Is the Leatherman Wave made in the U.S.?

flipe8

flipe8

Joined
Oct 24, 2005
Messages
2,823
Hi guys. I just picked up a new Leatherman Wave and cannot find the "Made in USA" on it. I had an older Wave that had it stamped on it. I admit I wouldn't be pleased if this is made overseas based on the price, but that's just me. Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
IIRC, due to manufacturing laws, in order for something to be stamped "Made In The USA" a certain percentage of the parts must be manufactured and finished in the USA. Leatherman, like pretty much everyone else, uses over-seas parts or finishing services before putting the tool together in the States. Don't worry, while I don't find the polish of Leatherman to be as good as it was pre-2004, I don't think they're going the way of Gerber...yet.
 
Reference.
A few facts I learned from the tour and talking to employees:
-ALL assembly of tools/knives happens in the Portland plant. I saw it happening, so no more worries about foreign assembly! (I have noticed that some accessories are made overseas.)
-Much of the steel they use comes from Michigan
-The plier head pieces are made in Mexico. When LM started with the vender, they were located state-side (Indiana?). When they moved their plant to Mexico, LM decided to stay with the original vender rather than find a new one.
-Much of the stamping/finishing/etc. happens at the plant. They also use a lot of local (Portland area) venders. My father-in-law knows one such vender, so it’s easy to believe.
Click to expand...

Interesting. In addition to the above, I have heard it referenced that the diamond files are manufactured in Austria but have no concrete source for this.
 
Thanks for the info. I ended up returning the Wave as it was a little heavier than I'm used to. For the past few years, I've been carrying a Pulse that's probably about half the weight.I knew Leatherman had started to move some of its production out of the U.S., but I kinda figured it was just the lower end models. I guess it bothers me a bit based on the price.
 
Hello,

A few gruesome facts. If you sell a product (of any type) in California, every part in it must be made in the US if you wish to mark it USA as Leatherman found out in the $13 million judgement against them.

How many of you think that most screws and other fasteners are made in the US?

Once upon a time, the requirement for USA marking was the "majority of the value added had to be US". The California decision changed this. Despite the fact that all Leatherman tools and knives are assembled in Portland , OR, that the castings for the plier heads come from a company who moved their operations from the US to Mexico, that some files and saws come from Europe and that some knife blades are sharpened in Mexico, Leatherman had to stop marking "USA" on their products.

Final fit and finish, along with the specifications for heat treat, finish, etc all come from Portland. Forget the BS that some folks put out. The Leatherman product is a good product. The world is international. Look at the cars on the road today. Did Toyota just exceed GM in quarterly shipments?

Cheers - Joe
 
I don't have a problem buying from most places in the world from manufacturers of solid reputation, but I don't want to be paying the same prices the company charged prior to moving production abroad. If the company is saving money based on these moves, why are we paying the same? And I also want to know where it's produced. The first PST I owned never had any problems through many years of use. The more recent Pulse I owned ended up breaking the end off the pliers. Funny thing is that I bought my brother the same model at the same time and he also broke the tip off the pliers at roughly the same time. I work in the fire service and broke mine at work while he's an elevator mechanic and broke his on the job as well. I sent both back plus a Squirt that I broke while pulling on a bike cable. I noted to LM that I purchased both at the same time and I suggested there might be a problem with that particular batch as the damage was basically the same. LM returned both Pulse models+ the Squirt with new parts. Now that I know the parts in question were made in Mexico, I'm coming to my own conclusions, right or wrong. In my mind, if you can't keep the quality up when moving production abroad(regardless of warranty), you're on the wrong road.
 
Now that I know the parts in question were made in Mexico, I'm coming to my own conclusions, right or wrong.
Click to expand...

You don't know that.

The Pulse was in production from 2000-2004 and since we don't know the date of the switch in production of the plier castings to Mexico, nor do we know the date of your Pulse please don't assume you had a model that featured pliers produced in Mexico. Same thing with the Juice.
 
You're right, spoonrobot. I don't know if they were manufactured in the U.S. or abroad.But it has left me wondering if the quality is there as it was before. I should probably have said a good warranty shouldn't be used to cover lower quality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top