Leatherman Wave+ Multi-Tool Review (2026): The All-Around

Why you should trust this review

I bought my Wave+ at retail and Leatherman had no idea this review was being written. I have been a working remodeler and finish carpenter since 2012, and this is the fourth Leatherman I have owned after a Wave, a Charge ALX, and a Surge, so I have a long baseline for how these tools wear and what fails first. The Wave+ has been on my belt daily for twelve months across trim, electrical, and general repair work, roughly 150 hours of real use.

I keep a Knipex Cobra in parallel as my dedicated plier and a fixed blade Mora as my dedicated knife, so I am not asking the Wave+ to be the only tool in my kit. I am asking whether it handles the quick tasks where reaching for a separate tool would slow me down. To answer that honestly I tracked specific things over the year: blade edge retention month to month, wear at the wire cutters, and how the warranty process actually went when a friend’s Wave+ broke.

How we evaluated

I carried it on my belt every working day for twelve months and used it for whatever came up. For the cutters I ran a deliberate durability test, parting 100 lengths of 12 gauge copper wire and then checking whether the edge still cut cleanly. For the bit driver I drove and backed out 50 number 10 wood screws to see whether the geometry held up or cammed out.

I checked blade edge retention against a fresh Wave+ as a benchmark after twelve months, and I sent a friend’s broken Wave+ to Leatherman warranty specifically to time how long the process takes and what they actually do. That last test is the one most reviews skip, and it is the one that tells you whether the long warranty is marketing or real.

Replaceable wire cutters

The replaceable hardened cutters are the single feature that makes the Wave+ worth owning over the older Wave. After cutting 100 lengths of 12 gauge copper, my cutters still parted wire cleanly with no mushrooming or flat spot. When they eventually do wear, Leatherman sells the replacement set and you swap it in with a Torx driver in about five minutes. The original Wave used non replaceable cutters, and that single difference is the entire reason the plus version exists.

For a working pro, that matters more than it sounds. The pliers head is the part of any multi tool that gets used hardest, and being able to refresh the cutting edges instead of retiring the whole tool turns a multi year tool into a many year one. It is the kind of design choice that justifies the price over time rather than at the register.

Pliers and blades

The pliers head is always going to be wider than a dedicated pocket plier, and the Wave+ is no exception. After 150 hours the pivot is still tight and the gripper teeth show no measurable wear. For real holding work like pulling bent nails, it does the job. For finer fastener gripping I still reach for the Knipex, and you should expect to do the same if precision gripping is a big part of your work.

The 420HC stainless main blade is the right size for daily carry and takes a usable edge. Over twelve months I stropped it twice on a leather strop with green compound and never needed a full reprofile, which is honest performance for this steel. The serrated blade handles rope and webbing, the saw handles small branches and PVC, and both deploy one handed with the thumb stud. That one handed deploy matters more than any spec when you are on a ladder with one hand already committed.

Bit driver and warranty

The bit driver takes standard quarter inch bits and ships with a flat and Phillips bit. I drove 50 number 10 wood screws to depth with it and recorded no cam out events, so it is a real driver rather than a gimmick. For prolonged screwdriver work a real screwdriver is still faster, but for one or two screws it beats walking back to the toolbox.

The warranty test is the one I care about most. A friend’s Wave+ developed a broken pivot, he sent it to Leatherman, and the Portland factory returned a complete replacement body in 18 days at no charge. That is the kind of after sale support that actually justifies the premium over a cheaper tool, because a budget multi tool that fails is simply gone. The 25 year coverage here is real and accessible, not a number buried in fine print.

Who should buy the Leatherman Wave+?

Buy it if you want one daily carry tool that handles the large majority of small repairs, if you value replaceable cutters that extend the tool’s working life, and if a genuine USA build with an accessible 25 year warranty matters to you. For someone who carries a multi tool every day for a living, this is the obvious pick.

Skip it if you only need a multi tool for occasional household use, where a budget option is plenty. Skip it if you need heavy duty pliers and a serious saw, where the larger Surge is the better choice. And skip it if you prefer European multi tool design, where the Victorinox SwissTool is excellent. The sheath is also worth a note: the canvas belt loop is stiff and slow to remove, and I eventually swapped to a kydex sheath.

The verdict

After a year of daily carry, the Leatherman Wave+ is the tool I would replace tomorrow if it disappeared. The replaceable cutters, the real and fast warranty, and the 18 genuinely useful tools add up to the best capability to pocketability balance in the category. It is not the cheapest and the pliers head is no substitute for a dedicated plier, but those are the right tradeoffs for a tool you carry every day. This is the multi tool most pros end up with, and after twelve months I would buy it again without hesitation.