- Joined
- Jan 25, 2005
- Messages
- 38
I got my Surge yesterday, and its getting ready to rain here on the farm today so i figured i'd take a little time off and while im at it make an attemp to write a review.
When i got home from patching some fence yesterday i was happy to see a brown box laying on my porch, the first thing i thought was how unbelieveably heavy the box was. I figured something else had to be in there for it to be that heavy. I unclipped my New Wave out of my pocket and cut the tape to find the Surge in the normal Black and Yellow box leatherman has be known for as of late. Opening the yellow box i couldnt believe how heavy this thing was. Honestly it feels like to Waves put together. I carried a Wave and a Crunch for a while and honestly this thing seems heavier.
The Leatherman Surge is Leatherman biggest tool. It took the place of the SuperTool 200, and is 4 1/2'' long with four blades located on the outside of the tool all with linear locks for convienient opening and closing. It have two knife blades, one a straightblade and the other a serrated semi-sheepsfoot blade which both can be opened with one hand. The other two outside blades are a large set of scissors and a t-shank blade exchanger which comes with a file and wood saw.
The First thing i done before i even played with it was clipped a spare pocket clip on it i had on reserve for it and put it in my pocket, noway i could carry that rock in my pocket all day long. After that i took the time to play with it a little bit.
The first thing i done was opened the scissors. After opening it i noticed the spring wasnt hitting against the scissors to make it open back up everytime. I observed a little bit more to see the scissors wasnt all the way out of the tool, as in the linear lock wasnt locked yet. It takes a little bit of force to push the scissors in to make it lock. After opening them up i seemed to really like them, but after using them they really dont seem to be that great, in my opinion. I tried them on some metal flashing and it did cut the flashing fairly well. One grip i've noticed is the scissors have to be lubed often(already) to keep them opening like they should.
Next i opened up blade exchanger. At the end of the exchanger is a little nick for opening the blade. By now i've noticed how tight all these blades are, gonna take some work to make it as loose as my Wave. The saw comes in the exchanger and the file comes in a little vinyl sleeve with also acomidates any other t-shank blades you can pick up at a hardware store. The cover of the the exchanger, again like everything else, comes open kinda hard. With the blade open push the cover down then the blade pops right out toward the outside of the tool. Simply exchange the blade for the file and close it back up. The saw and file both fit inside the tool closed which was one of my concerns at first the the file would be to long. The exchanger also has another nick located on the t-shank cover which is nice if anyone ever chooses to close it with a hacksaw blade you can use it to open it back up.
The Serrated and Straight knife are basically exactly the same as on my Wave but bigger, nothing to brag about.
Openening the tool up reveals fullsized pliers, the same in design as all the 2004 leathermans except bigger. The head consists of needlenose pliers, regular pliers, wire cutter and a notch for hard wire cutters. On the underside the the pliers are two notches, one for crimping electrical crimps and the other for cutting stranded wire. I havnt tried either of these yet but the stranded wire cutter look awful small.
On one side of the inside of the tool is a large double sided bit driver and a can bottle opener with a vee style wire stripper. The Bit driver is basically the same as on the Wave and Charge except its about a 1/16'' thicker. it comes with one bit which fits both number 1 and 2 phillips heads and 3/16'' straight screwdriver heads. The bottle opener is also basically the same except at the base where the opener wraps around the brim of a bottle cap is a little bit more rounder than my Wave and the nail nick is quite a bit bigger. The locks on the inside tools seem to me like they're a little harded to disengage than on my Wave. Maybe just need to be worked in.
One the other side of the tool we get a large screwdriver, small bitdriver and an awl. The large screwdriver now is hollowground. I havnt had a chance to use this yet either but comparing it to real screwdrivers it looks like it will fit a lot better. The screwdriver is also a 1/16'' thicker so maybe it wont twist as bad like the one on my Wave. the Small Bit driver is the same as on my Wave, Phillips on one side, straight on the other, and absolutly useless to me although i can imagine many people out there use it. Either i've lost weight or the leather in my belt has stretched because my belt hasnt fit very well in the whole i've usually used lately. I knew it was time for a new whole but i figured i'd hold off and wait for the Surge to get here before i tried it. The Surges awl has a hole in it for sewing. One one side its got basically a blade on it and right over from it is a groover going all the way down,from top to bottom. I twisted a few times in a clockwise position and before i know it i was right through the belt. I know a lot of people have modified the Awls on the Cores(which is the same awl) to be more Swisstool like but im happy with mine the way it is.
As i stated earlier the Surge has a hole for a quick-attach lanyard ring or pocket clip and also has a permanent lanyard ring in the same notch as the blade exchanger. One of the first things i done is cut the regular ring off because i like putting my pocket clip in that hole instead of the other so when i draw my tool im ready to open the seratted blade and not the regular one.
The Surge came with a nylon pouch basically the same as the Waves but much bigger. I knew i was gonna want this already because i come to not liking things on my belt. It has a main pocket for the tool and right behind it a pocket for bits and blades and also two pockets one on each side of the pouch.
After toying with it a while i found i can put the Surge in my back, right, pocket beside my wallet and hardly notice it there. I put the blades, one card of bits, and a little 4'' Craftsman adjustable wrench in the change pocket of my Carhartt jeans. Im not sure if other brands have as big of change pockets but this works very well.( on a side note the wrench is pretty awesome. I've carried many adjustable wrenches with me but found this one a few weeks ago in the mall. Its got a big head on it but a short handle. Will go up to 5/8'' but i filed both sides of the mouth with my Wave so it goes to 11/16''. My multi-tools best friend. Part #44601 i think i paid 13 or 14 dollars for it but a real good smal adjustable wrench.) The Surge overall is just a beast and i honestly think after i get over its cool factor i'll be back to carrying the Wave. This thing is just huge!
