Tools ยท Gear Review
The Best Multi-Tool. Chosen for where it will live.
For one full-size tool in the kitchen drawer, the vehicle, or on a work belt, our pick is the Leatherman Wave+. It does nearly everything the premium tools do, its wire cutters can be replaced, and it carries a 25-year warranty. If the tool needs to ride in a pocket every day, two lighter picks below will get carried more often.
Top pick price
About $110 to $130
Weight
8.5 oz
Readiness tier
Survive
At a glance: Leatherman Wave+
Strengths
- The two blades, the saw, and the file open from outside without unfolding the tool.
- The wire cutters are replaceable inserts, so the part that dulls first can be swapped.
- Most implements lock open, not just the main blade.
- Leatherman backs it with a 25-year limited warranty.
Limitations
- At 8.5 ounces it is heavy for loose pocket carry.
- The bit driver takes Leatherman's flat bits, not standard quarter-inch hex bits.
- Some owners report pivots and scissor springs loosening over years of use.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from manufacturer specifications, independent testing, and long-term owner reports. See our sources
The field
Five tools, five different jobs.
Each of these is the right answer for someone. The table sorts them by what matters most in a household: where the tool will live, what kind of screwdriver it has, and whether the blade locks. Specifications are from each maker. We did not bench-test these tools ourselves; the verdicts rest on manufacturer data, independent testing, and years of owner reports.
New to multi-tools? Our multi-tool handbook explains the formats and what the spec sheet leaves out.
| Tool | Best home for it | Weight | Main blade | Screwdriver | Locks | Typical price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leatherman Wave+ | Drawer, vehicle, work belt | 8.5 oz | 2.9 in, 420HC | Leatherman flat bits | Blades and most implements | About $110 to $130 |
| Leatherman Wingman | Pocket, glove box | 7 oz | 2.6 in, 420HC | Fixed tips | Main blade only | About $50 to $70 |
| Gerber Center-Drive | Work belt, toolbox | 9.5 oz | 3.25 in, 420HC | Standard 1/4 in hex, center axis | Blade and tools | About $100 to $160 |
| Leatherman Skeletool CX | Pocket, daily carry | 5 oz | 2.6 in, 154CM | Leatherman flat bits | Blade | About $90 to $110 |
| Victorinox Huntsman | Pocket, kitchen, picnic bag | 3.4 oz | Small folding blade | Fixed flat tips | None | About $35 to $55 |
Sources: Leatherman Wave+, Leatherman Wingman, Gerber Center-Drive, Leatherman Skeletool CX, and Victorinox Huntsman. Prices are typical ranges as of November 2, 2026, and change often.
Affiliate disclosure: New World Survival earns a small commission on qualifying Amazon purchases at no cost to you. This helps us cover operating costs and keep building new content. We only recommend gear we would put in our own kit. Commission never decides a recommendation.
Why the pick wins
Premium function at a working price.
Independent testers agree
OutdoorGearLab named the Wave+ its best multi-tool for most people after side-by-side testing, noting that it matches higher-priced tools in many areas at about half the price. Its testers reported tight pivots and reliable locks. (OutdoorGearLab)
Reach the blade with the tool closed
The plain and serrated blades, the saw, and the file all open from outside, so cutting a strap or a branch does not mean unfolding the pliers first. The 18 tools include needle-nose and regular pliers, spring-action scissors, and a can and bottle opener. (Leatherman)
Built to be kept
The plus in the name is the replaceable wire cutters, the part of any plier tool that dulls first. Leatherman sells replacement cutter kits and covers the tool with a 25-year limited warranty for material and workmanship defects. (Leatherman warranty)
The honest catch is weight. OutdoorGearLab measured it at 8.5 ounces and found it heavier than its testers wanted for loose pocket carry. That is why the Wave+ is our pick for a tool that lives somewhere, and the Wingman and Skeletool CX are our picks for a tool that travels with you.
The picks
One for the drawer, and four for everywhere else.
Best overall
Leatherman Wave+
An 18-tool, full-size plier tool with outside-accessible plain and serrated blades, a saw, a wood and metal file, spring-action scissors, needle-nose and regular pliers, replaceable wire and hard-wire cutters, a crimper, an 8-inch ruler, and a bit driver with a double-ended bit. Made in Portland, Oregon.
