The Best Multi-Tool

After spending three weeks testing 18 multi-tools, the best was clearly the Leatherman Skeletool CX. It only has the most essential items, a minimalist approach that places it among the slimmest, lightest, and easiest to carry multi-tools. The externally mounted knife edge lasts longer than a standard Leatherman blade, and the other tools—screwdrivers, pliers, and a bottle opener built into a carabiner clip—are all quick, capable, and convenient. Its asymmetrical handle design creates a curved grip that feels comfortable as the pliers, knife, or screwdriver. The tool lasts for years and is backed by a 25-year warranty—good thing, too, since it isn’t cheap.

The Skeletool CX offers only the most essential tools and nothing else. Sculimbrene wrote in a multi-tool run down at GearJunkie that after seven years of carrying the Skeletool, “Never once did I wish it had more implements.” Our experience has been the same. In months of use, there hasn’t been a single time when the Skeletool wasn’t enough. In a review, Peter Colligan of Cedric & Ada says it “really is one of the best EDC things you can get.”

The slender Skeletool’s pliers are smaller than on most multi-tools, but they’re big enough to comfortably wrap a ½-inch bolt. For bigger bolts, we’d use adjustable pliers, locking pliers, or a wrench anyway. The handles unfold easily and are comfortable to grip for the kinds of small, quick projects that multi-tools do.

The knife’s 154CM steel is a premium blade steel that keeps an edge longer than the 420HC that Leatherman uses on other tools like the Wave+ and the regular Skeletool. Colligan, who has performed extensive blade steel edge retention testing, has a video directly comparing Leatherman’s two steels. In his test, he is able to make 150 cuts through thick twisted sisal rope with the 154CM blade before it stops being able to cut paper. With the same test, he gets only 60 cuts with the 420HC blade. In a review of the Skeletool CX, he says, “you really do notice the extra edge retention…it goes for a lot longer than my other Leatherman knives do.”

We like that the blade on the CX has a straight edge, not the partially serrated kind you see on the regular Skeletool. Serrations make a rougher cut and they’re much more difficult to sharpen. Sculimbrene writes at his site, “I do not like serrations. I don’t do enough rope cutting tasks to make the serrations worth the sharpening hassle they cause.” While researching for our pocket knife guide, Dan Policastro of BladeReviews, a prominent review site told us, “If you maintain your plain edge knife you will never miss having serrations.” In our own testing, we cut plenty of sisal baling twine and the plain-edge blades worked just as well as the serrated ones.

The blade deployment on the CX is among the best of any multi-tool. It doesn’t pop or flick out like a well-made pocket knife, but it’s easy for a thumb to gain purchase and open it one-handed with a nice even resistance. Most multi-tools require two hands, and even the one-handed designs aren’t as easy as the Skeletool CX (with one exception—the Leatherman Wave+).

The Skeletool’s screwdriver differs from most multi-tools. Instead of individual screwdrivers, the CX uses a bit holder at the end of one handle. It comes with two double-sided bits, one Philips and one flat. The bit you’re using locks in place with a small lever release, while the other stores in the handle under a slightly tensioned piece of the frame. We’re doubtful either one would fall out. If you need more selection, Leatherman sells complete bit sets compatible with the CX.

A carabiner in the other handle, along with a pocket clip, give multiple options for carrying the Skeletool CX: The carabiner can clip to a belt loop, as a review by Colligan explains, or attach to a backpack (or even hang it from a nail in the workshop). The pocket clip has a nice spring to it and always worked as expected. We were satisfied with the pocket clip for daily carry, but during projects, it was convenient to use the carabiner like Colligan instead of putting the CX back in our pocket or setting it down.

The carabiner clip does double duty as a bottle opener that works better than the openers you find on most multi-tools. It’s faster, because the clip is integrated into the end of the handle, so there is no need to deploy a tool or open up the pliers in order to get at the opener, like you have to do with nearly all other multi-tools. It may seem like a minor point, but it’s nice to grab a bottle and be able to open it on the spot, instead of having to set it down, deploy the bottle opener, open the bottle, set it back down, fold the opener back into the tool, and finally grab the bottle again and take a sip. It’s also easier to use than competitors’—most fold out of the tool, so they’re only the thickness of a knife blade, and they take more than one pry to get a bottle cap off. The CX’s opener is wider, at about an eighth of an inch, so it reliably gripped and popped caps off in a single motion.

The Skeletool has an odd asymmetrical design, but it works well ergonomically. Opened up as a set of pliers, the handles look uneven, but their unusual curves fit our palms perfectly. Using the tool as a knife, we found the slight curves and swoops of the body shape to be easy and comfortable to grasp. This asymmetry also makes it easy to locate and deploy without even looking at the tool. Many multi-tools, like the Leatherman Wave+, have a perfectly symmetrical design that makes it impossible to know which tool you’re deploying even if you’re staring right at it. Grayson Parker, writing at BladeReviews, states that “the handle design is ergonomically impeccable, regardless of which tool is being used.”

The Skeletool CX is extremely light, weighing only 5.2 ounces, and is slender enough that we barely felt it in our pocket—particularly when using the pocket clip. Discounting the keychain models, only the Gerber Crucial was lighter at 5.2 ounces; most fully-loaded multi-tools weighed around 7, 8, or 9 ounces.

Aesthetically, we find the design of the Skeletool CX a bit mesmerizing. Not only is it asymmetrical along the centerline of the pliers, but from front to back as well. To reduce weight, the metal body has holes in it (called skeletonizing, thus the name of the tool), giving it a unique, very interesting look. There were times during testing when we found ourselves just staring at how it all fits together, like trying to figure out a puzzle. We agree with Sculimbrene’s writing that the CX is a “perfect example of a good, coherent, and unified purpose that influenced each and every design decision.”

The Leatherman CX is an investment. At around $80, it’s not the most expensive multi-tool we looked at, but it’s up there. We see the purchase of the CX as a long-term one. The tool is backed by a 25-year warranty and we think the cost is justified, given the amount that you’ll likely be relying on the tool, especially if you carry it every day, which is what it’s designed for. Colligan, in his review—after having used the Skeletool for four years—refers to it as “pretty much a tool for life.”