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Leatherman Blast Review
Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.
The Leatherman Blast: Regular Pliers
Perhaps the most common use for the "regular" pliers, or rather, the open, curved part of the pliers with the prominent grips, is to turn nuts.One potential application of the pliers for the outdoor hobbyist might be to adjust some crampons, especially if you stupidly went and lost the spanner that came with them:
They do work rather well. We first tried tightening the nut up fully with the spanner that came with the crampons. Then we tried tightening the nut a little bit further using the pliers of the Blast. This we were able to do. We are not suggesting that is a good thing to over-tighten nuts; however this test did show that the pliers do make an effective adjustable spanner.
Care is needed when using them for this purpose, however. If you don't squeeze the pliers tightly enough, and they slip, you can easily damage the exterior of the nut:
Do that regularly and soon it will be impossible to turn the nut. To be fair, even the spanner that came with the crampons has started to wear away at the nuts, which shows that either the metal used for the nuts is softer than is ideal, or that the spanner that came with the crampons is not ideal.
So the pliers do serve as an effective adjustable spanner, but for best results you need to (1) First place the pliers round the nut with light pressure, then wiggle them a bit until they are seated solidly around the nut, then (2) Put a lot more effort into squeezing the pliers tightly than you do into rotating the nut.
Just for fun, we also tried unscrewing a large screw that was screwed into a wall via a plastic wall plug. Instead of using the #2 Phillips screwdriver, which would have been sensible given that it was a screw that accepted a #2 Phillips screwdriver, we used the pliers to grip the screw's head. In spite of the screw being rather stiff to turn even with a normal screwdriver, the pliers were able to unscrew it; so the grip really is rather good.
Summary: Well done!
Page 12 of 18 Previous Next [Top of Page]
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Overview: Vital Statistics; The Metal; The Plastic; Quality of Construction
Page 3: Overview: Usage
Page 4: Rulers
Page 5: Wood/Metal File
Page 6: Small Bit Driver
Page 7: Screwdrivers
Page 8: Bottle Opener
Page 9: Wire Stripper
Page 10: Can Opener
Page 11: Needlenose Pliers
Page 12: Regular Pliers
Page 13: Wire Cutters
Page 14: Hard-Wire Cutters
Page 15: Saw
Page 16: Scissors
Page 17: Knife
Page 18: Conclusion
Page 2: Overview: Vital Statistics; The Metal; The Plastic; Quality of Construction
Page 3: Overview: Usage
Page 4: Rulers
Page 5: Wood/Metal File
Page 6: Small Bit Driver
Page 7: Screwdrivers
Page 8: Bottle Opener
Page 9: Wire Stripper
Page 10: Can Opener
Page 11: Needlenose Pliers
Page 12: Regular Pliers
Page 13: Wire Cutters
Page 14: Hard-Wire Cutters
Page 15: Saw
Page 16: Scissors
Page 17: Knife
Page 18: Conclusion
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