Leatherman - Girly-Girl Purple - Need Input

The tool doesn't have a "stop" pin or detente to make it "even" with the scale when used as an opener.

It does work, it just seemed a bit weird that the handle would continue going about another 15-20 degrees before the blade would bite into the top metal of the can.
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I don't think your XE6 is right. On mine, the canopener works perfectly. There is a kind of short backspring that it butts up against when it's open, and there's no play using it whether the multitool's handles are open or closed.

BTW, even you are living a bachelor life right now, a regular hand cranked can opener like a swing away would be more convenient, IMO.
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Yeah, but using a SAK canopener always used to make me feel self-reliant. :) I came across a great hand cranked opener and decided to get it for my mother and ended up getting myself one, too.
 
Whew! As long as it works and is sturdy thats fine. I'm this close to ordering the xe6. To me it its the most SAK like multitool i've seen, even though its a leatherman!
I do love Vics though and love the design of the Swisstool and will probably buy a swisstool x later in the year as well.
Yeah i have a couple of regular canopeners for the kitchen but i almost always have a SAK or multitool on me so i usually end up using the SAK/multitool. Any excuse to use a knife! lol.
 
Thats weird i had to try to post that twice before it worked. I got a weird "error in post message" then the page locked up on me. I had to reload the page and start from scratch. After almost 400 posts thats the first time thats happened!
 
When I got the XE6 there was one characteristic I did not like, and that's the weight. It is overbuilt, extremely solid, with inset metal that I'm not sure is needed for the level of work so small a tool will do, and adds a lot to the weight that could be saved by some skeletonization.

Not a deal-breaker! But I still don't understand why they opted for this much mass, unless it was to provide a feeling of durability. I prefer the reality to the feeling.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
When I got the XE6 there was one characteristic I did not like, and that's the weight. It is overbuilt, extremely solid, with inset metal that I'm not sure is needed for the level of work so small a tool will do, and adds a lot to the weight that could be saved by some skeletonization.

Not a deal-breaker! But I still don't understand why they opted for this much mass, unless it was to provide a feeling of durability. I prefer the reality to the feeling.
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Yeah for its size it is kinda heavy. But the shorter length is part of the appeal
for me, roughly the same length as the 91mm saks. I actually carried my SOG paratool and Leatherman (old) Wave for a few years in total so i'm used to overly heavy multis. And the xe6 is still 3/4 the weight of my wave. I'll probably sheath carry most of the time anyway.

I'm just curious Esav but have you tried fitting your xe6 in the right coin pocket of a pair of jeans? I occasionally carried the wave there but it was a bit of a squeeze and was not that comfortable.

Yeah overbuilt and overweight seems to be an inherent design element in all mutitools. Even the titanium framed one aren't exactly light weight.

Right now i'm carrying a Vic Farmer and a Leatherman Micra and i find that covers most everything i need to do. I guess i'm really getting the new multi as a "tryout" alternative EDC just to keep things fresh! lol.
 
Kinda off topic but i just noticed from your posts Judy that you live in Nevada. A friend of mine is from there (Las Vegas actually) but shes working for the Nevada BLM and lives in Elko now. She has sent me quite a few pics of Nevada, thats quite a beautiful state you have there! As an atlantic Canadian i have always found desert country strangely fascinating. It certainly sounds nice right now, outside here its 34 degrees farenheit and raining!
lol.
 
m_calingo said:
I just used it to open up a can of tuna for lunch later today. The tool doesn't have a "stop" pin or detente to make it "even" with the scale when used as an opener.

It does work, it just seemed a bit weird that the handle would continue going about another 15-20 degrees before the blade would bite into the top metal of the can.

BTW, even you are living a bachelor life right now, a regular hand cranked can opener like a swing away would be more convenient, IMO.
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There is something wrong with your XE6. The same thing happened with my CS4. After abusing it in some way I can't quite remember, the Juice seemed okay, but something was sprung because the can/assist/bottle opener, which until then stopped where it should, now behaved as you describe. A trip back to Leatherman fixed it; fast service, no charge.

Don't expect too much, though. At best, it's a mediocre can opener, somewhat dull, necessary because it must double for a cap lifter which, if too sharp, will puncture caps. But it does work. I use mine a fair bit.

