Multitools Reviews

Just got Recoil today for Father's Day. Right out of the box the straight blade knife would not open all the way to the locking position. The spring loaded pliers are a a great concept but the third time I pressed the trigger, it popped off the handle. This poor quality is unlike Gerber. If I hadn't known it was purchased directly from the company, I would think it was a cheap knock off. I will exchange it for another with hopes that it was just a bad batch. Bottom line, great concept but the craftmanship is poor. I recommend looking for a different product.

I have been using a Gerber Shortcut a for a long time now, and decided it was time for an upgrade. I was comparing the Recoil and Diesel in Walmart for about 10 min. and finally decided on the Recoil because of it's one-hand opening feature and I did not like that the Diesel was not spring-loaded. The Diesel had more tools on it, but most of which I found un-nessesary. With the Recoil all of the tools lock into place perfectly and close with ease. The quality is great, and I recommend this multi-tool to anybody looking for one.

I too, wish that Gerber had put a lanyard hole in it, but then again, I don't see where it would go.

Fathers Day 2006 - Unlike the other reviewer, my Gerber Recoil Auto-Plier worked just as expected right out of the box. The blade profile has changed somewhat from some of the pictures seen on the net, but the blade opens, locks, and unlocks just fine. Mine came with the adapter bits, which is a great addition for all the screwing/unscrewing chores where the right bit makes all the difference. And I love those Fiskars designed scissors built-in.

But the biggest plus of this design is the push button one-hand opening! Mine works wonderfully (as others have reported) and, added to the spring action pliers themselves, make this a very useful tool. This is especially true for those like me who find themselves holding onto something with one hand where you can't let go to use two hands to unfold a pair of multi-pliers. I have several other brands and I've tried all sorts of shortcuts, even Gerber's own "flick open" design. But nothing is quite like the push button action of the Recoil Auto-Plier! Other sailors like me will very much appreciate this feature.

My only complaint is that Gerber failed to provide a lanyard attachment point. I'll have to be extra careful not to drop these overboard!

The steel is the same un-named stuff Schrade uses for most of their knives. It's not really bad, but only a good steel when you take into account the price of their cheaper knives. For the amount this knife sells for, it should be better.

The location of the lock is about as bad as it gets. As you can see in the picture, the area you have to push to realease it is not convenient to access with one hand, while at the same time it appears to be in a bad location for accidental closing.

I buy every new Vise Grip product as it comes along. Most are outstanding additions to my tool collection, a few have have been of questionable utility but this is the first to be very hard to use (and because of that, truly unsafe).
The usual release lever is gone, so if you have set the locking jaws really tightly, you won't get them loose without using another tool. The space where the release lever used to be is taken up by 2 blades and a hex drive. This doesn't leave enough room between the two plier handles. Unless you are very deliberate, one in every 3 or 4 times you lock the tool, it will pinch the meaty and very sensitive heel of your hand (OUCH!!).
The blades are EXTREMELY sharp (sharp is good) and VERY tight (tight is good)... sharp AND tight is bad. The tool requires absolute attention as you use it, and for an ordinary hand tool, this seems a bit much. It takes a couple of minutes and other tools to safely deploy and store a blade.
I had to buy and return 3 of these before finding one where the blade and driver lock worked correctly. Along the way there were numerous poorly installed rivits, with sharp edges showing.
This "Toolbox" should have stayed in the toolbox. Nice idea but poor execution. If you want this utility, carry a knife, a hex driver and a good 'ol Vise-Grip... your choice of jaw!

This tool is very handy. I have always loved Vise-Grip tools, and when this came out I snapped it right up. There is a problem with the design of the knife blade, though. The tip of the knife blade is not fully recessed into the handle, so if you slip your finger between the two handles to "feather" the plier jaws open and closed, you can nick (slice open) your finger on the razor sharp tip. Vise-Grip claimed that they redesigned the tool and sent a replacement, but it was exactly the same.

I received this item as a gift. I normally carry a Leatherman, but I decided to give this one a try. It was very stiff at first, taking some effort to open it up and use the tools, then it got too loose. I thought, no big deal, they include a tool to tighten the bolts that hold everything together. Well one day, one of the bolts came out and I lost the bolt and everything on the knife side of the chassis. Well it was good why it lasted, but the quality of this product is seriously lacking. Buy something that will last.

Don't click on the buy button if you think that this sheath is what you need. Coz it isn't. The sheath can only hold the mini-tool and there is no way that you can add the bits in.

Instead, get the Wave and mini-tool combo which hold both items in a single pouch and you can put your bits in the handy holder that comes with it.

This is one of the worst holsters I've ever gotten with a knife. nothing but stiff leather, cheap nylon, a couple little slots that you can't fit any accessories in and a nearly nonexistant rear flap that you can't fit a stick of gum in. Just use your pocket, use a tool belt, get one of those mult-holsters and keep it with your flashlight and phone, don't even bother trying to break in this cardboard-like case so you can loop your belt through it.

I ordered 3 of these thinking they would be the Leatherman Waves like the product description says... but I got the Leatherman Core instead.

I had mine replaced twice. Works fine until you use the write-protect tab on the jump drive. Once the drive gets locked, it won't unlock and becomes completely useless as anything except a read-only drive. Unfortunately, they apparently won't replace it a third time, so I'm out $60 bucks.

There are better, and cheaper, alternatives.

I bought one of these "Swiss Army Knife for the 21st Century" -- complete with a 1 gb flash drive -- because I thought it was delightful, stylish, well-designed, and manufactured by Victorinox -- a name I trusted. But in less than a month, the flash drive had broken -- it was irreparable. It happened like this: one day, when I pulled it from the USB port (I didn't yank -- I just pulled, the way you would pull any removable drive from a USB port), the inner workings of the drive pulled completely free from their plastic encasement and bent, breaking the contact points between the connector and the memory. I have never seen anything like it -- the soldering, or something, must have been done very poorly indeed. The drive was rendered useless instantly.

To make matters worse, I couldn't reach anyone at Victorinox or their "Swissbits" division -- my only option was to send a message to their Technical Support e-mail address, from which I received an automated response and then -- nothing. For now, anyway, I cannot find any way to reach a human being at the company.

As wonderful as the product looks, I most assuredly would not buy a "Swissbits" product again without some foreknowledge that their quality standards were higher and that they had some customer support mechanism in place. I am utterly and totally disappointed in a company I otherwise respected -- Victorinox -- and from whom I have purchased products many times over the years.

I would warn anyone who buys one of these Swiss Army 1 gb flash drives to back everything up on it on a daily basis, and not to expect it to last. This product seems more gimmick than innovation.