Quote from: majorhavoc on Yesterday at 07:32:24 PM

Quote from: NT2C on Yesterday at 06:16:29 PM

Quote from: Uncommon EDC on April 06, 2026, 04:29:52 PMAppreciate it, glad the community is still kicking.

We kinda reimagined the whole zombie premise and said, "What if the zombies are flying those UFOS?"

It would explain so much ...

Well, I know a lot more people who have seen UFOs than have seen a zombie.  (*Halloween and/or 3-for-1 Absinthe night at the VFW excluded)

Quote from: NT2C on Yesterday at 06:16:29 PM

Quote from: Uncommon EDC on April 06, 2026, 04:29:52 PMAppreciate it, glad the community is still kicking.

We kinda reimagined the whole zombie premise and said, "What if the zombies are flying those UFOS?"

It would explain so much ...

This Chinese clone of the vaunted Leatherman Wave is well regarded and typically sells for $30 or less.  And as of this writing, it's currently available on Amazon for $21.41 (or even less with different color variations).  That's quite a savings over the US-made original, which you'd be hard-pressed to find for less than $110.  And currently $130.  That's right; you'll likely save cool Benjamin with the Flissa.  But is it any good?

Per my recent deal post, I bought the Flissa, even though I already own several quality multi-tools.  Fortunately, one of them happens to be an authentic Wave, so it presents an opportunity to do a head-to-head comparison. 

The contenders:



Unless I screw it up, the Flissa will always be the lefthand tool in all the photos that follow. The Flissa comes with a nylon case, a nice little bonus.  It seems perfectly servicable with a beefy snap and a belt loop.


Side by side, you can see the Flissa is slightly thicker at 3/4" (2cm), versus 11/16" (1.8cm) for the Leatherman.  I thought at first the Flissa was also longer, but it isn't.  Both are pretty much bang on 4" (10cm).



The difference in thickness is noticable, both in hand and even in your pocket.  I'll say the Leatherman is better in that regard, if only slightly so.


The Flissa is also slightly heavier at 9.25 ounces (262 grams)





Versus the Leatherman at 8.5 ounces (241 grams)



The only way you'd even notice the weight difference is if you picked them up side-by-side.


The main knife blades.  They're almost identical except for ever-so-slight differences in blade profle and the thumb hole.  I couldn't say one is better than the other.



I did the mandatory Youtube reviewer "cut-a-piece-of-paper-diagonally-while-it's-held-free-hand" test and both passed, slicing through the paper without ripping it.  (Count the number of hands you need to take a picture of that without a tripod and you'll understand why you're not seeing one here.)  The fresh, out of the box Flissa went up against the several-year old Wave, so maybe their comparable performance says something about the Leatherman - I can't remember if I've ever sharpened it.  But I don't use the knife blades on my multi-tools all that much, so maybe the Leatherman's knife blade is more or less factory new as well.  So I'm going to say no advantage to either here.



The two tools' serrated knife blades. 



It's like you're seeing double.  Note that the Flissa's slightly different thumb hole shape is carried over here.  Running my finger over the edges, I thought the Flissa felt sharper.  But while both tools effectively cut through rope, the Leatherman cut through cleaner and more easily.



A (very) slight edge to the Leatherman.


A comparison of the file blades on both tools.



Ran my thumbnail across both of the file sides of this blade.  While I could tell they both were true cut files, the Leatherman's cuts felt deeper and sharper.  The other side of this blade on both tools is a sort of abrasive impregnated emery board kind of file.  More or less a nail file.


And the woodsaws on each tool.



You can see that the teeth on the Flissa are longer than those of the Leatherman.  All other things being equal, the shallower teeth of the Leatherman should clog more easily.  When cutting green wood, for example. 

But all other things aren't equal.  Running the pad of my index finger across both sets of blades, the teeth on the Leatherman are noticably sharper.  Remember this is on a several-year used Wave, against a box-fresh Flissa. And while a little hard to see in this picture, the Leatherman's saw blade is slightly thinner, which should make sawing easier.




