Hey Chiral...
How do you like that "dime"? I'm interested in it as a lightweight MT option but I see very mixed reviews??
Mini-review:
I like it well enough. It's definitely a switch from a full size multitool, which i guess is obvious but is still very apparent when you start using a "minitool" - with the Charge, I don't worry about cranking on it or using it hard, whereas the dime (and any such tool of this size/style) starts to give, letting you know when it's time to switch to something bigger.
Mine came without any stiff/stuck tools, all open out easily and audibly slip-joint into place. If you do have any issues, it is torx construction - I haven't disassembled or needed to loosen anything, but it's a nice trait, I got rid of each Squirt I tried due to one or another tool being too hard to deploy and rivet-construction precludes DIY adjustments.
The cap-lifter gets used regularly, and it's right there, no need to deploy, works great
Also adds a little length to that handle for leveraging the pliers.
It has a reguler flat-head screw-driver that is fairly narrow, and also quite short of course, and it has the little flat-head driver that functions as a philips-driver just like your Victorinox can-openner's nose :thumbup:
One dumb thing is that there is a teeny-tiny (<1 cm) bit of "file" hatches on that driver, useful for nothing at all, can't even debur plastic with them
no matter.
The scissors work fine on paper and cotton thread/sting but that's about it, I did get them to cut the wire on a broken pair of ear-phones ('buds'?) with some difficulty.
The wire-cutters on the pliers themselves will work on slightly heavier-gauge wire (the ear-phone wire was too slender), but it needs to still be slim enough to fit the gap and soft enough to shear with minimal leverage.
The pliers themselves are great :thumbup: I really like the design with the little flats/platforms at the tip, perfect for tying suture/thread. The "teeth" grip nuts and bolts fairly well, no slipping, but again the nut/bolt needs to be small enough to fit the jaws and not so tight that this little tool cannot leverage it around. It works well for bending fence-wire. I
really like the spring-action on the pliers - simple and very reliable. And the slip-joint spring-action when deploying/closing the pliers is something i find VERY lacking on my Charge.
The Dime has two knives. The main blade is a clipped sheepsfoot with some belly and a saber-grind - IMHO this is better than the Squirt's pointy FFG blade, stiffer and stronger right up to the tip, works well for light carving (e.g. sharpening pencils) or wire stripping or slicing cardboard and such, easily sharpened to act as your 'exacto' blade. The other knife is their "package" ripper, and I actually find it very useful :thumbup: It's much too shallow for effective cutting of a variety of materials but works very well on thin packing tape or puncturing and cutting through the clam-shall plastic-packages for which it was designed.
Finally, there are metal tweezers hidden in the aluminum frame, something that we are all still waiting for Victorinox to implement on their Alox models :thumbup: They've been used on a number of occasions for removing splinters and ticks, stingers and thorns.
One important thing, the key-ring on the Dime is junk, very easily bent out of shape such that a couple of people I know lost theirs when the ring failed. I have mine on a string that flexes to reduce the amount of stress on the ring, but one could just replace that.
A metal Nite-Ize S-clip, length of cord, and this rides from a belt-loop into my back-pocket all-day every day and gets used a lot. If I lose it, i will absolutely buy another. I'll be honest, i am partial to USA-made products, but this tool has proven more reliable than the USA-made alternative that I tried.
I really wanted to prefer the Squirt, but this is what I'm sticking with. Again, NOT a full-size multitool, doesn't have anywhere near the versatility or capability, but what it can do it does fairly well.
