In an early morning announcement on Instagram, company founder Mick Strider states that after 25 years, Strider Knives is closing it's doors.

Ever have a secret that you want to tell but you can't? It gets a lot worse when it's a case of you can't tell yet. I have- in fact, I have been really resisting the urge to go public with something that we have been working on for a while, but it's finally time!

This is it, the Grande Finale! Buckle up boys and girls!

The ending may surprise you somewhat, but it was absolutely, 100% as objective as I can personally get, and I stand by it.  But, enough rambling about it- let's get down to it and find out once and for all, which multitool is better!

And, if you haven't seen the first three parts to this shootout you may want to check them out before this one:

Part 1	Part 2	Part 3

To continue our epic battle between large sliding head plier tools from both Leatherman and Gerber, today we are looking closely at the blades.  Since both tools feature plain and serrated blades, we thought we would put them together and see how they stack up.  Since blades are among the most used functions on a multitool we thought it was only fitting to dedicate an entire battle to just them.

As we begin, both the Center-Drive and the One Hand Tool (OHT) are tied at six points after Leatherman's early lead in Part 1 and Gerber's almost total domination in Part 2.  Both tools are going to try to pull ahead today, as the final challenge is tomorrow, and time is running out!

Yesterday I brought you the first part of the epic battle between the Gerber Center-Drive and the Leatherman One Hand Tool.  When the smoke cleared from Round 1, Leatherman stepped out with three points, completely shutting out Gerber and their Center-Drive.  With that much of a lead right out of the gates, can Gerber come back?  The contest is far from over, so let's find out in Round 2. 

We all saw Gerber's marketing surrounding the release of the Center-Drive, and amongst the images of tattooed craftsmen re-imagining old world techniques and blending in modern technology, we saw the Center-Drive compared to both the Wave and the OHT. While Gerber's marketing may have been over the top, I don't think it was any worse than Leatherman showing soldiers carrying the OHT, despite the OHT never having been issues to troops anywhere, despite it having been designed specifically to try an usurp Gerber's hold on sliding head plier tool contracts with the military.

I guess what I am saying, is that when you cut out the marketer bullpoo and actually concentrate on the tools themselves, which one is better? Are they both hype, or are they both on the level? Or, one of each?

Earlier this week Leatherman Tool Group's legal department issued a Cease and Desist letter to the popular tool modification company Texas Tool Crafters regarding the use of Leatherman trademarks.  We do not know the exact content of the letter, however there are several issues being speculated on.

Like all the major manufacturers, Leatherman has an exceptional warranty- at least in the USA.  Recent issues in the Philippines has brought to light some concerns about Warranty Services outside of the US, and may be of interest to many of our international readers- and a warning to US readers as well, as it brings to light an interesting point that you may not have considered.

You often see those silly little folding shovels from Gerber and SOG, the generic cheapos in Army Surplus stores and eBay and you wonder just how good they are? I mean they are probably okay in sand and soft dirt, but really, what good are they when things get hard? And yes, I mean hard, not difficult. Specifically, I mean rock hard, packed down, super frozen ice. The kind that starts as water (duh) then freezes, then has a huge weight placed on top of it, is occasionally warmed up slightly and refrozen until it is as dense as it can possibly get. In Canada we call it simply "winter."

There are a lot of things in life that I don't like and I could easily fill volumes of books with my complaining about things in general and with alarming specificity. I really could, as evidenced by the fact that this website has completely grown from my ability to complain about things and tell the world what I like and, more often what I don't like.