Is this the best quality multi-tool money can buy?
The Victorinox SwissTool Spirit X and Spirit XBS, to give them their full names, are part of the SwissTool multi-tool range. The Spirit XBS is the same as the Spirit X but has a Burnished Steel (“BS”) finish. Victorinox is one of the brand names owned by Swiss Army Knives (SAK) the makers of the famous Swiss Army Pocket Knives. If you want to know where Swiss Army Knives are made today and some interesting history about the brand, check out my article.
In the crowded marketplace of multi-tools from big brands like Gerber, Leatherman, and SOG, is it possible that Victorinox is building the highest quality multi-tool money can buy?
Carry-ability
Weighing in at 8.7 oz (247 gm) puts the Spirit X(BS) in the middleweight multi-tool division. Comparable weights are 8.5 oz (241 gm) for the Leatherman Wave and 8.6 0z (244 gm) for the Gerber Diesel Multi-Plier (reviewed here).
The closed length of 4.1 inches (10.4 cm) puts it in the full-size multi-tool category. Again, in comparison to the Leatherman Wave, the Spirit X is effectively the same size while the Gerber Diesel Multi-Plier is nearly an inch bigger at 4.9 inches (12.4 cms). Where the Spirit X differs from other multi-tools is not the weight or length but how thick it is. It’s skinny at only 0.50 inches (0.13 cms) which makes it slighter slimmer than Leatherman’s Skeletool at 0.54 inches.
So the Spirit X is definitely not too big to carry clipped to a pocket but that’s not possible because Victorinox hasn’t provided a pocket clip or the option of adding one either. What you do get though is a sweet slimline sheath made of nylon. My XBS came with a sheath that had a brown contrasting trim. It sacrifices any additional pockets for carrying hex bits or other accessories to make it a compact form factor. Carry it horizontally on your belt or vertically on your backpack strap.
Multi-Tool Set
The main tools
The star of most multi-tools is the pliers and the Spirit X has a good looking pair. In this case, however, they aren’t the star for me – but more on that later. The pliers are needle-nosed and have an aggressively knurled bolt gripper section and hard and soft wire cutting sections as well.
Competing for top tool billing is usually a knife. In this case, it’s a straight knife that reminds you of a knife you might get with a Swiss Army Knife pocket knife. Not that surprising really because it probably is a knife Victorinox use in their pocket knives. Anyway, it’s certainly sharp enough for most uses.
Other main tools are a set of small but sharp scissors, a wood saw and a metal saw that are both sharp and have a good length for a multi-tool this size. That’s it for the main tools.
The secondary tools
You have a few different sizes of flathead screwdrivers to decide between when tackling a screw head. Take your pick from a 2mm, 3mm, 5.5 mm or 8mm. That should cover most MacGyver situations you find yourself in. No decisions to make when faced with a Phillips head screw – there’s only one Phillips screwdriver – a #1-#2.
To add to the soft and hard wire cutter functions in the pliers there’s a wire bender, a wire scraper, and a wire stripper. If you know the difference between a wire scraper and a wire stripper please let me know in the comments below because I have no idea.
Helping the Spirit X reach its impressive 26 function tool count is a punch, a reamer with a universal hook and a metal file. Then add a “strong crate opener”, can opener and a 7mm chisel. Top it all off with the obligatory cap lifter (a.k.a. bottle opener) and some ruler markings in inches on one side and centimeters on the other. That takes the tool count up to about 26. Pretty impressive, especially when you consider that all the tools, besides the pliers, are accessible from the outside.
Use-ability
We’ve had a look at the size and weight of the Spirit X and the toolset loadout but that doesn’t answer the question about whether it is the best quality multi-tool money can buy. So let’s look at how well this multi-tool is manufactured, finished and put together. And how well designed the tools are, how well they deploy and work in practice.
Opening and closing the arms of the Spirit X is smooth and easy. Especially compared to all my Leatherman multi-tools which have one arm that is harder to close than the other. I’m not the only one who’s noticed this as it’s talked about by other Leatherman users too. The curve of the arms and the contoured edges mean the Spirit X is very comfortable in the hand with no hot spots either open or closed. The feel in your hand really adds to the quality impression you get every time you pick it up.
Compared to other multi-tool needlenose plier heads, the Spirit X is about the same size and profile as a Leatherman Signal versus something like the Gerber Center Drive (my review of the Center Drive is here) which is shorter and wider. Not being very thick means it can get into tighter spots with the downside being you won’t be able to get as much metal onto a bolt you’re trying to tighten because there isn’t much there. Just something to note but hasn’t been a problem for me in use.
Those of you who know me know that I have a real preference for pliers that have replaceable wire cutting blades. The Spirit X doesn’t. Ruin the blade of your non-replaceable wire cutters and it’s a pain in the rear to get it re-ground even if that’s possible. Wire cutters are so useful on your multi-tool you don’t want to not have them available because one time you stupidly tried to cut something you shouldn’t have. Enough said!
