Best multi-tool for electricians (2026): which Leatherman, and the jobs it should never do

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Let's get the awkward bit out of the way. No multi-tool on this page is VDE rated. None of them are insulated to 1,000V, none of them should go anywhere near a board you haven't isolated and proved dead, and if you're using a Leatherman to strip a live tail, we can't help you. Your insulated screwdrivers and side cutters stay in the bag for the real work.

What a multi-tool is for is everything else. Cutting cable ties off a bundle in a ceiling void. Opening the box the consumer unit came in. Nipping a loose screw on a dead back box while you're already up the steps. Pulling a staple out of a joist. Trimming a bit of trunking lid that's 3mm too long. The 200 small jobs a day that would otherwise mean a trip back to the van. We've gone through the Amazon reviews and the electrician forums to work out which one earns a place on the belt.

What matters for a sparky, specifically

Outside-accessible tools. If you're at the top of a ladder with one hand on a cable tray, you need to get at the blade or the screwdriver without unfolding the whole thing. This is the single biggest difference between the cheap and the dear Leathermans.

Locking. Every tool should lock open. A blade that folds back on you under side load is a trip to A&E and stitches in the meat of your thumb, and it happens on cheap tools all the time.

Replaceable wire cutters. Copper flex chews up cutter edges faster than anything else a multi-tool meets. Leatherman's better models let you swap the cutter inserts for a few quid instead of binning a £100 tool. If you cut more than a few bits of cable a week with it, this feature alone decides it.

Weight. You'll carry it ten hours a day. A 340g tool on the belt feels fine at 8am and like a housebrick by 4pm.

The Leathermans, in the order we'd buy them

Leatherman Wave+

The Leatherman Wave+ is the default answer and it's hard to argue with. Eighteen tools, every one of them locking, the blades and drivers all accessible from the outside, and replaceable wire cutters. It's 241g, which is noticeable but not painful. Around £99.99 with a 25-year warranty, and Leatherman will stretch that to 40 years if you register it. More than 12,000 Amazon reviews and it's still sitting at 4.8 stars. If you only read one line of this post, buy this.

Leatherman Surge

Commercial and industrial sparks who deal with SWA glands, big fixings and containment all day tend to go for the Leatherman Surge. Twenty-one tools, the biggest pliers Leatherman makes, replaceable cutters, all locking. It's around £129.99 and it's 340g. On domestic work it's overkill and you'll feel the weight. On a factory fit-out it's the right tool.

Leatherman Rebar

The Leatherman Rebar gives you the same core pliers-and-blade layout as the Wave+ for around £74.99, with a nylon sheath in the box. What you lose is outside access to the tools and the replaceable cutters. If you mostly use the pliers and the drivers and you're careful what you cut, it's a fair saving.

Leatherman Wingman

The apprentice's Leatherman. The Leatherman Wingman is around £49.99, has spring-loaded pliers that take the strain out of repetitive snipping, scissors that are genuinely useful for heat shrink and labels, and the same 25-year warranty as the dear ones. Fourteen tools and not all of them are outside-accessible, but for a first year on the tools it's plenty.

Leatherman Super Tool 300

Old-school and a bit heavy at 298g, but the Leatherman Super Tool 300 has replaceable cutters, a black oxide finish that shrugs off the damp in a plant room, and 19 locking tools for around £114.99. It needs a pouch. Sparks who've had one for a decade won't swap it.

Leatherman Rev

The cheapest way into the brand at around £39.99. The Leatherman Rev is light, basic, and everything folds inside the handles. Fine as a glovebox spare. We wouldn't make it the main tool.

The non-Leatherman options

The Victorinox Swiss Tool X Plus is the one people mention when they want to sound contrarian, and to be fair it's a lovely thing. Thirty-seven functions including a hex bit set, Swiss made, leather case, lifetime guarantee. It's also around £149.99 and thick in the hand, and a few of those 37 functions are aimed at campsites rather than plant rooms. If you like it, you'll love it. Most sparks buy the Wave+.

Then there's the one that matters more every year. The Gerber MP600 Bladeless has no knife at all, on purpose. Data centres, rail, some pharma and food sites and a growing number of principal contractors run a no-blades rule, and turning up with a Wave+ means it goes in the site box or you go home. The MP600 keeps the heavy pliers, the drivers, the file and the awl for around £69.99 and stays compliant. Not as versatile off site. Very much worth owning if your work takes you through security gates.

And for the keyring, the Gerber Dime at around £24.99. Spring pliers, scissors, a package opener. It's a backup, not a primary. But it's the one that's always on you when the Wave+ is in the van.

Side by side

Tool	Price (around)	Weight	Outside-access tools	Replaceable cutters	Blade
Leatherman Wave+	£99.99	241g	Yes	Yes	Yes, locking
Leatherman Surge	£129.99	340g	Yes	Yes	Yes, locking
Leatherman Rebar	£74.99	Lighter than Wave+	No	No	Yes, locking
Leatherman Wingman	£49.99	Light	Partly	No	Yes, locking
Leatherman Super Tool 300	£114.99	298g	No	Yes	Yes, locking
Victorinox Swiss Tool X Plus	£149.99	Heavy	Partly	No	Yes, locking
Gerber MP600 Bladeless	£69.99	Heavy	Partly	No	None

The knife law bit

Every Leatherman blade above locks, and in England and Wales a locking blade isn't covered by the "under three inches and folding" exemption. You need a good reason to carry it in public. Work is a good reason, and nobody's getting nicked walking from the van to a job with a multi-tool on their belt. Walking into the pub with it after work is a different conversation. Take it off and leave it in the van.

What we'd do

Buy the Wave+. Get a proper leather or nylon pouch for it rather than the belt clip, because the clip catches on everything in a loft. Keep a Gerber Dime on the keys. And if you do any work behind a security fence, put an MP600 in the van so the no-blades rule never costs you a day's pay.

Prices shift, so the multi-tools for electricians product list has current Amazon prices and ratings for all of them. If you're still weighing up whether a multi-tool replaces anything in the bag, we've gone through that argument in multi-tools vs dedicated gear for contractors, and the gloves you'll be using it in are covered in best work gloves for electricians.