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?

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.

It has been too long since we did anything, and so we decided today to get out and enjoy the fresh snow. We ended up hiking the Sugarbush Trail in Gantineau Park, a huge woodland park not far from where we live. It wasn't a long trail, so we ended up doing a couple of loops for the fun of it. I had some trepidation from the get go because of a very serious health concern.

It seems to be generally agreed that Leatherman's offerings from SHOT this year are somewhat lacking given the recent excitement of Gerber's Center-Drive and SOG's entire new multitool lineup.  Their response is basically simplified versions of what they have been producing for years.