillips head screws because I won't ever need to worry about finding a torx bit.

 

[Mikael W]

I have done with the mod on scissor spring.
1. Bought a drill bit set with diamond coated.

2. Drill a hole on the scissor body, not easy and it cost me a whole evening but finally I finished.

The hole is here as I expected

3. Insert a Vic 58mm hairspring to the hole and modify the spring to the shape that I need ( Need to use grinder to grind spring a little bit to fold the scissor without any struggle)

4. Finally, put a few AB glue so the spring is fixed and the job has been done. With the AB glue fixed, the hairspring will stay concrete in the hole and won't be drop.

This was very helpful! I bought one of those SAK springs, cut it and soldered it in place. I used StayBrite solder. My Squirt is now back again.