Buy a nice hand cranked can opener. You will be so much happier.
 
tholiver said:
Kinda off topic but i just noticed from your posts Judy that you live in Nevada.
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Actually, I live in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. I'm about 1-1/2 hours from the California/Nevada Border. Desert all the way. It is lovely.
 
Totally Judy said:
Actually, I live in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. I'm about 1-1/2 hours from the California/Nevada Border. Desert all the way. It is lovely.
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Ok. Anyway wow yeah i've read about the Mojave, thats about as opposite to the climate here as you can get. It rains a LOT here, we can go weeks without sunshine. Our winters are relatively mild, warmer than the midwest but much longer in duration.We occassionally get snow even into may!
Summer doesn't realy start till june (sometimes not til july) but often lingers well into September, occassionally in october. It never gets too hot here peaking out into the 70s/80s Farenheit in July and August.
Lots of rolling hills cliffs and rugged shorelines here. and I guess you don't see too many whales and icebergs in the Mojave! lol.
 
Totally Judy said:
Actually, I live in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. I'm about 1-1/2 hours from the California/Nevada Border. Desert all the way. It is lovely.
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Years ago, while in the army, I was stationed in the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin, California. After getting used to the climate (very hot, not far from Death Valley), I grew to love the desert. Now I'm in the midwest. It's nice here, too. Home is where the heart is :) .
 
I live in the "High" Desert, as opposed to the "Low" Desert were Palm Springs is. The temps in the High Desert are usually about -10 degrees from the Low Desert.

Winters can get freezing - down to the "0" degrees. Usually stays in the 20's in the night. Daytime in winter is around 30-40. When the friggin' winds are blowing it is not fun. The past week we had winds up around 45 mph. We've had them up around 65 mph in the past. Those freezing high winds just suck when you have to go outside.

Spring is nice, but it is still very windy. Spring is pretty late to arrive here this year. Not even any wildflowers yet. But then we haven't had any good rains to soak the seeds, either.

It starts getting H-O-T in June or July, depending. August usually sucks, with average temps around 110-115. Nights cool down to 60 or 70, if we're lucky. Because we have the infamous "DRY HEAT" - evaporative coolers work really well, so there is not a big hit on the electric bill. I use a bleed-off valve on my evap cooler and run a hose to the trees so that I can water the trees and cut down on the mineral deposit build-up in the water lines. We have hard water where I am and it doesn't take long to build up a white crust of minerals.

There is usually a week or longer, typically in August, when it becomes extremely humid. Miserably humid. Most folks have a wall A/C unit they can turn on during those extremely humid days. The evap coolers just add insult to injury by adding more moisture to an already wet atmosphere.

I'm not gonna say that there aren't days when it is too damn hot. There are. The heat just wilts you. But luckily those hot, hot summer days only last for a few months out of the year. It's not a bad trade-off.

The Desert is beautiful. Yeah, green is nice, but I have grown accustomed to my brown shades of earth. I don't know that I would want to live anywhere else.
 
I ordered a Juice XE6 in purple yesterday. Hoping it gets here by Friday, because it's going to my mother. It felt a bit odd planning on getting my mother a knife (weapon) for mother's day, but I figure she'll have fun realizing all the uses she has for it. She always complained that I stole all her screwdrivers, pliers, hammers, etc, in the kitchen drawer at home, so I plan on telling her to keep the XE6 in her purse, and not to let anyone borrow it. Then she'll always have a screwdriver and pliers on her at all times.

I debated about whether to get her the Wave, but we live in Vikings country, and I hope the purple color on the XE6 comes close enough to associate with our team. The other reason it beat out some more expensive models for mom is it's corkscrew. She'll find plenty of times in her retirement years, maybe even this summer, to get that thing out.

So yeah, it's the right color for her, and it has a corkscrew. She can't open a jar by herself, so I don't have much fear of her twisting the pliers on this.

I bet all her friends will have one after christmas this year.

I hope she doesn't take it like: "OK you have your own tools now. Stop asking me to fix stuff."
 
BabaOriley said:
I ordered a Juice XE6 in purple yesterday. Hoping it gets here by Friday, because it's going to my mother. It felt a bit odd planning on getting my mother a knife (weapon) for mother's day, but I figure she'll have fun realizing all the uses she has for it.