Note: As of February 2018, Leatherman has updated the Wave, Charge and Charge TTi to give them replaceable wire cutting blades. Someone’s listening!
Besides the pliers, all the other tools are outside accessible. This makes it easy to understand where to go to start looking for each tool. You only have to butterfly open the handles to get to the plier functions otherwise you keep it closed.
There are a total of 10 individually deployable tool arms inside the handle cavities. 4 longer tools – knife, scissors, saw, and file – are positioned along the inside of each handle. Between there are 3 shorter length tools on each handle. Each of the tool arms has a nail nick to deploy. Cleverly designed by Victorinox to allow you to open any one of the 10 arms without opening any of the others. How many multi-tools make you open one or more tools to get to another tool? I own a few that have this “feature”. Not so here.
There’s no clumping of tools either. Precision manufacturing with fine tolerances means if you nail nick one tool, that’s the only one that will deploy. All 10 arms lock into position and are released by a small but easy to use sliding release tab.
Deploy and lock any of the tools and grab the end of the tool and try to move it back and forth and side to side. There isn’t any movement or slack in it. Not in my Spirit XBS and not reported by other users either. This is a good indication to me of the quality of manufacture and build.
What you miss out on here are any one-hand opening tools. Most multi-tools have a thumb hole to allow you to deploy at least your knife single-handed – but not here and that’s a design decision compromise Victorinox have made. The reality is the depth of the knife (or any of the other longer tools for that matter) doesn’t allow enough space to cut a thumb hole in it. The straight blade itself is good quality, sharp, and very usable in practice.
The other long tools are also of a high quality. The saw is sharp and aggressive, the file has 3 types of filing uses including the one on the edge of the file. The scissors aren’t that big and they don’t open that wide. You’re not going to be able to get anything with a reasonable depth in the mouth of the scissors but if you do, they are probably going to be strong enough and sharp enough to cut it.
I tested the multi-tool scissors of 3 different brands and announced a winner. The torture test I put them all through was having to cut my fingernails and then my toenails.
I said each of the outside accessible tools has it’s own nail nick. Actually, that’s not true. The Phillips screwdriver doesn’t have a nail nick. You can still open it though without opening any other tools just by using your fingertip. If your fingers are a bit thick like mine, sometimes you might find that a bit difficult but I did discover one sure fire way to get it open. The Phillips is a “3D” version. That means it’s not one of those flattened ones you get with some multi-tools but one with a head that’s like a full-sized Phillips screwdriver. Because of that, you just use your nail in the slot of the Phillips head to open it. Not a nail nick but works just as well. And the #1-#2 Phillips sits snugly in the screw head.
The other screwdriver heads come in 4 sizes so you’re going to be very unlucky to be in a situation where you can’t find the right size head. All are sturdy and easy to deploy. The can opener works well and so does the obligatory bottle opener.
I wonder who’s going to be the first major brand to release a multi-tool WITHOUT a bottle opener? Who’s your money on?
The bottle opener is on the same arm as the large flathead screwdriver which is flat on one side so it can be used as a small pry bar as well.
One of my favorite tools on a multi-tool is the awl. When I first got into multi-tools I wasn’t sure what to use an awl for so I did some research and wrote an article about it. They are really handy and the Spirit X has a differently shaped one. This one is narrower than most which means it doesn’t have space for a thread loop. Victorinox has shaped it so you can also use it as a reamer. You know, use it to put an extra hole in your belt after those Thanksgiving and Christmas eating sprees. There’s a hook at the base of it as well which will be useful in a number of MacGyver situations.
All the tools are well designed and feel sturdy in use. The star of these tools for me though is the 0.28 inch (7mm) chisel. I like it a lot because it’s so useful not just as a chisel but for scraping things as well. Because it’s designed as a chisel it has a sharp edge you can use to trim materials like wood and plastic. And you can also use it to scrape debris off smooth hard surfaces like glass. The right corner is also sharp so you can use it as a box cutter/opener. The Spirit X isn’t the only multi-tool on the market with a chisel but they aren’t that common and this one works so well.
There’s only one quality issue that users talk about and that’s the Spirit X not sitting flat on a table. A number of users have noticed that one arm sits 1-2 mm higher than the other. It doesn’t affect the use of it in any way, it just seems to be a variance in the manufacturing tolerances. My own experience is that my Spirit XBS sits perfectly flat. I guess there’s the warranty to call on if you have any problems.
Pocket It or Pawn It?
Pocket It
- Quality of manufacture
- Design of tools
- Toolset range of functions
- Compact and lightweight for the number of tools included
- Easily deployed outside accessible tools
Pawn It
- Sheath only carry, no pocket clip option
- Not the cheapest multi-tool available
- Not for heavy duty tasks
MacGyver says Pocket It
I think my Victorinox SwissTool Spirit XBS is so good, I gave it the best quality multi-tool crown on my Recommended Multi-Tools page.
Multi-Tools – Don’t leave home without one!
Nice review format, keep em coming!