Hope i didnt forget anything. Questions welcome.
When i got home from patching some fence yesterday i was happy to see a brown box laying on my porch, the first thing i thought was how unbelieveably heavy the box was. I figured something else had to be in there for it to be that heavy. I unclipped my New Wave out of my pocket and cut the tape to find the Surge in the normal Black and Yellow box leatherman has be known for as of late. Opening the yellow box i couldnt believe how heavy this thing was. Honestly it feels like to Waves put together. I carried a Wave and a Crunch for a while and honestly this thing seems heavier.
The Leatherman Surge is Leatherman biggest tool. It took the place of the SuperTool 200, and is 4 1/2'' long with four blades located on the outside of the tool all with linear locks for convienient opening and closing. It have two knife blades, one a straightblade and the other a serrated semi-sheepsfoot blade which both can be opened with one hand. The other two outside blades are a large set of scissors and a t-shank blade exchanger which comes with a file and wood saw.
The First thing i done before i even played with it was clipped a spare pocket clip on it i had on reserve for it and put it in my pocket, noway i could carry that rock in my pocket all day long. After that i took the time to play with it a little bit.
The first thing i done was opened the scissors. After opening it i noticed the spring wasnt hitting against the scissors to make it open back up everytime. I observed a little bit more to see the scissors wasnt all the way out of the tool, as in the linear lock wasnt locked yet. It takes a little bit of force to push the scissors in to make it lock. After opening them up i seemed to really like them, but after using them they really dont seem to be that great, in my opinion. I tried them on some metal flashing and it did cut the flashing fairly well. One grip i've noticed is the scissors have to be lubed often(already) to keep them opening like they should.
Next i opened up blade exchanger. At the end of the exchanger is a little nick for opening the blade. By now i've noticed how tight all these blades are, gonna take some work to make it as loose as my Wave. The saw comes in the exchanger and the file comes in a little vinyl sleeve with also acomidates any other t-shank blades you can pick up at a hardware store. The cover of the the exchanger, again like everything else, comes open kinda hard. With the blade open push the cover down then the blade pops right out toward the outside of the tool. Simply exchange the blade for the file and close it back up. The saw and file both fit inside the tool closed which was one of my concerns at first the the file would be to long. The exchanger also has another nick located on the t-shank cover which is nice if anyone ever chooses to close it with a hacksaw blade you can use it to open it back up.
The Serrated and Straight knife are basically exactly the same as on my Wave but bigger, nothing to brag about.
Openening the tool up reveals fullsized pliers, the same in design as all the 2004 leathermans except bigger. The head consists of needlenose pliers, regular pliers, wire cutter and a notch for hard wire cutters. On the underside the the pliers are two notches, one for crimping electrical crimps and the other for cutting stranded wire. I havnt tried either of these yet but the stranded wire cutter look awful small.
On one side of the inside of the tool is a large double sided bit driver and a can bottle opener with a vee style wire stripper. The Bit driver is basically the same as on the Wave and Charge except its about a 1/16'' thicker. it comes with one bit which fits both number 1 and 2 phillips heads and 3/16'' straight screwdriver heads. The bottle opener is also basically the same except at the base where the opener wraps around the brim of a bottle cap is a little bit more rounder than my Wave and the nail nick is quite a bit bigger. The locks on the inside tools seem to me like they're a little harded to disengage than on my Wave. Maybe just need to be worked in.
One the other side of the tool we get a large screwdriver, small bitdriver and an awl. The large screwdriver now is hollowground. I havnt had a chance to use this yet either but comparing it to real screwdrivers it looks like it will fit a lot better. The screwdriver is also a 1/16'' thicker so maybe it wont twist as bad like the one on my Wave. the Small Bit driver is the same as on my Wave, Phillips on one side, straight on the other, and absolutly useless to me although i can imagine many people out there use it. Either i've lost weight or the leather in my belt has stretched because my belt hasnt fit very well in the whole i've usually used lately. I knew it was time for a new whole but i figured i'd hold off and wait for the Surge to get here before i tried it. The Surges awl has a hole in it for sewing. One one side its got basically a blade on it and right over from it is a groover going all the way down,from top to bottom. I twisted a few times in a clockwise position and before i know it i was right through the belt. I know a lot of people have modified the Awls on the Cores(which is the same awl) to be more Swisstool like but im happy with mine the way it is.
As i stated earlier the Surge has a hole for a quick-attach lanyard ring or pocket clip and also has a permanent lanyard ring in the same notch as the blade exchanger. One of the first things i done is cut the regular ring off because i like putting my pocket clip in that hole instead of the other so when i draw my tool im ready to open the seratted blade and not the regular one.
The Surge came with a nylon pouch basically the same as the Waves but much bigger. I knew i was gonna want this already because i come to not liking things on my belt. It has a main pocket for the tool and right behind it a pocket for bits and blades and also two pockets one on each side of the pouch.
After toying with it a while i found i can put the Surge in my back, right, pocket beside my wallet and hardly notice it there. I put the blades, one card of bits, and a little 4'' Craftsman adjustable wrench in the change pocket of my Carhartt jeans. Im not sure if other brands have as big of change pockets but this works very well.( on a side note the wrench is pretty awesome. I've carried many adjustable wrenches with me but found this one a few weeks ago in the mall. Its got a big head on it but a short handle. Will go up to 5/8'' but i filed both sides of the mouth with my Wave so it goes to 11/16''. My multi-tools best friend. Part #44601 i think i paid 13 or 14 dollars for it but a real good smal adjustable wrench.) The Surge overall is just a beast and i honestly think after i get over its cool factor i'll be back to carrying the Wave. This thing is just huge!
Hope i didnt forget anything. Questions welcome.
Can I have the sheath?