Gerber 31-01134 Dime Mini Multi Tool - Black

Product Information

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. Leatherman has become shorthand for “multi-tool” for a good reason. The company's build quality is fantastic. Tools can be flipped out and retracted forcefully but smoothly, and the finishing on each mini-tool is excellent. Leatherman has many options to choose from, but the Wave Plus is easily my favorite. It has two stainless steel knives, one with a straight edge and the other serrated. The latter is good for cutting fibrous material such as rope. The 420HC steel employed has a high carbon content, so the edges won't stay sharp for long, but it's easy to sharpen 'em up again. There are 16 other tools, including a wood-and-metal file, a diamond-coated file, a saw, Phillips screwdriver bits, scissors, an 8-inch ruler, and a wire stripper, as well as a bottle and can opener.

That being said, it’s still a useful little tool to have. It feels cheap because it is cheap, coming in at a tiny fraction of the price of a full size multi tool. It’s not going to be the only tool you need, but it is going to be the only tool you always have on you. Both of these multi-tools can be handy in other ways too. I’ve used each to help disassemble larger items and perform various tasks around the house. They’ve also come in handy at work, turning the occasional bolt or screw. For superficial tasks, the Gerber and the Leatherman perform almost identically. What’s Different As you can see from the picture below, Gerber added a lot of versatility in the jaws with flat and curved sections to grab almost anything. Pliers are an obvious necessity for a Gerber, and these itty bitty pliers actually do have quite a bit of utility. The point of the pliers meet up with a slight separation closer to the wide section intended for grabbing nuts, bolts, and other wide objects. There are also a pair of wire cutters built directly into the pliers, as found on most pliers nowadays.In this article, I compare two of the very best, the Gerber Dime Multi-tool vs. the Leatherman Squirt PS4 Multi-tool.

A. No, though many features are shared with a larger multitool, the Dime is meant for smaller jobs and menial tasks, not the heavy-duty usage of a full-sized multitool. I would say that they occupy separate levels of size and utility. Got questions, comment below & talk with T&P’s editors!

The one breakage it has experienced is when I had some trouble getting to a bolt head with a proper tool, and tried to use the needle-nose pliers to hold the head still, which twisted the tips of the pliers out of alignment. They still didn’t break, but they don’t line up anymore, which hasn’t stopped them from being used, nor whether it closes properly. To be honest, I came into this test expecting to hate the Dime Travel. I’ve previously tested a standard model, and it was one of the worst multi-tools I’ve ever owned. What tools can you expect to find on a standard multitool? The list can vary widely, but it should include a screwdriver (with a Phillips and flat-head driver, at least), pliers, scissors and possibly a knife or two. Most will also have a bottle opener or something you can use as one. It’s a good bet that this tool is the one that will see the most actual use among weekend warriors.

For what it is, and especially for what you pay for it, it provides one of the better sets of tools on the market. The Leatherman has no such issue. I was able to cleanly snip several pieces of wire without difficulty. 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.

Any attempt to snip metal will cause the jaws to deform, forcing you to use the wire itself to pry open the jaws. This wasn’t a close call for me — the Style PS is a better tool on every front. But things may not be as cut and dry as they appear. The Winner: Leatherman Style PS The weight and size of the tool as a whole is also a huge plus. This thing is tiny, weighs nearly nothing, and provides a ton of function to my every-day-carry. Construction is incredibly well done, without much excess. 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 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.

It’s important to understand when reviewing these tools that we were grading on a curve. It’s a given that the tools on the Dime aren’t as capable as those on full sized multi tools. What we’re looking for is how they hold up and function for everyday tasks. Pliers and Wire Cutters There are a ton of other multi-tools out there, and brands like Leatherman and Victorinox have models upon models that make it confusing to figure out exactly what to get. Here are some others I like.The Leatherman has a flip-out opener on the screwdriver which is thin and gets the job done… but not that well. The Dime uses torx bolts in it’s assembly while the PS4 is riveted. Being able to disassemble, clean, and repair your tools is always a good feature in our book. This one is very close, with the biggest determinant being which one you like the appearance of more. Dime Vs Leatherman Micra