In 1975 a young engineer named Tim Leatherman was crossing Europe in a secondhand Fiat that kept breaking and sleeping in hotels whose plumbing kept leaking. He was carrying a scout knife. In his own words: “I was carrying a scout knife and used it for everything from slicing bread to fixing the car. But I kept wishing I had a pair of pliers!” It took him three years to build a prototype and another three and a half to find anyone willing to sell it. Cabela’s finally ordered 500 of them in 1983. Every pliers-based multi-tool in the world — including all the ones that are not Leathermans — descends from that argument with a Fiat.
We verify manufacturing against primary sources, read what actual owners report, and never accept payment for rankings.
The Wave is the tool that made Leatherman a household object rather than a clever idea, and the Wave Plus is its current form. Eighteen tools. Four outside-accessible blades you can deploy one-handed without opening the pliers. Everything except the plier head locks. It is the multi-tool that other multi-tools are measured against, and it has held that position for a quarter of a century largely by not being redesigned into something worse.
It has, however, been changed in one way that matters enormously to buyers, and that change is responsible for essentially every unhappy owner in the record. We will get to it, because it is the single most important thing to know before you order one.
Which one is this, exactly?
Leatherman’s naming is a trap in three directions, and retail listings fall into all three.
First, on Leatherman’s own site today the product is titled Wave® Plus — not “Wave,” not “Wave 2,” and not the plain Wave this tool was called for its first two decades. The Plus is the version with premium replaceable wire cutters, and it superseded the original Wave outright. If a listing says only “Leatherman Wave,” it is either old stock or sloppy copy.
Second, the Wave Plus and the Wave Alpha are different tools that look nearly identical in thumbnails. The Alpha carries a MagnaCut blade and an awl with a thread loop; the Plus carries 420HC steel and a second, serrated knife instead. They sit side by side in Leatherman’s own comparison table, which is exactly how listings get crossed.
Third — and this is the expensive one — the finish is the SKU:
| Wave® Plus, Stainless Steel | Wave® Plus, Black | |
|---|---|---|
| Leatherman SKU today | 832531 | 832533 |
| Tool count | 18 | 18 |
| Knife steel | 420HC | 420HC |
| Sheath in the box | No — sold separately | No — sold separately |
| Owner rating | 4.8 / 5 (6,052 ratings) | 4.7 / 5 (4,572 ratings) |
Note those SKU numbers, because older Wave Plus part numbers — the 832524 and 832526 families — are still circulating in listings, in gift guides and in a great many product photos. Those were the configurations that shipped with a nylon sheath. The current 832531 and 832533 do not. Leatherman states it plainly in its own product description: “Sheath sold separately.” If the pictures you are looking at show a sheath and the part number is 832531, the pictures are stale.
What it’s like to use
The Wave’s central insight is the four outside-accessible blades. On most multi-tools, using the knife means unfolding the pliers first, which means two hands and a moment of fumbling. On the Wave, the two knives, the saw and the file live on the outside of the handles with thumb studs. You draw it, flick a blade open with one hand, and cut. That is the difference between a tool you carry and a tool you keep in a drawer.
Everything except the plier head locks. That matters more than it sounds: a saw or serrated blade folding on your hand under load is how people get hurt, and the locks here are positive and audible. The spring-action scissors are the other feature owners single out unprompted — they are real scissors that spring back open, not the flat awkward shears most multi-tools ship, and people report reaching for them far more than they expected to.
The replaceable wire cutters are the “Plus” in the name. On the older Wave, chewing up the cutters meant the tool was permanently degraded or a warranty case. Now the cutting inserts unscrew and swap out, which turns the most abused part of the tool into a consumable.
The cost of all this is bulk. At about 8.5 ounces this is a full-size tool, and it is thick. It rides fine on a belt or in a bag and it is genuinely uncomfortable in the front pocket of anything slim. Leatherman sells the Skeletool for people who want the pocket version, and that is the honest recommendation for someone shopping on carry comfort rather than capability.
What owners actually say
Across more than six thousand ratings this is a 4.8-star tool, and the praise is the boring kind — people describe carrying one for a decade and then buying the same tool again. That is the pattern you want and it does not make for interesting reading. The criticism is interesting, because it is unusually concentrated.
Nearly every negative review is about the missing sheath. Not most — nearly all. Scrolling the critical reviews, the titles run: “Does not come with case.” “No pouch!” “Tool Only.” “No Carrying Case.” One long-time customer titled his “Wave Minus.” The complaint is consistent and it is fair: Leatherman removed a component buyers had received for decades, several of these owners had bought previous Waves and reasonably assumed nothing had changed, and more than one reports that listing photos and automated product-answer tools told them a sheath was included when it was not. The tool is not defective. The expectation was. Order a sheath at the same time and this entire complaint category evaporates.
Two more, both worth separating from the noise. One reviewer reports a genuine defect: a lock mechanism protruding into the blade channel so the main knife could not be opened at all. That is not a quirk and it is not something to live with — a Wave Plus whose primary blade will not deploy is a warranty claim, and the 25-year warranty is exactly what it is for. The second is a misunderstanding worth heading off: one owner concluded the tool arrived with “no wire cutting head.” It has one. What is sold separately is the replacement cutter insert, which is the entire point of the Plus.
