The Leatherman Wave: Review ★★★★★

I was a late comer to the Leatherman scene. The original Leatherman, the Pocket Survival Tool, was introduced in 1983 and has been growing in popularity ever since. By the time I first saw them in wider use in the early 2000's they were the only multi-tool with pliers.

When my dad first bought one, I didn't like it. the pliers had a tendency to stick when you tried to open them (i.e. actually use them as pliers). Later on my dad got a Leatherman-type tool made by SOG which fixed this problem.

However, I've switched over to the Leatherman wave, and in this review I'll tell you why.

The Original Leatherman PST

For the longest time I was a hold-out for the swiss army knives. My main reason was that I didn't like the pliers, they were sticky when you tried to open them and although they might be useful in many situations I had ended up just carrying some small pliers around in my backpack.

The Wave changed it for me. The Wave is the first tool made by Leatherman that allows you to access the blade without opening the pliers, a huge plus for me. In 2004 it was re-designed to its current model which features a locking mechanism for all of the tools.

The Wave has all of the features I look for, not only in a survival knife but as a good general carry tool.

The Blade(s) ★★★★ 


The main selling point to me is the one-handed opening feature of the knife. It's not spring assisted and you really need to practice it to get it open quickly. One added benefit is that the tool features both a straight and a serrated blade, not a combination blade. Most multi-tools on the market are going toward a combo blade, half straight and half serrated. Some of the cheaper models are actually going with just a serrated blade, a serious mistake in my opinion. You can read more on my views of serrated blades here.

Not all blades are perfect, however. The blades are quite narrow and I'd be a little worried about them snapping if I had to really work them. Made of 420 instead of the higher carbon content 440 stainless steel, their going to be inherently less brittle, which is a little comfort.

Really the blades get 4.5 stars: I love the fact that they're on the outside, locking, and feature both types separately rather than a combination blade. Their thinness makes me a bit uneasy although I'm hoping the lower carbon content of the metal will make them a bit more flexible.

The Wave also comes in a Black
Oxide Version, which is what I have
(Shown Above)

The Saw ★★★★

A saw is actually very valuable  in a multi-tool, and surprisingly not all of them carry one. The saw on the Wave is about the same quality on my old Swiss Army Knife, though a bit longer. I have no problem cutting through hardwood or a sapling. As with everything else on the Wave the saw blade locks which is a great benefit over the Swiss Army Knife.

Four stars for the saw. The one thing I wish is that it were a little thicker, it's even thinner than the 420 blades...

The File ★★★★★

Not essential in a survival tool, the file is strong enough to shave metal and is pretty useful. The backside of the file is diamond coated and supposedly can be used as a sharpening stone in a pinch. I haven't tested this and I always carry my own small diamond sharpener for my knives.

Five stars for the file: as a file it works great, I haven't tested the diamond coated bit yet.

The Scissors ★★★★

I actually use these quite a bit. They're plenty sharp and are spring loaded with a leaf spring. They're sturdy enough to even cut through some thin leather, yet sharp enough to easily cut through fine thread.
One negative is that they are on the small side compared to older models. I don't use them for much work because of this, some other models had much larger scissors.

Four stars for the scissors, although they're superb I just wish they were a tad bigger.

The Screwdrivers ★★★★

The Wave features three screwdrivers, one large flathead that also is easily used as a scraper, and two bit drivers. The bit drivers come standard with a philips and flathead on each side, there is a standard sized one, as well as a size #00 version. I don't often use the small bit driver, and the standard flathead is enough for most of my purposes. The philips head driver doesn't extend very far past the knife itself but for general purposes it works great.

I have no real problems with the screwdrivers, although I do wish that the philips head extended a tad more, but you can't have everything in a multi-tool.

The Can Opener ★

I actually feel a can-opener is a must have for a camping/survival knife. Cans just last forever and are a staple of camping and survival food, but you can't get at 'em unless you can open them.

The can opener is the one thing I dislike on the wave. Compared to my old Swiss Army knife the can opener is on the dull side. My old swiss army knife just bites right into cans with ease, you really need to work at it with the wave.

This isn't really a "can opener"; rather its a hybrid, it also acts as a bottle opener. Used as a bottle opener its just terrible, but you can always use the pliers to open your beer. Its ground with a chisel grind, flat on one end and beveled on another. This does make for a stronger edge but it's not sharpened at all and you really have to work to get at those cans. The bottom side of the opener also has wire-strippers that work reasonably well.

One star for this. The bottle opener is annoying but you really have to work at a can to open it, which is a pain.

The Pliers ★★★★★

The pliers are the main part of the tool, although ironically I don't use them all that often. When camping they're relegated to picking up my dutch oven lid, and at home I usually have enough pliers at hand.

Although you could use these to cut through barbed wire,
best to just bring your bolt cutters.
Image courtesy of flickr user kriswho

Still they're excellent pliers. The pliers themselves are combined regular and needle nose. They have a combo needle nose and regular grip. I don't often use the needle nose but the regular size pliers have come in handy quite a bit. They have a good strong grip and unlike some of the older models, these are not loose when attempting to grip and don't stick up in the mechanism.

The wire cutters work fairly well, although if doing heavy electrical work I'd probably go with my regular wire cutters. That being said they have notches for regular sized and large sized wire and both work very well.

The pliers get 5 stars, I have no real issues with them, but I can't say that I use them enough to make a truly informed decision.

The Bottom Line ★★★★★

In the end, a multi-tool is going to be a jack of all trades, master of none. The pliers won't work as well as standard pliers specially made for a task, the same goes with the wire cutters, scissors or can openers. Keeping this in mind, the wave really out-performs all of the other multi-tools I've used. At $70, it's a little on the pricy side, but the features that make it stand out, straight edged blade on the outside, locking blades, scissors and screwdriver(s), make this the best multi-tool I've ever used. I can't recommend this tool enough.