I bought my brother a Charge XTi back when he was in high school, and I liked the design then, but I never followed-up on getting one of my own. Eventually Leatherman changed the spec from XTi to TTi, which basically meant they replaced one of the two bit-drivers with a couple other tools. I still didn’t get one, because I had a Gerber Legend 800 and it worked fine.

Eventually the Gerber Legend 800 broke, and while I got it fixed, I never used it as much as I had before. I’d gotten a Leatherman Crunch, and I’d discovered that the locking pliers were immensely useful, because it’s very difficult to grip something hard *and* manipulate it carefully with normal pliers. It took care of my multi-tool needs quite adequately for years, and still serves as a third-hand/heatsink for soldering jobs.

Recently I went on a kick of buying all the multi-tools that had caught my eye over the past few years, just to finally get it out of my system. One of them I decided to keep, the rest didn’t meet my expectations and were returned. Finally I found myself with one left to try, the Leatherman Charge TTi. I told myself I’d wait a month and see if I still cared about it (as if several years of occasionally wanting one wasn’t proof enough). Then I found the Leatherman Charge TTi Samurai Edition, customized by Texas Tool Crafters with dual Damascus-steel blades. I decided not to wait a month after all.

Now that I have it in my hands…I dunno. I mean yes, it meets all of my expectations, and I love the way the Damascus blades look, and knowing that they’re also harder than the original stainless-steel blades is a nice plus…but maybe it’s too nice. Maybe I’d be happier with a multi-tool that isn’t as awesome, something that I can doubt and question and second-guess when I pick it up and use it.

…or maybe not.