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Gerber has kind of a soft spot in me even though I don’t own a lot, I own more Victorinox than anything else. But what got me started was a Gerber Multi-Lite; then later on I graduated to a Compact Sport 400. I was content with the 400, the one hand opening was cool and the tool suited my needs. Then one day I go into the hardware store and I was introduced to the new breed of Gerber tools, the Gerber Legend. The Legend and it’s brother the Urban Legend set a benchmark in Gerber’s life where they wanted to try something different and play with ergonomics as well. I saved up and paid more than I care to admit on that tool and I thought it was the hottest thing out there (this is before I found out about the LM Wave).
Have you guys seen the Suspension multi tool that Gerber is selling? I’ve noticed them for sale at a few of the big discount stores around town, like Wal-Mart and Target. The open-frame construction of the handles is the first thing that caught my eye. The lattice-work look really makes the tool stand out from the others hanging on the rack next to it.
If you are a multitool collector, or one who appreciates the engineering that goes into these products, and a person who delights in the new and seemingly endless ways that these clever engineers can make a set of blades and drivers fold up into a pair of pliers, then you will like the new Gerber Radius Multi-Plier. If you are anyone else, then I suspect you will consider the Radius to be somewhat of a joke.
Updating Gerber's unique out-the-front sliding pliers to a button-activated spring-loaded mechanism, the Auto Recoil has no peers in the multi-tool world. Being that there are no others to directly compare it against it is so easy to label it as a "gimmick" and move on to other, more mainstream tools. What we are here to determine today is whether this tool has redeeming characteristics or if it is merely a "gadget" for the uninitiated to purchase on impulse, play with for a few days and ultimately spend it's life in the junk drawer or the bottom of a landfill.
What kind of people would write collect and review multitools? Quite simple really- we are designers and do-ers, outdoors types and indoor types, mechanics, doctors, problem solvers and problem makers. As such, we have, as a world spanning community, put every type, size and version of multitool, multifunction knife, pocket knife and all related products to every test we could manage in as many places and environments as there are.