GERBER MP600 Pro Scout Multi-Plier [07563]

These have always been a mechanic’s fidget, but it also reminds me of the past. In the military, we would use these to disable the MILES gear or put it into god mode during training, at least until an OC would catch on. I purchased this style for the main purpose of ease of opening as it was designed to be done one handed.

Robuste, compatte, precise. Praticamente fantastiche

For my use a multi-tool is something I want in my pocket or on my belt for handy use just about anywhere anytime. In this capacity I am drawing a line between a multi-tool and a “survival” or “emergency” tool. Something that does a lot of different tasks but takes a bit of effort to work might be very appropriate to toss in the glove box of your truck or into junk drawer in your kitchen. It is not the same as a tool you want to carry with you everywhere every day. A back packing or camping tool might fit a place in the middle where compactness trumps ease of use. But that isn’t my focus in this review.

I ordered one of these because I had a job-specific need for a tool with both wire cutters and scissors. Needle nose pliers would be a big plus. From reading various reviews of multi-tools it seemed like this one had wire cutters that actually worked whereas for many other tools the wire cuters were written off as ineffective. Also the pliers got good reviews where some other choices did not.

I need to disclose I am an advocate (addict?) of the Swiss Army Knife. I keep a medium-small one (Tinker) in my pocket at all times and cannot count the number of times I use it even in unexpected situations. Or the number of times friends co-workers and family ask to use it: “Have you got your Swiss Army Knife with you?” is almost a joke with people who know me. They know I always do. And it gets used literally dozens of times a day. It is small, reliable, effective, and easy to use. This adds up to conveinience. When I have to be without it, such as when flying commercially, I really miss it. I also have owned a Buck multi-tool for years that was a gift and lives in my truck. So the concept of a multi tool as a keep-handy item is not completly foreign to me. The important factors are reliability, durability, effectiveness, and most of all convenience. That last one, convenience is really the crux. The other factors I listed really just enhance its convienence. After all, if it isn’t handy, or if it doesn’t get the job done, or if you have to go through a number of extra steps just to use it, then you might as well go to your tool box and grab the “real” tool for the job. The “real” tool will always do a better job more effectively than a multi tool, but sometimes a multi tool is good enough and if it is handy right in your pocket or on your belt, Hurrah! For my use that is what a multi-tool is all about.

The Gerber 600 is sturdy and it does what it is supposed to do. The scissors work properly. The wire cutter actually cuts wire, The pliers are solid. The knife blade has conventional edge at the tip and is serrated further up the blade for a variety of cutting tasks, though the knife is rather small. All the tools lock in the open position. The construction is stainless steel.

One feature I was luke-warm on before I bought was the abrasive-blade saw. However it is a replaceable blade which you can easily swap out with any number of jig saw (saber saw) blades in stock at your local hardware store. There are lots of different styles of blades available from metal cutting blades to blades for sawing wood, so pick the one out that suits your situation and fit it to your 600 multi-tool. Cudos to Gerber for this feature! A solid idea!

There is an accessory kit available for this tool that adapts it to take standard hex bits. The accessory pack comes with one adapter, three straight screwdriver bits, three phillips screwdriver bits, and three hex driver (allen key) bits. But since the bits are standard size you can change the mix to whatever suits your need. Personally I use a lot of square drive screws and often encounter torx screws, and since there are phillips and straight screwdriver bits on the 600 tool itself, I will change my set around a little to reflect my personal needs.

All of the above is very good. Now for the not-so-good:
You cannot access any of the tools without first deploying the pliers. The plier head slides out of the handle and locks in place with two spring-loaded push buttons. This is not a one handed operation, and though it is sturdy in construction, it is not silky smooth in operation. So right away you see that if you need to use this tool on the fly, you have to put down whatever it is you are working on and use both hands to first deploy the pliers, no matter what other tool you wish to use. I suspect that most regular users would just leave the pliers in the deployed position most of the time. There is little to be gained by retracting them other than 1-1/2 inches less length overall. But of course the tool doesn’t fit fully into the belt pouch with the pliers out, so it is at risk of being lost or knocked out.

Next the other blades and tools deploy from the inside of the handles. This is good and bad. It means your grip on the handle when using the pliers is not compromised by the folded tools, but it also means that they are a little less convenient to get a hold of. You see the handles only open about 50 degrees, not 180, or even 90…. so the opposite handle is always a little bit in your way as you try to open any tool. Also deploying any tool is pretty much a two handed operation.

As long as I leave the pliers out then with a little manipulating I can lay the tool on the table or my knee and open the knife blade, the scissors, and the metal file with one hand, but it isn’t easy. Why just these three? They are on the outside edges of the handles and are the most accessible. The forth tool on the outside edge is the abrasive saw blade which I cannot get a good enough grip on to operate one-handed. No tools can be re-folded one-handed. You need two hands to defeat the lock to fold the tool. To be fair I do not know of any other multi-tool that is designed specifically to be one-handed operation, but if you can get it to work with one hand it is a plus. In this case I would be less critical if at least the knife blade was easier to get at instead of having to use two hands to first deploy the pliers and then proabaly still fiddle a little to open the knife blade.

