Gerber 31-01134 Dime Mini Multi Tool - Black

Product Information

This isn’t intended to be your only multi tool. It’s meant to be the tool that you can bring with you no matter where you’re going. It’s small enough to fit on your keychain and light enough that you won’t even notice it’s there. Gerber offers the Dime in two versions and several different colors. Gerber Dime Tools For a better set of pliers, go for a bigger multi-tool. Victorinox SwissTool Spirit is an excellent option. The tweezers are very small but have enough strength to pull slivers, which is all I’ve used them for. Best Price: Gerber Dime Both tools fold open the same way, with the arms flipping out to reveal the spring-loaded pliers. Best Pliers: Gerber Dime The jaws have a flat and rounded section for grabbing anything. They both also have a small wire cutter at the bottom of the jaws which is strictly light-duty.

The Leatherman has no such issue. I was able to cleanly snip several pieces of wire without difficulty.Comparing the scissors is, as the expression goes, same song, different verse. The Dime’s can cut, but nowhere near as well as the Style’s.

Both tools function exactly the same, with the blade, file, scissors, and screwdrivers placed on the outside, giving you a solid handle and grip when you need to use them. 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. You don’t want to be the guy fumbling with his multi-tool before he can open a girl’s beer. Not cool. Best Blade: Gerber Dime 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.Some people also find an alternative model in the Gerver vise. This other model also includes 10 tools. It is very similar in essence.

Obviously, this isn`t designed for major DIY jobs or large cutting tasks, but I have other tools for those situations. There are Swiss Army knives (SAK) that come with small pliers, but pliers are only available on a few models with a large number of tools and layers. This makes them very bulky to carry and more cumbersome and inefficient to use. The Leatherman Micra was one of the earliest micro multi tools to hit the market, being released in 1996. It looks just like someone took Leatherman’s Super Tool and shrunk it down. The big difference between the Micra and the Dime is the substitution of scissors for pliers as the main tool. Other than that it has mostly the same tools in the same sizes.

Expert Reviews

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 similar features but is not as pronounced or useful. The Gerber Dime has ‘one upped’ them on the pliers. Best Scissors: Leatherman Squirt PS4 Multi-tool Updated September 2023: We've added the Leatherman Raptor Rescue, SOG Parashears, and Leatherman Style PS. We've also updated pricing and availability.

Now, the things that I did not like about the pliers. Even though the ergonomic handle coupled with the strong spring action makes you think that you can use it with some force to loosen stubborn nuts and bolts with, please do not. The pliers are not strong enough to handle that kind of abuse. A major shortcoming of the Leatherman is how difficult it is to get the blade and tools out. There’s very little space to get a fingernail into the groove to lift them up. 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.Keep it close by on you keychain as you never know when it might come in handy with its copious amounts of useful tools. The brilliantly thought out tool selection solves many problems that may occur during travel and day to day life. The most ingenious of which is the evolutionary zipper hook, which attaches to and make opening a broken luggage zipper super easy. As well as a set of needle nose stainless steel pliers and wire cutters that elegantly butterfly open, theres a set of spring-loaded scissors, medium and small flat drivers, tweezers, a bottle opener that is exposed even when the tool is closed, and a fine and coarse file.