Leatherman - Charge ALX Multitool, Stainless Steel with Leather Sheath

I bought the Surge along with the Crunch the Skeletool, the Sidekick and the Charge. I also bought 2 LED flashlights and the bit set. I talk about the flashlights and the bit set below. I've never owned a multitool but have alway carried a pocket knife. I wanted to try a few and justified the expense in all sorts of interesting ways. Maybe this review will help you avoid some expense and the whole justification exercise. :)Of all of the tools I bought I like the Surge and the Charge the best although there are a few things I didn't like about the Surge.First, all of the outside surfaces have a sharp edge that is not comfortable. I filed and sanded them, now they're better but still not as good as the Charge. The Skeletool has this problem as well but a bit worse. The metal in the handle of the Skeletool looks too thin to file the edge so I didn't try.I gave the Surge 4 stars and the Charge 5 stars, because of the way they feel in my hand out of the box.You really shouldn't have to finnish a tool with a file for it to feel right in your hand, in my opinion.The second thing that could use some improvement is the sheath. It's functional, I guess, but it is more bulky than it needs to be. The Surge and the Charge have the same style sheath and have the same flaws. The Charge sheath is a little smaller because the tool is 1/2 shorter but it sticks out just as far from your belt. The extra bit set make the sheaths stick out even further as the elastic in the sheaths expand to accomodate the 2 bit holders. I looked around for some alternatives to the shealth for the Surge. I ended up buying a horizontal leather cell phone case. It's from Case Logic and called the Universal Pouch CLP188SMT. I think other styles for iPhone 4 or large PDAs will work as well. A small flashlight and bit extension fit nicely in the bottom with the extra bits that I removed from the two black plastic holders they came with and put them in 2 small ziplock bags for pills I think. I bought the bags at Walgreen's in the pill organizer section. They are clear and about 2.5 inches wide and cost around $3 for a bunch of them. The surge fits snugly on top of all of this in the pouch and the magnetic clasp hold it all securely.Here's what I think of the other multitools:Charge ALX: Smaller and lighter but more expensive. It does come in a nice tin though with a small bit set and some other accessories. Handles feel better. It is also 1/2 inch shorter. I bought the ALX so it has the saw in place of the scissors. If I had to buy just one multitool, knowing what I know now, this would be it. I will likely give it to someone as a gift.Crunch: Nice vice grips, good size, tools somewhat limited but we'll see how often I use the stuff on the Surge. I may switch to carrying this in the future.Sidekick: Best value of all of them. Has a lot of functionality and I like the spring loaded pliers. It looks a little less well made but good enough for me.Skeletool: My least favorite. It has sharp edges where you don't want them and the clip takes up a lot of room for it to be on something where every bit of real eastate should have something useful. I know the Freestyle eliminates this clip but i really dont like the way this tool is put together or how it feels in my hand. The Freestyle looks like it would feel the same. Also for such a large tool, it seems to have limited functionality. I know weight can be important to some people. And this tool is light for its size. It just isn't worth the tradeoff for me.FlashlightsI bought 2 small LED flashlights, each powered by a single AAA battery.The Leatherman Serac S2 and the Fenix E01The Fenix E01 is better, smaller, brighter and cost 1/3 the price of the Leatherman.Bit SetI like it. It looks like it has a good variety of bits. Although, I needed to find an alternative to the plastic holders the bits come in. Carrying both sets in this configuration makes the Surge stick out further in the orginal leather and nylon sheath. Also, I couldn't find a way to carry both sets of bits. Tucking one set behind the multitool in the sheath allows them to fall out whenever I take out the multitool and requires 2 hands to put the multitool back into the case because the bit set is loose in the shealth. I think maybe a clip on the front side of the bit holders may work well to hold them at the tops of your pockets. The bit holders are thin enough that they shouldn't interfere with reaching your hand into your pockets in this configuration and would minimize looking like a dork. A constant struggle for me. If the bit holder were flexible it would be even better like a silicone rubber holder. Then they could probably go into the back pocket as well.

Yup, lost mine after about a year, or hopefully one of my kids "borrowed it" and it will turn up somewhere. Absolutely fantastic tool, high quality everything, and sure, it's heavier and bulkier than a pocketknife, but it's really not hard to get used to. It's the smallest full featured multi tool I've ever seen, and has a good pocket clip. I'm a pro musician, always having to adjust instruments, open battery doors and electronic parts, etc., and I make use of the 6 different sizes of screwdrivers. That flexibility on one tool is huge, especially when I'm out at a gig. You give up the scissors for the extra driver, but it's worth it for my needs. The knife is so sharp you don't really need scissors anyway. I'm not kidding. But if you don't need a lot of screwdrivers on hand, just buy another charge model with scissors, I'm sure it's awesome.Possible cons that I learned to live with: the bottle/can opener is super strong, great quality metal, but it's so thick it's hard to get under a bottle cap. You can stop worrying, I've still been able to get it to open beers, it just has to be worked around the cap a little bit. I had the Skeletool cx too, another awesome tool, and it almost pops the caps off by itself with its excellent design carabiner/opener. Not so with the Charge, but frankly, I don't need to open beers any faster, and the Charge has many more useful tools than the Skeletool.There is nothing fancy about how the Charge opens up, it doesn't easily flip open or anything, but the knives are available to open with one hand when the tool is closed, so unless you want to show off your pliers-deploying prowess, that really doesn't matter.The pliers are small and not very comfortable if you really have to squeeze down, but that's the trade off for having a small tool. Since I mainly use the pliers for the wire cutters, which are good, it's another con that rarely causes a problem for me. I've cut hundreds of steel guitar and bass strings with them.I am a Leatherman fan, I also own abig old super tool from the 80s or 90s, and a tiny Skeletool as I mentioned before. The Charge is a perfect balance of utility and convenience, and I do mean perfect. There is little the supertool can do that the Charge can't- in fact, the Charge is honestly better for my needs. And it's truly every day carry sized, not too bulky, and comes with a pocket clip.The worst part about losing my Charge is, I've shopped around and there is nothing better, so instead of buying something new and exciting, I have to spend a decent chunk of change to get the same old thing. No fun, but definitely worth it. I'm bummed that I lost my Charge, hopefully the old one turns up so I have a backup.

This tool is an awesome add on to my ATV tool kit. It has many first aid features that would be real handy in a critical situation..