Leatherman has made so many tools by now they are becoming too numerous to count, but each generation they create seems to get better than the previous, after all isn’t that what product manufacturers strive to do? They take something that the public already loves and has widely accepted and remake that item so it’s even better than its predecessors. When Leatherman came out with the Wave it hit the mulitool market by storm and soon became the “flagship” item that was the crowning achievement for Leatherman, heck even wal-mart had it listed on their shelves as “best sold mulitool”. I owned an original Wave and thought it was defiantly a forward thinking in multitool design, it was the first tool to have one handed opening blades. Having those on the outside as well as a saw and file makes the tools even with the bottom of the tool; giving the user more surface area to work with. Well in 2004 Leatherman introduced a new version of their Wave based off the design of their new flagship tool the Charge, the Wave may not be sporting a 154CM blade or Titanium handles but it’s still a contender in its own right.

I recently picked up a Gerber Solstice that was on sale, and I have to say, it is kind of a neat little tool. It is what would result in the mating of a Leatherman Micra and a SwissTech MicroTech at first glance. My curiosity was piqued after seeing it in a recent article in Knives Illustrated magazine. (“The Key To Being Prepared” by Abe Elias, October 2006)

The Solstice (center) is a cross between the SwissTech (left) and the Micra (right)