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As a building superintendent, I wear a multi-tool every day on my belt, and use it often. I was really looking foward to getting the Gerber because it offered two main features that I wanted - a one-handed opening blade, and tools that all lock open. With all the multi-tools being manufactured today, it's amazing how few offer these two crucial (for me) features in a single tool. The Gerber Legend is the only tool I'm aware of that has both a one handed opening blade and tools that all lock open. If anyone reading this knows of another tool that has both these features, please let me know.

Let me first say that Gerber has made many great innovations with this tool. The rotateable/replaceable inserts for the wire cutters is a great idea, along with the replaceable jigsaw blade and the spring-loaded pliars. Having said that, I'll organize my review into two categories - Major Mistakes and Niggles.

Major Mistakes - The pliars don't open wide enough. The very tips of the needle-nose pliars don't even make it an inch apart---15/16ths to be exact. To get into the teeth of the pliars, you need to be 5/8ths inch or smaller! Compare these numbers with the Leatherman Super Tool's 1 3/4" opening at the tips and a full inch-plus at the teeth. I feel that the small opening of the Gerber pliars will disappoint many people - you simply won't be able to grab a lot of stuff you'd expect to be able to. Personally, if I can't take off a shower-head or fawcet aerator with it, that's much of the usefulness of the pliars gone right there. Major, major mistake on Gerber's part, especially when (seemingly) this could have easily been engineered differently.

Some tools are difficult to open. The phillips screwdriver recesses too far in the tool when you close it fully, making the nail catch impossible to get at. Luckily, the tip of my pinky finger is small enough to get in there and pull it out by the tip. But I know plenty of guys for whom this would be impossible to open. Ditto for the file/large flatblade...it has a thumb-nail catch...but when you close it fully it gets completely recessed behind the other flat-blade screwdrivers! And I mean totally! If your hands are greasy or sweaty (which is a lot on the job) you're not getting it out without taking all the other stuff out first. Major, major mistake on Gerber's part, especially when this is so easily fixed - there's loads of room there for a nice accessable nail catch.

Niggles - The rubber grips are stickers and one came out on the second day of use. Why put them at all? Why not just cast the knurled surface into the handles? The finish of the tool is nowhere near the finish of a leatherman. Casting marks are evident on the handles, the thumb-studs are inserted and then impacted from the other side to hold them in place (which may be a very strong and lasting (time will tell) and cost-effective way to assemble but is ugly and cheap-looking. The jigsaw blade is held in place by a small metal clip that doesn't look like it will withstand much abuse (time will tell with this too).

It's a shame I couldn't give this tool a better review. It's got a lot of stuff going for it...light weight, innovation, and a great locking system that's easy to use. I really wanted to like it but the pliars thing is so major...I'm going to need to replace it eventually just for that 'cause it doesn't pay to carry the thing around if I can't grab stuff with it. Make me one with the fit and finish of a Leatherman and fix the other simple stuff and you've got it.

This multi tool is so good that I had to think to myself is this for real!The tool is almost half the original price and I say worth every penny for the whole price. The scissors cut through my jeans, the spring loaded pliers are great, and the locking mechanism is wonderful. It is perfect for my big hands and is light too. Lastly the wire cutters cut through anything as well as the remgrit saw blade which is REPLACEABLE!This tool is the best off all time and I would recommend this tool to any heavy duty worker. I love it and I think you will to.

I bought this for my boyfriend and promptly returned it. I was getting it for him to replace his lost 600. The things that we did not like about this tool were:
1) cheesy black grippy things that looked like they were going to come off if wet, and
2) you can't do the cool thing where you hold the multitool, flick your wrist, and the pliers extend with a satisfying little snap!
It's also a bit larger than the 600, so unless you have big pockets or don't care about size, you might want to go for the more compact 600.