Leatherman Wave tough opening

Y

yavol

Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
35
Hi all

I've got a new Leatherman wave that is a pain to open up. All 4 joints are very stiff and getting to any of the tools or opening up the plyers takes a lot of force. I'd consider being able to flip it open or get to any of the tools easily with one hand a huge plus in usability.

Got any suggestions, materials, methods that would fix the stiff action?

Thanks in advance!
 
Try a drop of oil at the joints and just work it a little.Other than that.i believe that tool is suppose to be tight and not really made as a one hander.
 
I can open the blade my LM wave one-handed. Can't flick it open. Won't ever be able to flick it open. Not part of the design parameters. And after a number of years of use, it still takes two hands to get the screwdriver bits out. I don't find that objectionable for a pocket tool set.

It ain't how fast you get the tool on the job. It's knowing which screw to turn to fix the problem!
 
The joints will eventually loosen up a lot. To get it going, just like people have said, oil the pivots a little bit, and then work it open and closed while you're preoccupied doing something else; like reading the forums here or watching tv.

Gradually you will be able to flip open the tool. It took about 3 weeks for my Charge to be able to flip open. It won't be like a butterfly knife, like some of LM's older designs, but it will open one-handed most of the way, and then you'll use your thumb to open it the last inch or so. It will also close one-handed.

Time and a little bit of oil is all you need.
 
Agreed. I have had my Wave now for 3 months. I can open it like a butterfly knife, but being able to do that is not the point. You can easily flip it open with one hand, get the job and recommend closing with 2 hands. If you try to close it with one hand, you may pinch your fingers between the handles. My pliers are well broken in now, which I wasnt, but you don't wanna sit there and flick it around like a butterfly knife like some people do, because I would think this will increase the wear on the tool itself.
 
Strange.

It needs to wear in and to speed up the wear in, use denatured alcohol to remove the lube from the pertinent joints and cycle, cycle, cycle.

It'll loosen up and then lube the joints.

Don't expect miracles, though. My old-style WAVE will never bali like my SOG (thank goodness).
 
Sometimes the knife blades will get tighter as you open the multitool because the handles pivot on the same screws as the knife blades do, causing the tightening of those screws. If that happens you could try oiling it if it helps but if not you'll probably have to get it serviced by leatherman or take it back to the store you bought it from.
 
You can also buy a cheap set of torx drivers for the "tamper-resistant" joint screws on that auction site and loosen them up just a tad. My Leatherman would not loosen no matter how many times it was opened and closed or lubed.
 
Yup, you can get the 6-lobe security Torx bits at most hardware stores. Size for the pivots should be T10.

You can even now easily get the 5-lobe Torx TX bits from eBay. As little as a few years ago these were almost impossible to get without have a good reason.
 
My wave took about 6 months to really break in where all of the joints moved freely. Never really to the point of one handed operation, but I don't think it's a tool that's meant for that.
 
The outside blades on my new (3 days old) Wave+ were really hard to open. One hand deployment was impossible because of stiffness and sharp edges on the deploy slots.

I can confirm that the tamper proof torx is the quick fix for this. It's a TT10 for the Wave+
but make sure to get 2 because the back side needs to be held in place for the side you're trying to loosen (or tighten) to be able to move.
One torx will just spin both sides of the bolt.

So, about 1/16th of a turn loosened them up to where it's very comfortable and easy to one had deploy the 2 blades.
Of course the saw and the file are much easier now also.
It will swirl open now also to get to the pliers, but of course I still have to lock the handles into place with a grab.
Loosening a bit with the torx is a **major** improvement for me.

A side note:
I spent an hour or so cleaning up all of the sharp edges where there shouldn't be sharp edges.
Edges of the deploy slots especially the one on the bottom, some edges of the frame, back of the saw blade, upper part of the file on the sides where the file meets the non file part
and it's finely finished now. It had very poor final finishing right out of the box in my opinion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top