This is 1" thick dry pine. 



I not-so-scientifically tested the wood sawing efficiency of these two tools (and that of my trusty Victorinox Huntsman, as a sort of wood cutting benchmark) by sawing through that branch with each and counting the number sawing strokes.  The tallies: Flissa - 240 strokes; Victorinoz - 143 strokes; and Leatherman - 104 strokes.  Wow, the Wave beat out the Victorinox, my gold standard for this type of task.  The Leatherman definitely has the best saw.


Flissa copied the Wave right down to the measuring marks on the handles, in both inches and centimeters.  With one, key difference.



Ignore the slight parallax error with the way I was holding my phone.  The scales on both the Flissa and the Leatherman are accurate dimentionally, but the Leatherman's graduations have 0 starting out the extreme end of the tool's handle.  This allows you to take fairly accurate inside measurements along with outside measurements.  The Flissa instead begins 0 measurement where the rounded end segment abruptly transitions to the flat side of tool's handle.  That's fine for outside measurements, but unless you precisely know and account for that extra length of the rounded handle ends, you can't do inside measurements.  For me personally, that added measuring capability awards this round to Leatherman.


A look at the auxillary tools.



The Flissa dedicates one handle entirely to the interchangable bit driver, which takes standard 1/4" hex bits.  On the Wave, Leatherman manages to squeeze in a can/bottle opener, but only because the Wave uses Leatherman's proprietary flatened bits.  The included bit on both tools was a reversable flat head/Phillips but you can replace it with other bits.  While Leatherman does make a variety of other flattened bits for the Wave, they aren't nearly as varied and inexpensive as the standard hex bits the Flissa uses.  And I'm sorry Leatherman: that slightly flattened, pseudo "Phillips head" side of the bit can't compare with Flissa's.  Point goes to Flissa.

See what I mean? (I meant to show the Phillips head side to show how compromised the Leatherman's shape was, but you can at least see the difference in thickness between the two brands)





The auxillary tools that stow inside the other handle.



Here, you see Flissa finally managed to slip in that missing can opener.  While I didn't use-test them, they both look more than capable of opening that last can of expired cat food in the waning days of your short, miserable post-apocalyptic life.  The larger flat head screw drivers on both tools likewise look perfectly functional.  And the tiny scissors on both tools seemed to cut paper equally well. It's the treatment of the precision screwdriver where Leatherman comes out ahead.  Theirs has a long, thin bit that can be reversed for use on either flat head or Phillips head screws.  Significantly, they are sized to fit the tiny screws on eyeglasses and sunglasses.  An eyeglass screwdriver is one of those infrequently used tools that, when you need it, is something where absolutely nothing else will do.  And a timely eyeglass repair is one those clutch saves that justifies the whole tool the first time you use it.  The Flissa's small flathead is too large both in thickness and width to fit the scews on any of the eye/sunglasses I tried. Especially with the ones that had Phillip's head screws, where the flat head only option on the Flissa will leave you SOL.  Sure it'll fit other types screws on random small repair or adjustment jobs.  But few of those are likely to be of the "save-the-day" variety, like eyeglasses repair.  IMO, strong advantage to Leatherman here.

But the signature element in the classic multitool is of course the pliers.

 

The first thing you'll notice comparing the two is that Flissa, unlike this particular Wave, has replaceable wire cutting blades.  All that shows is mine happens to be the earlier generation of the LM Wave.  Leatherman added that feature several years after I got mine.  My understanding is that unless it's really old store stock, any LM Wave you buy today will also have replaceable wire cutting blades.  But you might also notice that the needle tips on the Flissa align and mesh perfectly, while things on the Leatherman seem to be slightly little out of sync. But the Wave pulls it together at the very business end.  So both tools were able to pluck a single eyebrow, my personal test of precision use of the pliers.

And speaking of the business end of the pliers.



