A friend of mine bought a car recently and in the glove compartment was a much used and possibly abused multitool, a Leatherman Surge. As I had been of some assistance in securing the car the multitool was gifted to me.
I must admit to not being a multitool kind of guy, in fact I only lately started carrying a folder. The time tested fixed blade is my tool of choice so carrying a multitool was somewhat of a departure in behavior for me.
By the time it got to me the tool was well used,abused even, but still well useable. My plan is to carry it in my motorcycle. The tool includes two knife blades, one plain and one serrated, a flat blade screw driver, an interchangeable screw driver, an interchangeable micro screw driver, an interchangeable saw, a scissors, an awl,, a can opener and a pliers.
As can be seen in the photo above the tip of the awl is burnt, not badly but burnt nevertheless and as can be seen in the photo below the retaining spring for the interchangeable screw driver bit is missing. Also the lock on the plain knife blade is not engaging properly. Both knife blades also need sharpening which is no big deal as far as I'm concerned. All in all it has held up to the use it received from its previous owner fairly well.
Note the missing retaining spring in the above picture. One would think that such springs would be easily available but a search online has revealed nothing other than a stupendous 25 year warranty. I am gobsmacked..... It seems that leatherman insist on repairing each and every leatherman tool themselves. Hence the 6 sided torx security screws, one of which is clearly visible in the photo below.
Notice the slight blackening on the tip of the awl. That would be abuse in my book.
The scissors and knife blades use a kind of linerlock system to lock the blades in their open positions. The saw blade has never been used and is quite sharp.
The smaller blades have a sprung T shaped lever to keep them locked open.
The edges of the handle appear to be marked out as a rule in both imperial and metric measures.
The most impressive tool of all is the pliers, accurate sharp and sturdy, I've seen purpose built pliers that were not as well made as this one.
So now I have a dilemma, fix the tool myself and void the warranty, or send it off to the local leatherman repair center for repair. What do you think ?
