Gerber 31-000021 Lightweight Vise Outdoor Multifunctional Tool available in Black - One Size

Product Information

The lanyard ring is of much greater importance on micro multi tools than full sized ones. The one on the Dime unfortunately doesn’t seem to take this into account. It’s a tiny little ring with a small keyring on it. It makes it very easy to connect to your keychain but also breaks when just a little force is applied to it, leaving you with a keychain multi tool that won’t stay on your keychain anymore. Secondly, although not a huge one, the blades are not sharp! Not a big one as sharpening will take just a few minutes but still.....! The Gerber Dime is no one’s choice for best multi tool. It’s too small to be really useful for most tasks and too fragile to be put through serious use. Despite that, we like this little tool. It was never meant to compete with full size tools in either durability or usefulness. It’s small enough to comfortably fit on your keychain and light enough to always be with you. Because of its small size the Gerber Dime doesn’t really have the traditional accessories a larger multi tool would have available. The only real choices available for it are the color and finish options.

The Style PS is Leatherman’s TSA compliant multi tool. It has no blade and a much more basic tool loadout than the Dime, consisting of just pliers, tweezers, a pair of scissors, and a combination file cross driver. It also shares many of the same fail points as the Dime. In our previous review of the Style PS we were very impressed with its overall construction. The scissors on the Dime are small but effective. They cut through paper reasonably well but aren’t quite as useful as those on some other multi tools of similar sizes. There have been reports of the scissor spring arm breaking frequently with regular and even light use but we can’t really hold this against the Dime. Most micro multi tools share this problem, with all manufacturers doing a pretty good job honoring warranty repairs.Blade - 440A high carbon stainless steel (offering superior blade retention and corrosion resistance) The Gerber Dime is for anyone who wants to make sure they always have at least some tools with them. It gives you a tool at hand to turn a small screw or get a better grip on something. It isn’t going to give you a tool boxes worth of value but it’s not priced at that level. The Style PS just feels slightly nicer than the Dime. The metal is smoother and the tools work just a bit better. If you travel frequently or pass into secured areas we recommend you go with the Style PS. This is true even compared to the Dime Travel. Dime Vs Bear Grylls Compact

The Micra has been around for a while and is extremely popular. It has a good reputation for quality and maintains it by keeping things simple. The scissors in the Micra work better at this size than the pliers on the Dime do, but many people prefer pliers to scissors even so. The Dime Travel, Gerber’s TSA compliant version of the Dime, replaces the knife blade with a blunt tip file. Scissors and TweezersThe Vise is a redesigned version of Gerber’s older Clutch micro multi tool. It replaces the scissors on the Dime with a second serrated knife blade but otherwise has similar tools. To be honest though, the Vise feels generally cheaper than the Dime. The pliers especially don’t feel sturdy, with numerous user reports of fatal failure. Thirdly and this is a little more important, the pliers, whilst nicely sprung, have a little play laterally - meaning that it's possible to close the jaws and the tips not line up perfectly each time! This is not overly concerning but it might mean that if there is play from new it might get worse over time! If I were to take a deep dive into it there are a few points I have noted about it, first point being the finish! I have noted whilst handling it that all the exposed edges are quite sharp, there's been no finishing before the anodising process. The Gerber Dime doesn’t have a traditional multi tool bottle/can opener combo tool. Instead the body of the tool itself is shaped into a larger bottle opener that works quite well for its intended purpose.