Finally, a quirk Leatherman answers in its own FAQ: if the scissors stop springing open, that does not mean they are broken. It is common enough to have a permanent entry on the warranty page.
Made in USA Verification
- The manufacturer’s own words: the trust badge in the footer of Leatherman’s own site reads “Made in the USA — USA & Global Parts.” That is a qualified claim, stated by the maker, and we tier it exactly as written: Made in USA with globally sourced components. We do not upgrade it to a flat “Made in USA,” because Leatherman does not.
- Where it is made: Portland, Oregon. Leatherman’s company page opens “From our factory in Portland, Oregon…” and states “From Tim’s first prototype to our latest multi-tool innovation, we’ve been building our tools in Portland, Oregon.” Its own retail listing copy for this tool repeats it: “From our Portland, Oregon factory and backed by our 25-year warranty.”
- What the qualification means in practice: the tool is manufactured and assembled at Leatherman’s Portland plant; the company does not claim that every component and raw material originates domestically. Buyers who need a fully domestic supply chain should treat that as the open question it is. Buyers who want an American factory with American jobs behind the product have one here, and a verifiable one.
- Company: Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., founded 1983 by Tim Leatherman and Steve Berliner after a first order of 500 tools from Cabela’s. Privately held. Still headquartered and manufacturing in Portland.
- What we could not verify: Leatherman does not publish a component-level origin breakdown, so we cannot say which parts are domestic and which are not. We report the qualified badge because that is the extent of what the company itself states.
Specifications
| Model | Leatherman Wave® Plus |
| SKU reviewed | 832531 (Stainless Steel); the Black finish is 832533 |
| Tool count | 18 |
| Tools | Needlenose pliers · regular pliers · premium replaceable wire cutters · premium replaceable hard-wire cutters · electrical crimper · wire stripper · 420HC knife · 420HC serrated knife · saw · spring-action scissors · ruler (8 in / 19 cm) · can opener · bottle opener · wood/metal file · diamond-coated file · large bit driver · small bit driver · medium screwdriver |
| Blade steel | 420HC stainless |
| Weight | Approx. 8.5 oz (Leatherman’s own product copy) |
| Locking | Every feature except the plier head locks |
| One-hand opening | Yes — four outside-accessible blades |
| Sheath | Not included. Leatherman: “Sheath sold separately.” |
| Origin | Made in the USA — USA & global parts; built in Portland, Oregon |
| Warranty | 25-year limited warranty, extended to 40 years for members of Leatherman’s free Insider program |
| Owner rating | 4.8 out of 5 — 6,052 ratings (Stainless); 4.7 out of 5 — 4,572 ratings (Black) |
Pros & Cons
Pros: Four outside-accessible, one-hand-opening blades make this a tool you actually use rather than one you unfold; everything except the plier head locks, which is a safety feature and not a spec-sheet flourish; the spring-action scissors are the best on any full-size multi-tool and owners say so unprompted; the replaceable wire cutters turn the most-abused component into a swappable consumable; a 25-year warranty Leatherman honors by mail and extends to 40 years for free program members; built in a Portland, Oregon factory the company has operated since 1983; and after a quarter century it is still the reference tool the whole category is measured against.
Cons: The sheath is no longer in the box, and this is far and away the leading owner complaint — budget for one; at roughly 8.5 ounces and considerable thickness it is a belt-or-bag tool, not a slim-pocket tool; 420HC is a perfectly good working steel but it is not the premium steel Leatherman puts in the Wave Alpha; the origin claim is qualified — USA-built with global parts, not a fully domestic supply chain; the model naming is a genuine mess, with retired part numbers and Wave Alpha listings both muddying search results; and at least one owner reports a blade-lock defect out of the box, which is a warranty case rather than something to tolerate.
Should You Buy It?
Yes — with one caveat.
Buy the sheath at the same time. That single step removes the only complaint that actually recurs in the owner record, and what is left is the tool that invented this category and still leads it: eighteen tools, four of them one-hand accessible from the outside, all of them locking, backed by a 25-year warranty and built in a Portland factory that has been running since 1983. Buy it if you want one tool that handles most unplanned problems and you carry on a belt or in a bag. Do not buy it if you want something that disappears into a front pocket — the Skeletool is the honest answer there — or if you need a fully domestic supply chain, because Leatherman’s own badge says USA-built with global parts and we will not tell you otherwise. And if the primary blade will not open when it arrives, do not live with it. That is a defect, and the warranty exists for exactly that.
The exact model we reviewed — the Leatherman Wave® Plus, SKU 832531 — is stocked at the Buy American Store.
Who Actually Makes Leatherman Multi-Tools?
The Portland, Oregon factory behind the original pliers-based multi-tool, the engineer whose broken Fiat started it, and what Leatherman’s qualified “USA & Global Parts” badge actually means.