9November 2021
– [Narrator] This review is all
about the Leatherman Crunch, the unique hand held vice grip. (upbeat music) Welcome back to the Gears N Tools channel, where we redo, do it yourself
projects and product reviews, just like this one. If you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button
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when I release new videos, today, we are reviewing
the Letterman Crunch and this is a multi-tool
that's been around since about 1999 or so I believe, I couldn't actually find
the exact date online, but it's been around a while,
but it's a very unique one. There's been some competitors that have tried to make something similar. I know Serge and Gerber both had kinda a power, vice grip type multi-tool, but none of them are still in production.
This is the only one that I'm aware of as far as vice grip multi-tools go that are still in production. So very unique tool and this is actually a
viewer requested video guys. And I encourage you if there's a knife or multi tool or an EDC carry type item that you're interested in
seeing a product review for, let me know in the comments below, I love doing viewer requested videos, cause I know it's something
that you guys want. And oftentimes I find out
about new and exciting products that I would've never
considered without your input. Okay, so we're going to go
ahead and unbox this multi-tool, and then we're gonna go
look at the size and weight, the outside tools, the vice grip pliers, the insight tools that offers and finally, we'll kinda
look at the takeaway price and what where this tool
fits in the whole multi-tool, you know, spectrum of things.
And if it's the right tool for you. So opening this thing up, we're gonna have to cut some
tape with a Leatherman wave and then just slide out kind of similar to some of their other packages. So get rid of that and there she is. So a nice compact looking multi-tool guys, pretty simple outside design, no fancy, you know, texturing, grip work, you know, G10 scales
or anything like that. And then you have a leather case that comes with the Leatherrman Crunch and that's okay with me cause
it has to use snap button.
My primary requirement for a
case or sheaves I should say is that there's a belt
loop and a snap button. I hate, she used to have Velcro. I find that they get
gunked up with things. They just don't feel as secure to me as a snap button sheave. So I like that this has
a kinda more traditional, leather style sheet and
that's it for the box. So let's go ahead and take
a closer look at this. Multi-tool before we get into the details, very clean looking tool, I'm
really liking this so far.
It's really light in hand too. It doesn't feel very heavy. The size and weight of this multi-tool is relatively compact. We have a length of 4.25 inches, a thickness of 0.525 inches and a width of 1.2 inches
at the widest point here where the plier head
sticks out from the body just below a bit, one quick note on the length of this tool, Leatherman has it listed
at four inches flat, which that's really just the frame length when you include this kind of screw knob. It is just under 4.25 inches long. So this multi-tool doesn't
have a lot to offer in terms of outside tools, but it does have one feature, I wanna show you real quick
before we move to the pliers.
So the thumbscrew just pulls right out. And if you look in the
bottom of this tool, it has a 3/4 inch drive hole for putting in a standard
drill bit like this one, pull that right out and it slips right in. So this isn't gonna be something I use personally very often, but I have found these
3/4 inch bit drivers be handy at times, if you're
working in confined spaces, you know, something like this drill may not fit underneath
shelving or in an enclosed area where a smaller tool
like this for quick jobs can work great. Okay, so
let's go ahead and take a look at the vice grip pliers that
this crunch has to offer that makes it so unique. Firstly, I just kinda wanna point out the way the st opens up is a bit different than like the Wave, which opens up just kinda like a butterfly knife, this particular multi-tool, it's kind of a little bit
more of an assembly process, not that hard, but I do wanna point out that there's been some criticism online that you can't assemble this multi-tool with the thumb screw,
screwed all the way in which you kinda need to do to make it fit into it's sheaf correctly, and that's not actually accurate.
You can assemble this without
having this unscrewed at all. So how that works is you, first separate the tool like that. And then you kinda push
on this lever here, just pull the plier or
a vice-grip heads out. And then what I do is I
just closed the vice-grip with my fingers, and then you can rotate the
second part of the handle and you'll see here, it has a receiver that
just clicks right on. And like you just saw, I did
it without unscrewing this.
So this is in the kinda tightest position. So the unscrew it just a little bit, you can kinda get into
this more neutral position where it'll a lock kind
of on itself, there. So there you have it, there's the Leatherman
Crunch fully assembled, not too hard. It's a little tricky the
first time you do it, but it's, once you kinda get
the mechanism figured out it's not bad at all. I will warn you when you're
assembling these pliers. And again, this is second handle here. This front handle, this pops
right off when you need it to, but since these pliers are spring loaded, it doesn't naturally want to fall off. So don't worry about that. But one caution is when you close it, I do find you have to kind
of squeeze pretty hard and it's easy to kind get
some bite on your finger.
Like I guess I already did it to myself, you can kinda see there, you can kinda get the mid of
your hand in between here. And then when it snaps shut, like I said, it's a little stiff, especially when it's new,
but it, when it snaps shut, it really snaps and it
can bite you pretty good. So just be careful with that. I already gave myself a little
finger bite, no big deal, but something to be aware of with this particular multi-tool. So again, I'm gonna
screw this in all the way or I'll show you how to open
it without unscrewing it, again we'll pull the vice grips out, close it manually through
fingers and then clicks right in. So that be a pretty clever design. I have to hand it to Leatherman on that for this intended purpose where you have a spring loaded vice grip, the assembly mechanism,
it's really clever. I mean, look how much bigger
this tool is fully assembled. It just fills up my whole hand basically. So they really did a good job, creating a vice grip tool in
a really small compact package that you can easily pocket
putting aside of your tool bag, something like that.
