Leatherman Wingman: not recommended

You did the right thing. Bud Light should be spewed. Instead of that, may I recommend "beer"? It's a much better drink :) .

Oh god! A beer snob! I bet you have your pinky extended when sipping your fancy beers. :D You guys are a lot of fun at parties. :D

Nah, i kid. I know some guys care about how their beer tastes. Im not one of those guys. I like to get a cheap buzz on.
 
I used the Wingman package opener quite a bit this week, not only today (Christmas) opening packages for everybody, opening clamshells for the kids' toys, etc. While over at my parent's house, I asked Dad if he carried a MT. He said he has one in the work shed, but doesn't carry one. So I left the Wingman with my Dad. I had already given him a Christmas gift, mind you. This was just a bonus.

I had carried it for over a month and had used it a lot, although it still looked close to new. I found it a perfectly competent model overall. I found the scissors struggled with cloth or plastic materials more than Vic scissors would, but did fine on threads and string and paper. As much as I think the Wingman is useful and of good quality, I was never in love with the ergonomics and never had much "wow" factor with the tool. So giving it to Dad was an easy choice. I still have the Sidekick. It rides in the console of my truck at this point. I doubt I'll give it away, but I think I'll pick up a Victorinox Spirit as a substitute. It's not that the Wingman's functionality was lacking. But the Swisstool Spirit is more of an engineering marvel and a satisfying piece of pocket gadgetry.
 
I like how everyone jumps on the band wagon and thanks this guy for a great review. Actually it is a bash session of a very nice, and handy American made tool that has an unbelievably good price point for it's capability. I find the quality of this item to be lower than your past Leatherman's, and on par with some of the higher end Chinese junk, but to it's defense the price point is great, actually much lower than I would actually pay for it. Great job Leatherman, but kick up the quality just a notch, and try to stay in the same price range then you will have an MT champion.
 
Actually it is a bash session

Your claim is demonstrably false. While I love Leatherman, and probably own more of them than you currently have posts on Bladeforums, the Wingman I have in my possession is of poor quality for the reasons that I brilliantly stated above. I didn't review your Wingman, I reviewed my Wingman. But thank you for bumping this thread back to the top, where it so rightfully deserves to be found. Your plea to Leatherman to "kick up the quality just a notch" supports my conclusion, so thanks also for that. Rock on.
 
Now that the thread is back, I also had trouble with the scissors out of the box. Also liked the sidekick better because of the saw. The wingman rested :D for months and started to carry it again last month. Remembering the scissors problem, I sat down and put my own edge on the blade. They work much better now making me happier with the tool overall.
 
BTW, If people keep in mind the wingman and sidekick are light duty tools at a good price and don't push them, they'll be happy with them.
I also carry a leatherman charge XTi and am happy with it also.

IMHO these are multi-tools that have their working limits, respect them, know what they are and tool wil return a good long service life. You can't treat these as if they are channellocks and expect them to hold up. The right tool for the right job and a multi-tool are for cases where it's better than nothing.
 
I just can't get behind the Wingman due to the tiny scissors. But I'm absolutely loving the Sidekick, and the saw has come in quite handy.
 
Stocking stuffers and atta boys for the guys that help me out.
In most cases it's their first M-Tool so they are thrilled.
Is a Victorinox RS...no. Am I going anywhere really remote with it...probably not.
 
I got the Sidekick and can't stand to carry it. Wish I hadn't wasted my money. The reviews on that site named after the South American river were overwhelmingly positive and I was sucked in.

It truly is a piece of crap compared to my other Leathermans. My biggest complaints are the terrible wire cutters, awful file/screw driver/"ruler", and the tiny serrated blade.

Not impressed, even for the low price. Spend a little more and get the Rebar. Now this is a very nice tool.
 
I got the Sidekick and can't stand to carry it. Wish I hadn't wasted my money. The reviews on that site named after the South American river were overwhelmingly positive and I was sucked in.

It truly is a piece of crap compared to my other Leathermans. My biggest complaints are the terrible wire cutters, awful file/screw driver/"ruler", and the tiny serrated blade.

Not impressed, even for the low price.
 
Just got a Sidekick from the place in Freeport Me, with some gift card $$. Didn't need it but need to spend the balance.
First off the leather pouch and carabiner are a waste so they should 86 them and lower the cost by $5-10.
The one handed knife blade is OK buy is not easily deployed when you pull it out of your pocket due to where the pocket clip is located. So even though I like the pocket clip it does not allow for easy one handed use of either knife or saw. (Edit; this is wrong, I tried it again. Don't know what I was doing before. One handed knife works great from clipped pocket.)
The saw looks great but both liner locks on saw and knife look a bit small for the job.
There is some wobble in the pliers but I like the spring. The wire cutters look so so but will work just fine.
The three small tools plus lanyard ring; serrated blade, file, can opener are difficult to open and they all want to come out at once, the serrated blade is dying to nick you as you sort our the mess. Lose the stupid ring IMO.
All in all not super impressed or disappointed but it will work fine in my glove box.
 
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I actually like my Wingman. I like it for a 20 dollar mt. I have a Sidekick, Micra, Charge tti, and the new Surge as well as an older LM I can't readily identify. I acquired the Wingman because I was interested in its particular loadout. I also knew that it wasn't going to be built like a Charge or a Surge.

