This review consists of :
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This review consists of : |
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Maker Webpage : Leatherman Crater - basic specifications :
Sometimes all you need is a simple, lightweight, quick-to-deploy straight blade knife and with the Leatherman Crater� c33 folding knife, that's what you get. Perfect size, perfect feel in the hand, perfect price.[/quote]
420HC Stainless Steel
An improved, high-carbon (HC) form of 420 stainless steel that works well with high production tooling. 420HC's strength is optimized in Leatherman multi-tools by heat treatment.[/quote]
Glass-filled Nylon
A thermoplastic material where strength is improved by adding chopped glass fibers. This allows for excellent durability without adding significant weight. In Leatherman knives, the glass-filled nylon handles are so strong that an inner steel frame is not required, thereby reducing weight for a lighter every day carry. Leatherman uses a 60% glass mix.
Miscellaneous :
In regard to Fit and finish / quality of build :
However :
A few numbers :
On 3/8" hemp :
Carving 2" points on some 1" dowel with light force (10-30 lbs) :
Making 2" points on some 1x0.5" pine with heavy force (50-70 lbs) :
Even though the edge has a low angle and is fairly thin the low sharpness and very rough edge really hampers the performance.
A little utility work on some semi-standard materials :
In regards to durability and the angle, consider that the edge angle on this knife is only 12 (1) dps and yet :
And yet there was no visible damage to the edge, both of those are common examples of argued to be "abusive" cutting.
As a quick check on ergonomics and edge retention (very low stress) some pine was sliced up. There was no effect on the edge however after just 250 slices into pine the limit of comfort was reached even switching grips every 50 cuts.
Without modification to the grip and clip this would require gloves for extended used.
The lock is decent :
Initial impressions, as this is an inexpensive knife ( < $20) if you are willing to :
it seems a fairly decent little knife. Note as well that most of the stock cutting is low due to the poor sharpeness. After the knife is sharpened the performance increases dramatically.
On simple tasks in the kitchen the Crater works decently well as a small utility knife :
So as long as it is sharp the it easily does fine and shallow cutting on small foods. It has of course all the problems of using a folder in the kitchen which are mainly maintenance related and keeping juices and food particles out of the mechanism which can lead to contamination and simply gumming up of the opening/closing.
The very fine point which is both :
lets it excel at applications such as taking the core out of garlic and cutting out the center sections of apples.
It is also very lightweight and simply very easy to hold/use for such work far more so than larger folders such as the Paramilitary for example.
For peeling again it did very well as along side the efficient cutting geometry of the edge :
In order to exceed its performance a knife such as an Opinel would have to be used and even then it is competitive.
Now of course this is strictly talking about performance compared to folding knives. A truly optimized paring knife is far more narrow still and much thinner and will in comparison float through the skin of a potato. But the Crater can still make a Benchmade 710-Axis for example look awkward for such work, if far more efficient than the wider blade on the Delica for example, the Crater is much easier to use/handle than the much heaver PXL, and is more nimble than the much longer Victorious.
As an example of the extreme/insensible the Crater was used to carve/serve a roasted turkey :
The main issues were of course :
The edge took no damage from the minor bone contacts, but aside from an exercise for amusement, a much longer blade such as the cKc Victorious is far more capable for such slicing and sectioning work.
However where the Crater really starts being awkward is on any kind of dicing or traditional dicing type work. Again the knife is very small which makes such work awkward but much more so is that the handle and blade are simply not conducive to working on a cutting board and this makes the work fairly awkward.
The work has to be done by :
Though the knife cuts well for reasons noted previously, the sheer awkward nature of this cutting really makes this knife not overly suitable for such work. But of course this really isn't a knife designed to make a hearty vegetable stew.
Ergonomics : the comfort of the handle is a weak point of the knife as :
While the knife has a decent shape, the multiple very sharp edges which make contact immediately in use make it very uncomfortable. However if the knife is taken apart it only takes very little work to smooth out the sharp edges. The simplest solution for the clip is just a quick manual stone wash in a plastic bottle with some sharp and small rocks.
Security : while the handle has a light index finger choil, including a recessed shaped into the handle, the grip is very slick and while retention is decent in most cutting, stabs and very dynamic cutting would be high risk. For much greater security a thumb over wrap grip can be used to secure the knife in hand as well as a hand lash secured through the carabiner.
Durability : the handle is made from glass filled nylon which is very resistant to :
It is a little soft compared to G10 and not as scratch resistant, but outside of direct and very heavy hammer impacts - there are no significant durability concerns.
Clip :
Construction : the Crater is held together with t8 and t6 torx. A few details :
Care needs to be taken when dissembling as there is a very small spring which holds the carabiner in place .
The thumbstud is very small and while provides decent purchase in general, it is difficult to open/operate with a glove.
The lock is :
However it :
Checking the edge by cutting into a coarse stone to grind the edge back into a small flat shows the grind is has no scallops or recurves however it is not a smooth curve but is a bunch of flats.
Bringing the edge to an apex with the Sigma Power Select II 3k stone requires :
However the initial grind lines are extremely coarse, with the edge apexed the grind lines are still prominent. The edge angle is not consistent, parts of it are higher than 12 dps (~15 dps) However even a quick sharpening on the 3K shows that most of the problems in the above with the cutting ability were just sharpness related, again with just a quick edge which is not fully formed :
The only downside of the knife in regards to sharpening is that it tends to form a prominent burr fairly readily as noted in the images on the right.
This is mainly due to the fact that the steel is under hardened to increase the :
which reduces the strength and edge stability and means the edge has a tendency to fold and not form clean.
However it is fairly easy to remove the burr on the same stone :
This leaves the edge :
The initial edge retention on cardboard was very low, even for a Class I steel as expected (low carbide, moderate hardness) :
| Initial Sharpness | 15% | 10% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| cardboard cut (m) | |||
| 94+ 0(31) | 0.3-0.0(0.1) | 1.0-0.0(0.2) | 6-0( 1) |
That is likely just due to a combination of :
As expected the edge retention rapidly improved with subsequent sharpening. What is equally important is the manner in which the knife blunted. As shown by the two images on the right of 50X magnification shots of the edge :
Note that the edge after blunting is just lightly worn and does not show any excessive deformation or fracture.
The current performance on the cardboard after multiple runs :
| # runs | Initial Sharpness | 15% | 10% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cardboard cut (m) | ||||
| 4 | 83+ 4(16) | 2.3+0.6(0.3) | 5.0+1.0(0.8) | 21+ 4( 4) |
The blade steel used is 420HC and spec'ed from Leatherman at 55-59 HRC. The choice of hardening on this blade is on the lower end of this hardness range and makes the blade suitable for :
In general 420HC also has a very high corrosion resistance and this combined with the above makes for many a very easy to maintain knife.
In order to bring out the true potential of the Crater :
Overview :
Comments can be emailed to Please Use the Forum or by posting to the following thread :
and/or the YouTube Playlist for Leatherman.
Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket
album.
| Last updated : | |
| Originally written: | 23/12/2013 |