So let's take a closer
look at these vice grips. So in the nook here, we have
the wire, hard wire cutters, the standard wire cutters,
the standard kinda pliers. So you can kinda see in there, they got some pretty nice
aggressive teeth on it. And then in the very tip here, see if I can get a better shot for ya.
Kinda tricky on my camera here. The very tip here you have,
what's called a pin vice, and this is great for holding
really small, delicate things. So maybe you're doing some soldering work, your maintenance work
or something like that. You could take something like, this is actually the screwdriver
bit of a Leatherman Wave. And there, just like that. And this is really the
value of the crunch, is I don't need to use my hands to hold small things as I work on them or maybe I'm painting something or coating something in oil, or something like that.
I can just snap on here with a vice grips and it's got a real solid grip on that, it's not gonna slip out. It's not really designed to crush things like a bench vice or something like that. But if you just need a
firm grasp on something, while you're working on it, you may be, you're doing a little tack welding. Maybe you're greasing
it up, so it's slippery. Maybe you're painting
it, whatever it may be. That's where these vice
grips come in super handy. All right, now that we've
seen the vice grips, let's go ahead and take a
look at the insight tools, this multi-tool offers. So I'm just opening it up. It's nice that there's no plier
head or anything in the way of the inside tools.
You have easy access to them. 420HC steel knife, and again,
it's only 2.2 inches long, which is really kinda short guys, but it is a straight edge knife. And normally I like my
primary knife on a multi-tool, to be a fully plain edge, no serrations, but on a knife that's
only 2.2 inches long, I think Leatherman did the right thing, putting a fully straight
edge knife on here. It's gonna make a lot
easier to cut through things like rope, cardboard, tough
plastic, stuff like that. Having a shorter knife, you really need the serrations
to help bite in quickly. So you don't waste a
bunch of knife length.
Okay, so I went ahead and
fanned out the insight tools to save us a little bit of time. One minor criticism right off about here, is the finger nicks on the different tools are on different sides
of the inside tools. And it's not real strategic. I mean like this, this side has the finger nick on the file and then the medium screwdriver. And this side has a finger
nick on a small screwdriver, just kinda between the two. So I'm not really sure what the, you know, means behind
the madness on that was, but I'm a little goofy on the finger nick. It kinda feels like they just
recycled pre-designed tools, of some of the other
Leatherman such as the Rebar or the Wingman or something like that. So a little goofy, but whatever. Let's go ahead and look
at the actual tools. I'm not super enthused by this file. It's a little bit short, which
I understand for this tool.
They had to make some
room for the plier heads and stuff up here. So all the tools are a
little bit shorter here, including the knife that we saw earlier, but the kinda short file and additionally, one side
is a single cross cut, the others, you know, dual cross cut and there's no diamond coating. I think on a tool that's this expensive, a diamond coating on one side of the file would have been really nice, especially for a tool like this, where I kinda see it being used in the maintenance industry a lot.
Where are you gonna probably
be running into metal from time to time. So a diamond file would have been nice. You have a Lanyard loop
which is a nice touch If you don't need it
Tuckson out of the way, relatively thin, it
doesn't really take a tool or slaughter anything. You have the small
screwdriver, which is a pretty, sturdy, small screwdriver
comes down to a nice sharp tip, no complaints there. I'm starting to become a
fan of the solid shaft, Phillips-head screw drivers
on these multi tools because on the, ones I
have the removable bits, it's really easy to lose your bit. Like you see in this wave, there's no bit in there right now. So, I actually kinda like these, solid Phillips-head screwdriver
because you can't lose them, they're stuck to the tool. And then finally you have the
kinda medium head screwdriver, great for frying up pink, pink cans and stuff like that. So overall I think the insight
tools on the Crunch are okay, these are the only ones you get. In addition to that knife,
that's on the same side.
The other side of the handle
does not have any inside tool because it has to have
room for the thumbscrew, the operate, the mechanism correctly. So relatively limited on the inside tools, if you're gonna buy this, multi-tool, you really need to be buying it because you want those vice grips. Final category, which is price. And this is where things
get a little dicey for me on the Leatherman Crunch. I think it's a cool tool. It's a really cool tool
as far as cool factor and uniqueness, A plus in my book, I think the fit and
finish on it's top notch, just like you always come
to expect with Leatherman.
It feels nice in the hand, it feels solid. I think the execution of this
tool is great, but for $109, I just think it's too much money. I think you lose too much. As far as the insight tool capability, you don't have any tools on this handle because of the thumbscrew
that has to be in this tool because of what it is. You could pick something
up like the Leatherman Wave for less money, get the
outside accessible tools, have the diamond coating
on the things like the file and maybe pick up a smaller vice grip, throw it in your toolbox,
or if you use it frequently, your bag or pocket for 10 or $15. So I really like this tool guys. I'm just hesitant to recommend it because of how expensive it is. If you're a collector or something and you wanna have, you know, some of the more unique
tool that Leatherman offers, I'd say, go for it. I think most people, if they need a specialized
tool such as this, they're gonna keep it in their toolbox and then they'll keep their,
Leatherman Wave or Surge or something like that for
their everyday carry items.
Hey guys, thanks for
watching this video today. If you enjoyed this video,
hit that like button below. And remember this was a
viewer requested video. So if you have a multi-tool
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