Surge

The Surge was introduced in 2005 and the design was based on the New Wave that was released in 2004. The big difference and I mean big was that this tool was huge. It is one of the larger tools in the Leatherman line and 4 and a half inches long closed. The Surge included a blade exchanger on the outside which included both a saw and a diamond coated file that you could swap between (this particular tool is exclusive with the Surge). This tool received a bit of a makeover in 2013 were they fixed a few of its issues and changed the plier head to one with removable cutters. This apparently "officially" retired the older version when the newer version came out

Black Oxide Surge with older style plier head

Jaws

• 2005-2013 A new plier head was designed especially for the Core and the Surge. It employs the same elliptical pivot area introduced on standard-sized Leatherman's in 2004, but the entire head is scaled larger.
• In addition, a stranded wire cutter is located on the underside of the pivot.
• 2013-Present The plier head that was first used on the Super Tool 300 was put on the Surge. It has removable 154CM stainless steel cutter inserts with a hard wire notch. The stranded wire cutter is still there.

Handles/Frame

• The Surge along with the New Wave has a very complex handle with a series of bends that makes both halves of each handle a U shape that is designed for comfort. It is stainless steel and has a polished finish.

Blades and Tools

Blade Characteristics

• The Surges tools have either a polished finish on tools like the knife blades and saw or a bead blast finish on the rest of the tools.

Locking Mechanism

• The long tools on the Surge are all liner lock and all the inside accessible tools have a push tab type locking system.

Sheath

• The Surge came with a black leather like sheath with a flap and a snap with the Leatherman symbol was stamped toward the bottom in yellow. There was also a black pancake sheath with Velcro closure.

Dimensions

• Length open = 7 in | 17.8 cm
• Length closed = 4.5 in | 11.5 cm
• Width closed = 1.5 in | 3.8 cm
• Thickness = 0.75 in | 1.9 cm
• Weight = 12.5 oz | 355 g* (*Includes both saw and file Blade Exchanger® tools. Leatherman lists the weight as 335g. This is believed to be a typographical error.)

Versions

• The first version of the Surge in 2005 had a reg type plier head but in 2013 they apparently retired this version and they changed the plier head to one with removable cutters and made a few modifications that tweaked the Surge and released it as a newer models. Sometime in 2015 they changed the fine teeth on the end of the pliers to a more course design.

Variations

• The Surge comes in stainless steel and in black oxide. Plus stainless and black oxide cap crimper models and there was also a camo version offered at one time.

Background

• Introduce in 2005. Made in the USA. Still in production but "officially" retired and rereleased as an updated model when it got a little makeover and plier head change in 2013.

Related Tools

• The Surge is the big brother to the New Wave and also has the same type similarities to the Charge series. It had the same plier head as the Core until 2013 and now it has the same plier head as the Super Tool 300 and MUT with the removable cutters.

More Info

• The Surge Review at Multitool.org
• Surge Owners Club - in the Multitool.org forums
• New Surge Owners Club - in the Multitool.org forums
• About the new Surge for 2013 - in the Multitool.org forums