The remaining tools are all next to impossible to get out even with two hands unless you happen to have a Swiss Army Knife in your pocket to use as a tool to open the other tools. You simply cannot get a decent grip on them. Most, but not all of them have a provision to get your thumbnail under a little tab thing on thier spine, but the operation is too stiff. Also all of those thumbnail tabs are at least partially obstructed by other tools when all the tools are folded. They are a bear to get at. One tool, the can opener, has no provision for getting at it in any way whatsoever and is exceedingly difficult to deploy.

My wife took a gander at this multi-tool, and though she is no shrinking violet, she couldn’t operate ANY of the tools. NONE OF THEM! Everything was WAY too stiff and WAY too hard for her to get a grip on. And those teensey patially obscured thumbnail tabs? They would have just broken her nails. They are only just barely useable with rugged work-toughened man-thumbnails. That is except for the can opener which is just about impossible altogether. Maybe you don’t think it is important for a woman to be able to operate a tool if you are a guy, but I report it here because it gives you and idea of just how stiff, crude, and difficult the operation really is; or putting it another way, how silky-smooth and easy it ISN’T.

Back to the impossible-to-get-at can opener…. the tip is ground to a point. On some competitor’s tools the tip is squared off a little which allows it do double duty as a small straight or phillips screwdriver, as well as a little prying tool…. something the rest of the can opener blade compliments… and a design that makes the can opener one of my most-used tools on my Swiss Army Knife, though almost never for opening cans. Why didn’t Gerber copy this clever feature? It doesn’t matter though because You will have great difficulty deploying the can opener, which isn’t much of a loss since it is only good for opening cans anyway.

The add-on tool kit is a nifty idea. My one complaint is that the adapter sleeve which goes over the phillips head screwdriver is only held in place by a magnet, and cannot be stored on the tool. It has to be removed and placed back in its own holder and sheath every time. Loose this adapter and the kit is useless. If you have to work in a tight spot, and you are using this feature, there is a very good chance you will knock the bit and the adapter loose. Just hope it falls where you can find it and retreive it!

My bottom line is that this is a pretty good tool, but not a super-great tool. What keeps it from being great is the lack of convenience factor. Specifically if the various tools were smoother in operation and easier to deploy it would be really nifty. And the devil is in the details here. If the handles opened at least 90 degrees,…. if the pliers were silky smooth to deploy, maybe with a flick of the tool, (instructions suggest you can do this with a flick, but mine are way too stiff)… if the other tools were not so darn stiff to open, or if they had devised a better means of getting a grip on them (c’mon Gerber….pocket knives solved this problem at least a century ago), my review could have been 5 stars. The way it is, however, it is more of a toss-it-in-the-drawer tool for me than a wear-it-on-my-belt tool. Since I have several tool boxes full of “real” tools I really don’t need or want a toss-it-in-the-drawer tool. By the time I walk to the drawer I can just as easily have walked to my tool box.

Muy buena herramienta, es la segunda que tengo, la primera se me extravió , asi que me compre una nueva igual a la anterior, me gusta la versatilidad de gerber y el buen precio

This has been my EDC multi-tool for almost a year, and it’s still like new. I haven’t been gentle and it’s held up well. I used the needle nose pliers last night to pry open the sliding glass window in the back window of my old pickup truck. Given the direction and magnitude of the torque applied to the plier hinge, this was really abuse rather than use, but good tools like this are overbuilt and use quality materials and heat treating, so they can take some occasional abuse.

I love the assortment of tools on board. Gerber seemed to know how I’d use this multi-tool. I carry a full sized knife that’s easier to access, so I almost never use the knife on the Gerber Multi-Plier, but a multi-tool needs a knife and this is a good blade that’s well designed. It’s small enough to be discrete, large enough to be genuinely useful, and the smooth and serrated areas seem ideal for a multitude of different uses.

The replaceable jig saw blade is genius! I love that I can carry lightweight, inexpensive, and readily available blades optimized for cutting wood, soft metals and harder metals. The abrasive grit blade that is supplied is the best of all worlds. It may not be optimal for the materials I just mentioned, but it will cut almost ANYTHING, including glass or ceramic tile.

I also love the way the Phillips screwdriver bit accepts the included adapter that can use any 1/4″ hex drive bit. That opens this tool up to using all sorts of tool bits. You can carry an assortment of security bits and McGyver your way into all sorts of tamper proof electronics. Or you can get a 1/4″ square drive adapter and carry a selection of small sockets. The small set of bits that ships with the Pro Scout is a good selection for everyday needs and tucks next to the multi-tool in my tactical pants’ small cell phone pocket that wasn’t used since I switched to a ginormous tablet phone.

I’m usually a SOG guy, but Gerber nailed this one.