Choose it for the one tool a household keeps in a known place: the kitchen drawer, the vehicle compartment, the camping bin. Check whether the listing includes a sheath; OutdoorGearLab notes that recent versions often ship without one.
Specifications
Best value for daily carry
Leatherman Wingman
Fourteen tools at 7 ounces, with spring-action pliers that pop open on their own, outside-accessible scissors and a one-hand opening blade that locks, a package opener, a file, three screwdrivers, and a removable pocket clip. Same 25-year warranty as the Wave+. (Leatherman)
Choose it if you want a real plier tool that you will actually clip in a pocket, or a capable glove-box tool for about half the price of the Wave+. Its other implements do not lock, and its wire cutters are its weakest part.
Specifications
Best for screw work
Gerber Center-Drive
Its 3.2-inch magnetic bit driver swings out to sit on the center line of the handle, so you turn it like a real screwdriver instead of an offset lever, and it takes standard quarter-inch hex bits. It adds one-thumb opening spring-loaded pliers, rotatable carbide wire cutters, a 3.25-inch 420HC blade, a pry bar with a nail puller, an awl, and a file. Made in the USA. (Gerber)
Choose it if most of your multi-tool work is turning screws: furniture assembly, switch plates, appliance panels. At 9.5 ounces and 4.7 inches closed, it is a belt or toolbox tool, not a pocket tool. Our link is to the version with the 12-piece bit set.
Specifications
Lightest real pliers
Leatherman Skeletool CX
Seven tools at 5 ounces: a 154CM steel blade that holds an edge longer than the 420HC on most multi-tools, needle-nose and regular pliers, wire and hard-wire cutters, a bit driver with bit storage in the handle, a carabiner and bottle opener, and a pocket clip. (Leatherman)
Choose it if you want pliers in your pocket every day and will not carry anything heavier. It has no scissors, no saw, and no file, and its pliers are light duty, so use it for small jobs and leave the twisting and prying to bigger tools.
Specifications
Best knife-style tool
Victorinox Swiss Army Huntsman
The classic medium Swiss Army knife with 15 functions: large and small blades, scissors, a wood saw, a can opener and bottle opener, two flat screwdrivers, a reamer, a corkscrew, a hook, tweezers, and a toothpick, at about 3.4 ounces. Victorinox covers it with a lifetime warranty against defects. (Victorinox)
Choose it when cutting, opening, and trimming make up most of your list, and you want the lightest tool here. It has no pliers, and none of its blades lock, so close the blade before you push hard on anything.
Specifications
What owners actually say
Years of use, and what wears first.
These patterns come from owner discussions on Reddit, the Multitool.org and BladeForums communities, and retailer reviews, read November 2, 2026. A pattern means many independent owners said it.
Wave+: the one people keep reaching for
Long-term owners describe it as the tool they grab before going to find a dedicated one, and some report tight pivots after years of daily use. The recurring complaints are the weight, a scissor spring that tires over time, and on some units, plier handles or pivots that loosen. Owners in the enthusiast forums tighten the pivot screws themselves or send the tool in under warranty. A vocal group on the Leatherman subreddit says quality control has become less consistent in recent years.
Wingman: loved pliers, weak cutters
Owners consistently like the spring-loaded pliers and the outside scissors, and call it strong value for the price. The most common complaint, repeated across years of forum threads, is the wire cutter, which uses a butting design rather than the scissor-style cutters on the Wave+ and handles soft wire better than hard. Some owners also note side-to-side play in the pliers.
Center-Drive: a real screwdriver, a heavy tool
Owners who carry it on a work belt praise the center driver as the best screwdriver they have used on a multi-tool. The trade-off they name is bulk: several say it is too big for pocket carry. A few report a rattling plier spring out of the box, and the spare bits are easy to lose.
Skeletool CX and Huntsman: light, with limits
Skeletool owners love the weight and the blade. The two complaints that recur are no scissors and pliers that can snap when twisted sideways, a failure owners report sending in under the warranty. Huntsman owners praise the scissors, the saw, and the build quality, and the most common wish is for pliers.
The one thing to know
A multi-tool gets you started. It does not finish the hard jobs.