After having used it for about a week, I grew fond of it, save for the partially serrated blade. I hate those on any knife. No big deal, I swapped them out for the plain edge blade from the Sidekick. Now, it's my perfect (for 20 bucks) mt.

I did notice that the knife actually had less play than my charge, and that the scissors were better in size than those on my charge. I like the screwdrivers better than the short bits on my charge and surge. I like the spring loaded pliers. I don't often need to cut wires, but if I do, I always have my Surge nearby anyway.

Lastly, the pocket clip is much more solid than the slip on one for the charge or surge, which tend to slide too much sie to side.

I can't compare them to my charge tti and the surge fairly. Those cost much more and it shows in the build and loadout offerings. I also would pick those over this if I had to keep just one mt, but for a $20 mt, I can't think of a better option.
 
My wingman is my back up tool in my truck since my wife latched onto my old Skeletool CX.
I still think it's perfectly fine for the pricepoint. I still find a lot more EDC use for my ST300 or even my MUT, but the Wingman is a nice back up/travel tool.
 
I have used the Sidekick's saw a lot this week on a few projects. It has excellent cutting ability on par with the Victorinox saw and the lock was solid. So far no complaints.
 
I own a Wingman that I got as a give away when I spent more than $200 on tools at a local business .
It is what it is .
There is nothing wrong with it if used correctly and within its capabilities .
There is no way I would take it to work for heavy duties , that's the job of my Surge , but for clipping on your waist band on weekends around the house it's OK .


Ken
 
My review is 100% perfect in every way. Heavenly, perfect, wonderful and magnificent. Almost everyone who reads it hears angels singing. You have angels in Canada, don't you?

well the pictures were nice, but the words were less perfect. :)

The scissors work just fine.

Yours do. Mine didn't. But I didn't review your Wingman, did I? Send me your Wingman and I'll be happy to review it. Right after I stick it down the back of my pants. Then I'll hear angels singing.

I think you are doing it wrong... of the 10 or 15 I've given as gifts ($17 or less on sale at HD with military discount) I've had to help each and every one figure out that until you lock it in the scissors don't work. Once you open it (with the handy spring which substitutes for a nail nick) you have to push on the non lever part of the scissor until it positively clicks into place (at which point the lever part pops open.)

As far as wire cutters not overlapping..... I don't know of too many purpose built wire cutters that do!

Virtually all MTs have real cutters that overlap like scissors. This is not indictment of the Wingman. Its just a benign fact. The Wingman's don't. Thats just a fact too. No biggie.

Most wire cutters do not use bypass (scissor type) cutters, if you look at just about any electrician equipment you will find this is so. Bypass suffer issues with cutting hard and thicker items such as thicker wire, nails ect. and thinner flimsier things, such as stranded wire. In the first case you have the whole reason behind the replaceable cutters on the new surge, charge, rebar, supertool, ect. When you try something tougher and they break or bend you can spend the money to replace them. In the second case they will often fold the material over and not cut it, often getting stuck and requiring breaking it off in order to free it from the jaws because the handles don't have a lot of lock going back the way they fold up.

With the Anvil style cutters, as on the wingman and the sidekick, I cannot imagine the type of material that you would be able to damage that style of wire cutter. I know it would be possible, but honestly my guess is the pliers hinge would fail first. Every time i've used them for cutting wire they cut cleanly and do the job in some cases better than my other leathermans.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on the spring loaded pliers and I do wish every leatherman i own had them, however, I do think that the pliers would likely not be as tight and would have to have the anvil cutters for that reason. which you seem not to prefer.

Since 2012 I've carried a sidekick (I have a micra on my keychain) every day in my pocket, except while travelling.
When I have to fly I just buy a wingman at the closest HD to the airport when I land, then I return it before flying home.

I do have a number of other leathermans, nearly all that I want, but there are still a few I currently covet and will own in the future.:) and a few i can't justify but want

the nicest parts about the sidekick and the wingman in addition to the springloaded pliers is the outside opening knife and other tool (saw or scissor) That feature seems to raise hopes for people as they expect that a premium feature like outside opening tools should put these in the class of the Wave, Surge, Charge. When you look at the price though. These are the in class of the Kick or Fuse, and compared to those tools you really are getting a more comfortable, feature laden tool.

I too like leatherman and taking the sidekick and wingman for what they are, lower end tools, they beat any comparably priced tool. nothing by gerber or victorinox in this price range has the abilities or features or quality level, it's not even close.

Here is most of my collection right now sans duplicates (except for the 2 original waves, have to show them off) and the rest are with the wife, an XE6 and a Surge or Father, original 1990 PST that went to war with me.
The Surge, and the Wave's each have a vehicle they are assigned to. The rest are used, loaned, carried as needed.
KU2BHxhl.jpg
The best part? I haven't paid over $50 for any of them.
 
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cnlson: "Since 2012 I've carried a sidekick (I have a micra on my keychain) every day in my pocket, except while travelling.
When I have to fly I just buy a wingman at the closest HD to the airport when I land, then I return it before flying home. "

Doesn't that feel really dishonest? Home Depot may be a big, faceless corporation but it isn't a lending library.
 
cnlson: "When I have to fly I just buy a wingman at the closest HD to the airport when I land, then I return it before flying home. "
Doesn't that feel really dishonest? Home Depot may be a big, faceless corporation but it isn't a lending library.

Not overly. They have a return policy and I follow it.
 
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