I suppose there might be a need someday to do a whole bunch of high-precision plier-y type stuff.  And that would be easier with the Leatherman's smaller size at the nose.  On the on othe hand, the beefier-looking ends on the Flissa might be a tad more durable.  I give a slight edge to Leatherman here, but only based on my typical needs.


But a big difference in maximum jaw opening capacity.



One could argue that if you're ever working on something that requires jaws to open that wide, it probably says maybe you should put down the Leatherman down because you're using the way-wrong tool for that job.  Still, less is less and more is more so advantage to Leatherman again. 


And I did test the wirecutters.  Both tools effectively cut this steel wire, but I'd have to say my previous-gen Wave cut ever-so-slightly better than the Flissa.





If I add up all the "points", the Leatherman Wave is the clear winner.  But the margin of most of those wins was very small (the big exceptions being Leatherman's superior wood saw and Flissa's much better interchangable bit set up.  All the other distinctions between the tools are so small that the only way you'd even notice is if you had both tools in your hands at the same time. 

And finally, all this needs to be seen in the context of cost.  The real world street price of the Flissa is $30 or slightly less.  The Leatherman Wave these days realistically goes for $120 and up.  In that light, the Flissa wins hands-down on value.  And honestly, you'd have no idea what you could possibly be missing in a multitool that you only get in a real LM Wave.  The only way you'd know is if you already had the Wave to compare it too.  And if you already own the Wave, why are you even looking into the Flissa, you multitool elitist, you!  Buying the cheap copy after you already have the real thing?  Who would even do that?  Why, you'd have to be some kind of world-class moron ... oh wait ... um, as I was saying about the Flissa's exceptional value ...

I love my Wave - it's such a quality, precision-engineered tool.  But honestly, if I had gotten the Flissa instead I'd be none the wiser.

QuoteJohn Nolan, a British stage and screen actor whose career spanned decades of theater, television and film — including roles in Christopher Nolan's "Batman" trilogy and the CBS drama "Person of Interest" — has died at 87

https://variety.com/2026/film/obituaries-people-news/john-nolan-dead-batman-person-of-interest-1236719535/ 

Quote from: Uncommon EDC on April 06, 2026, 04:29:52 PMAppreciate it, glad the community is still kicking.

We kinda reimagined the whole zombie premise and said, "What if the zombies are flying those UFOS?"

Yes, exactly. I realized when I saw your reply, Kevin Pierce is actually the narrator. The author is Tom Abrahams. Enjoying it so far, just wish they were a little longer. 

Glad you made it! 

Quote from: Uncommon EDC on April 06, 2026, 03:59:10 PMCurrently listening to Prepper by Kevin Pierce on Audible. It follows a prepper and his family after a domestic terrorist used weather balloons to deploy EMPs over Texas. It is pretty short but there are 5 books in the series that are all on sale during the current audiobook sale.

Sounds good...kind of like One Second After by William Forstchen? 

I finally pulled out the headliner and recovered it. while it was out I drilled out the spot welds that held the bracken overhead consoles mount too then put two layers of the rubberish sound deadening then one layer of foam with silver faced sound/heat insulation then put the overhead console mount back in. Truck is a bit quieter now.

Does buying a new (to me) bug out vehicle count?
1998 Suzuki Sidekick 4dr (base)
1.6 SOHC, 5spd Manual, RWD, @170K miles showing, 
It was a Tow behind for an RV so actual driveline miles are much lower.
So far... 
I've made an electrical connector for the Intake air temp sensor, 
spliced the wiring for the MAF (Thanks Pack Rats!), and reattached the EGR valve.
So that's it running correctly...
Now I'm also installing a Robyn SX-101 (23channel) CB, and magnet mount Antenna..
I'm working out where to mount a "fire stick" so the magnet mount is temporary.
And trying to figure out which tires to get.
Pics are from the offerup ad which I bought her from, I'll take fresh pics soon.