I hope she doesn't take it like: "OK you have your own tools now. Stop asking me to fix stuff."
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Don't think of it as getting your mother a weapon. I think you have the right idea is referring to it as "tools." And you might tell your mom that if people start saying that she is carrying a "weapon" that she should correct them and tell them that it is NOT a weapon, it is a multi-tool. Heck, anything can be used as a weapon, even your thumb.

I work for a school district and on the lanyard I occasionally wear around my neck with the site master key, I keep a Ladybug for opening stuff. Originally the other employees would tell me I was wearing a weapon. I would correct them and inform them that the Ladybug was a "tool" not a weapon. No one even notices it anymore.

I'm sure you will have no problem reassuring your mom that you will still be available to be her handyman!

What a great gift.
 
My teaches at an elem/middle school too.

Story for ya:
A couple years ago, there was an English teacher at this school, 2 months from retirement. She was doing a speech project with a class, and a kid wanted to give a speech/demonstration on cleaning a gun. He comes to school with a shotgun slug barrel sticking out of his backpack. Keep in mind, the barrel was all he brought.

The kid's demonstration went fine. Later in the day, someone heard about it. The school was evacuated, locked down, everybody went crazy.

The teacher in question was not even there that day. She was suspended 2 days without pay, along with the sub I think. The kid was sent home for a week I think. The union fought it and got her pay back for her. Was scary for her though, being so close to retirement and having a mark like that on her record. It worked out OK.

SAME WEEK, SAME SCHOOL.
A teacher/kid both get suspended for paper mache' mask project gone WAY WRONG. The kid embedded spent shotgun shells in his mask. Oooooooh... How threatening! lol

My mother would probably be fired on the spot if something with a knife (2 knives!) in it fell out of her purse. It's ridiculous.
 
Hey Judy!
As long as it's got a decent corkscrew, and I bring the wine, I don't see how you could go wrong:D ;)

Eric
 
ea42 said:
Hey Judy!
As long as it's got a decent corkscrew, and I bring the wine, I don't see how you could go wrong:D ;)

Eric
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Hm-m-m-m-m.... a decent corkscrew, a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine..... and THOU!!!!

Yep, I can't go wrong, Eric. ;) :p
 
The juice is great, but if you want purple, you can only get the XE6 which is the big one. But, for a purse carry, you probably should get a Squirt instead. The P4 has pliers and the S4 has scissors in the middle. Plus they have screwdrivers, etc. and a nice tweezers, file, etc.

If you want a Gerber, they have the Short Cut which is similar to the Squirt except just a little bigger, but still not too big to carry in a purse. I think it's called the short cut cuz that's how they designed it. It looks like they just copied the LM Squirt and scaled it up a bit.

If you want a Swiss Tool, the smaller pocket ones are awesome and there are tons of them to choose from.

Good luck.
 
Well the tools went over really well. I got one for my mother and one for my aunt, both engraved with their name and "Mother's Day 2007". They both really thought it was a great gift, but I talked to my aunt last weekend and she said she keeps it in her car, as it's too heavy for her purse. Her purse weighs about 15 pounds. I was surprised she thought it would be too much to carry. I told her she'll probably be out with friends and need it for something, and realize she could have fixed something if it wasn't back at her car. I wonder how long before that happens?

I think it'll take my mother a while before she starts realizing she has it with her.

I haven't seen any full reviews of yours yet Judy. Any stories of usage scenarios for you?
 
BabaOriley said:
I haven't seen any full reviews of yours yet Judy. Any stories of usage scenarios for you?
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No stories yet. Haven't been anywhere away from home where I have needed to use it. I have a small tool bag that I have handy in the kitchen with the basics in it, and then larger tool boxes around somewhere.

At work, since I have my maintenance guys about 40 feet away from me, I usually walk down and borrow something if I need it. But that would be something more than what is on my Juice. I already keep various sizes of screwdrivers in my top desk drawer on in the pencil cup on my desk.

So the Juice is still hanging out in my purse. Trust me, it will get used. As soon a something comes up where I use it, I'll report back here straightaway! I am still trying to locate all the tools and how to pull them open. I'll get it all figured out pretty soon.

Judy
 
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