Every tool on this page is a smaller, folded version of a real tool. That is what makes it portable, and it is also where people get hurt: prying with the blade, leaning on the pliers like a wrench, or tapping with the handle like a hammer. OSHA identifies misuse and poor maintenance as the greatest hazards of hand tools, and its first rule is the right tool for the job. (OSHA)
Use the multi-tool for light work, and when a job starts to need force, go get the proper tool. Our hand tools handbook covers the basic set a household needs behind it.
How they fail, what they cost
Bought once. Kept with a few minutes a season.
Grit in the pivots
Lint and dirt stiffen pliers and blades long before anything breaks. Rinse, dry with every tool opened, and oil each pivot with an oil made for pocket tools. Victorinox advises against the dishwasher for any pocket tool. (Victorinox)
Dull cutters and blades
Wire cutters dull first. On the Wave+ they are replaceable inserts, and on the Center-Drive they rotate to a fresh edge. Blades need an occasional pass on a sharpener; Leatherman's warranty does not cover sharpening.
Loosening and springs
Pivots and scissor springs are the long-term wear points owners mention. A lock that no longer engages fully or jaws that no longer meet means the tool goes back under warranty, not back in your pocket.
What it costs
A one-time purchase of about $35 to $160 depending on the tool, plus a sheath if the listing does not include one, a small bottle of tool oil, and on the Wave+, a replacement cutter kit every few years if you cut a lot of wire.
What we didn't pick
Good tools, wrong fit for most households.
Leatherman Charge+ and ARC
Excellent tools that top several expert rankings, at roughly double the price of the Wave+. The extra money buys premium blade steel and lighter handle materials, not jobs the Wave+ cannot do. Worth it for enthusiasts; not needed for a household drawer.
Leatherman Surge
Larger and heavier than the Wave+, built for extended repair work. A good tradesperson's belt tool. For a household, the Center-Drive does the heavy screw work better and the Wave+ does everything else at less weight.
Unbranded 21-in-1 tools
Inexpensive look-alikes fill the multi-tool listings, often with no stated warranty. Some work fine for occasional use. You are taking the risk the maker declined to take, and our handbook explains why the tool count on the box means little.
Skip a bladed tool if you fly often
Every pick here has a knife blade. TSA prohibits multi-tools with knives of any length in carry-on bags. (TSA) Frequent flyers should look at blade-free keychain tools, which our handbook covers.
Skip it as your only toolkit
If the house has no basic tools yet, start with a hand tool set. A multi-tool is the bridge to the toolbox, not the toolbox. See our hand tool set picks.
Pair it with a light
The jobs that need a multi-tool in a vehicle tend to happen at night. Keep a small flashlight in the same compartment. Our emergency lighting handbook covers which kind.
Where it fits in your readiness
The tool that is there when the toolbox is not.
A multi-tool belongs in the Survive tier, in the places a household goes without its toolbox: the vehicle, the go-anywhere kit, and the drawer you reach for during an outage. It earns its place during power outages, earthquakes, and winter storms, when small repairs and openings happen in poor light and away from the garage.
Questions people ask
Before you add it to the cart.
Is the Leatherman Wave+ worth it?
For a household that wants one full-size tool for the kitchen drawer, the vehicle, or a work belt, yes. It does nearly everything more expensive multi-tools do, its wire cutters can be replaced, and it carries a 25-year limited warranty. If you want something to carry in a pocket every day, a lighter tool such as the Wingman or Skeletool CX will get carried more often.
Leatherman or Gerber, which is better?
Neither brand is better across the board. For a general household tool we pick the Leatherman Wave+. If most of your multi-tool work is driving screws, the Gerber Center-Drive is the better tool, because its driver sits on the center line like a real screwdriver and takes standard quarter-inch bits.
Can I use regular screwdriver bits in a Leatherman?
Not in the Wave+ bit driver directly. It uses Leatherman's own flat bits, which reviewers at OutdoorGearLab flag as the tool's main compromise. If you want standard quarter-inch hex bits from any hardware store, the Gerber Center-Drive takes them.
Can I take a multi-tool on a plane?
Every tool on this page has a knife blade, so pack it in your checked bag. TSA prohibits multi-tools with knives of any length in carry-on bags and asks that sharp objects in checked bags be sheathed or securely wrapped.