Gerber Clutch Multi-Tool

I was given a black Gerber Clutch multi tool for Christmas about a year ago.

The tool contains a knife, nail file, bottle opener/flat screwdriver, 'cross-head' screwdriver, tweezers and a pointy type blade. The whole tool folds open to become a pair of pliers/cutters. There is a key-ring on one end.

The tool is quite light and compact, although I was always conscious of its presence in my pocket.

I carried ...
...on several occasions. Attaching keys to it hampered its use, so I took them off right at the start.

Now to the various tools:

Knife -

This is a strong blade of about 4 cm useable length. Unfortunately it does not stay sharp very long even with light use such as sharpening pencils and cutting paper. It does however hone back to a sharp edge quickly.

Nail File -

Excellent ... more

I was given a black Gerber Clutch multi tool for Christmas about a year ago.

The tool contains a knife, nail file, bottle opener/flat screwdriver, 'cross-head' screwdriver, tweezers and a pointy type blade. The whole tool folds open to become a pair of pliers/cutters. There is a key-ring on one end.

The tool is quite light and compact, although I was always conscious of its presence in my pocket.

I carried the tool for most of last year, finding it useful on several occasions. Attaching keys to it hampered its use, so I took them off right at the start.

Now to the various tools:

Knife -

This is a strong blade of about 4 cm useable length. Unfortunately it does not stay sharp very long even with light use such as sharpening pencils and cutting paper. It does however hone back to a sharp edge quickly.

Nail File -

Excellent surface, but rather short for more than casual use.

Bottle opener/screwdriver -

Opener works OK and the flat screwdriver blade is very good.

Cross-head blade -

This is good as a blade for small slotted screws, but the cross-head is rather vestigial and not really much good, especially with pozidrive.

Tweezers -

These are quite small and do not spring open much, so are rather fiddly to use.

"Pointy' tool -

What is this for? Ok for digging small stones out of tyres or what!

Pliers -

These would appear to be the big selling point of the tool. You fold the tool back on itself and the pliers pop out and lock in place. The jaws are nicely serrated and hard enough not to wear so they grip small objects well enough.
There is also a built in bypass wire cutter (the blades slide past each other). I found the wire cutter quite ineffective, especially on multi-strand wire.
The worst fearure uf the pliers was that I nipped my skin many times in their moving parts.

In use -

The knife blunted too quickly to be effective.
The pliers nipped me.
The wire cutter was poor on multistrand flex.
There was no proper cross-head driver.
The tweezers were fiddly.

It was handy to have around, but its shortcomings led to me stop carrying it any more 3 months ago.

Conclusion -

Many people swear by these tools, but a multi-tool is inevitable a compromise, and in the case of the GERBER, too much of a compromise for me to recommend it. 

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