Your opinions on the damage to my Swiss Spirit

t1mpani

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Jun 6, 2002
Messages
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Howdy,
I'm not irate, nor am I incapable of fixing the damage that's been done to the wire cutters on my Spirit, but I'm wanting the advice of those who've done a whole lot more wire cutting with a multi-tool than I have: is there a heat treatment problem here or did I ask way too much of this tool?

There was a little wire key ring attached to the body of my camera which has been in my way since the first day I bought it. Sitting around this evening, I was flipping it out of the way and finally decided to just remove the thing. Once I started, however, I remembered exactly why I hadn't removed it before--because I have NO idea how they ever got the damned thing on in the first place without breaking the little plastic slot it was in. I kept trying to spread the thing wide enough to go through, but couldn't keep the wire end--once it was part way through the plastic hole--from gouging into the plastic and sticking in place. Finally, I'd had enough and just decided to cut the thing off. I pulled out my Spirit (have had it three weeks) and got the wire cutters lined up and snapped through it. Moved over a quarter inch and did the same again, and the former "o" had become a "c" which of course fell right off.

When I tried to open jaws of the pliers again, though, I couldn't without the handles trying to close; the jaws were just stuck together. I stopped pulling on the handles and got my fingers around the jaws themselves and finally pulled them apart--seeing that what was sticking them together were the now-deformed wire cutters. Those two cuts in that wire key ring had deeply indented them, and they could no longer easily pass by each other. Here are the pictures, both of the ring (to give you an idea of the stock) and the jaws. I guess the thing that bugs me is, it's not like I was squeezing THAT hard to snap through the ring--certainly not hard enough where I would ever have suspected I could have been deforming hardened (I assume) steel wire cutters. I know they're not as tough as wire cutters that'd be on a tool belt, but still it seems a little extreme. But then, I may be very wrong.



Now, I know it's not the stock thickness of the wire but the hardness that is really the issue, but is your basic "100 for $5" little wire key ring really that hard? I've popped 'em before with pliers and have never seen a pair blink. I can fix the damage, at least well enough for the tool to be useable, but I'm wondering if this is a defect I should be worried about or just an unfortunate encounter with a super-stud piece of wire.

Appreciate any and all opinions, thanks.
 
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Most of the time wire cutters are designed to cut copper wire only. A
40 dollar pair of Klien lineman pliers are easily ruined with a piece of mechanics wire or a finish nail.
 
Ah, I see. And now that I look over at the page for the Leatherman Charge (the Swiss Tool's predecessor in my case) I see in the description the "hard wire" cutters its specifies. Having snipped quite a bit of steel wire in its lifetime, I just made the mistake of taking that capability for granted when I switched to the Spirit.

The Swiss Tool is absolutely beautiful and finely crafted, but between softer cutters, a steel downgrade in the main blade, and polished-tip screwdrivers that constantly want to slip out of screw heads, I don't know that--for me--the ergonomic advantages it has over the Charge are sufficient to replace it.
 
I suspect that the split ring you cut was stainless , and might have damaged your Charge .Outside of an emergency , I would never use a multi's cutters on substrate like that . Multi cutters/pliers are AT BEST light duty . Personally I rarely use the cutters except on copper , and never use the drivers in any but the most casual manner . Until drop forged or billet cut pliers become the norm , it will be ever thus !

Chris
 
Wire cutter for thin and soft wire up to 40 HRc

That's what it says in the specs. Hard to judge exactly what the wire is like till
you try and cut it though.
 
Yep,
I'm sure it's my fault, but again, I know it wouldn't have hurt the Charge--since I just cut up one of the ring pieces three times without hurting it. Wanted to see if there was anything to the "hard wire cutter" and apparently there is. ;)

Spirit is gorgeously made, but I think I may still be a leatherman guy...
 
I wasn't blaming you... I didn't know the specs till I looked them up after reading what happened to you.
I could easily have done the same thing and would probably feel as you do.
 
Oh I know--I'm just trying to decide now if I should attempt to fix myself or get Victorinox to do it, even if the warranty won't cover it.
 
I ruined 2 multi tool pliers trying to cut something that it wasn't designed to cut.

I picked up a LM Supertool 300 recently - mostly for the fact that the cutters are 154CM and are replaceable.

Best bet would be to let Vic fix it back to "like new" status.
 
The insert that came with my SwissTool Spirit says the scalloped area farther from the pivot is a wire cutter for thin and soft wire up to 40 HRc but the area closest to the pivot is labelled as a "hard wire cutter." Not sure how the metal could be that different while that close to each other.
 
I don't think it's supposed to be heat treated differently, but rather the bevel angles are steeper towards the pivot, making them stronger. Same way you can take a knife, sharpen it at a higher angle than it currently is, and increase edge durability.
 
As others have stated, you missed the hard wire cutters on your tool when cutting the little ring. Unfortunately Vic tools dont even have half the hard-wire cutting surface that Leatherman has.

I tried cutting some stainless welding rod with my Gerber MP600 and ruined them the same way too :( The MP600 dosent even have a hard-wire cutter.

4179415870_4579cf319a_z.jpg
 
Yep, those dings look familiar. We live and learn, I suppose. :)
 
Try a file on the wire you want to cut. If the file skates on the wire, the wire will wreck your cutters. You can get file sets which contain files of different Rockwell hardnesses (they have color coded handles). They can help you estimate the hardness of the wire. You can use the same files to establish the approximate hardness of your cutters. Do the test away from the cutting surface of the jaws. Some wire cutters have replaceable cutters as well as a variety of insert hardnesses.
 
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