Leatherman Goes Old School With New, Budget-Friendly ‘Bond’

For $50, Leatherman will now sell you the Bond, a basic, sorta updated version of their very first multitool called the PST. That’s a pretty good price for a Leatherman, many of which are twice that in price. The Bond is 5.8 ounces of throwback. The tools are all inside the handles, meaning you have to open the pliers, then pick out the knife, for example, then fold the pliers back to use. Most modern Leatherman…Leathermans? Leathermen?…have their tools on the outside of the handles, so you don’t need to open the whole thing up to access them.

That’s fine though, because the Bond is about value. You get 14 tools, still probably about 11 more than you’ll ever actually need or use (knife, pliers, and bottle opener doing 99.9% of all multitool work), and a burly, rounded handle design that makes the tool easy to hold and use. I’m partial to the Leatherman Free, which can be used with one hand, but the Bond costs half of what the Free does.

It feels like the kind of Leatherman you’ll hand down to your kids one day. Actually, it feels like someone from a previous generation handed it down to you.

• BUY $50