Does it have to be a Leatherman? I have a SOG POWERLOCK, bought from America (
www.knifecenter.com), it is American made, it is far more useful and practical than any Leatherman. I own a Leatherman Wave, a Gerber (800 but I have owned a Legend too), a Kershaw multi-tool, as well as a few cheapies that get left in the car, and the SOG is far and away the best tool of the lot. I have handled many Leatherman tools and haven't seen one yet that compares with the SOG Powerlock.
It has tools that all lock, it is dismantlable for cleaning with common tools (unlike the Leatherman tools), you can attach 1/4 inch square drive sockets and tools straight to it, fit 1/4 inch hexagon screwdriver bits to it (with an adaptor that you can buy at any tool shop), it flips open single handed... Build quality is excellent, and the knife blade holds its edge too. Finally it has got compound leverage which means that the pliers have a very tight grip (without the handles making your hands ache), means that you can cut thicker wires than other tools will, and the handles don't pinch your hands so much either. You can buy individual tools direct from SOG if you should abuse or break any (or want to carry a spare knifeblade or file for instance) , although it has a lifetime guarantee for workmanship and quality. The scissors on the SOG are a superb bit of engineering, they are almost as big as the Wave's scissors but I would say a bit more robust. There's a really neat cam arrangement that eases the tension on the spring as you put the scissors back into the handle. I never liked the way that on Swiss Army Knives the spring is constantly under tension.
The folding action of the handles means that the screwdriver tools can be deployed in a variety of ways which means that if you need to apply more torque, you can keep the handles in an 'L' shape for more grip, or if working in a narrow or confined space you don't need to keep the handles together if it helps.
Like I say, I own various multi-tools and the SOG is the one which I take pretty much everywhere, the Gerber gets used for dirty jobs and taken places where losing it is a possibility, the Wave and the Kershaw stay inside the house. The SOG is far and away the most practical, most useable and most useful multi-tool of all the tools I have ever owned. The only thing it lacks is an easily-replaced saw-blade like the gerber tools have, but apart from that it is difficult to fault.
If you are buying a multi-tool you should not automatically think 'Leatherman' and exclude the others... I would choose my SOG Powerlock over any of the other tools that I have ever seen.
