Leatherman Arc as a Knife - Blade Review (Can it replace your folder?)

I’ve always been a big tool guy, never a knife enthusiast. Hence a Leatherman was always my most important edc item, but I did always have a one hand knife on me. Carried a Rebar with a Kershaw Leek for awhile then got a P4 to have the one hand knife on my Leatherman. The Arc has been my first experience with a super steel knife and holy cow am I in love. I actually would go out of my way to use my serrated blade to keep my straight blades sharp. Only ever owned a pocket pull through sharpener. As soon as I ordered my Arc I got a Worksharp bench sharpener and a strop with some green compound. After some practice the edge retention is unbelievable to me. Plus I’ve been stropping once a week or after a “heavy” use day. I haven’t hesitated to use this knife on anything. By far the greatest thing I’ve carried on my person and can’t imagine anything will top it anytime soon. Don’t even get me started on the most perfect versatile toolset on a multitool ever, or the best multitool platform ever… Anytime I get new gizmos and gadgets I’m happy but this is different. Best I’ve ever had.

This is the exact video I’ve been looking for. Thank you for going over this exact thing!!! I’ve been wanting to replace my folder with a multi tool but I haven’t found one that is 100% good for a replacement until I found the Arc. I’ve got one ordered and on the way to my house now!!

Been looking forward to this brother!

Your knowledge and detailed analysis are bloody impressive, well done mate

I have just about every leatherman and my ARC IS SUPER STIFF ON THE PLIERS. other than that it’s absolutely amazing.

Brilliant presentation bud, professional and enjoyable! 🤗🤗

The Arc blade is double thickness as other Leatherman blades specifically down right before the bevel starts. So this thing is much thicker than normal. Take measurements right before the grind starts and see compared to the P4 etc. Arc is 1.0mm and P4 is 0.5mm as is the T4 and Skeletool etc. They likely did this to make it much stronger because the serrated blade is gone so now the main blade does double duty.

Thank you. That's exactly what I've done and am very happy with that decision. Keep the information coming!

The Arc has replaced my daily pocket knife. Formerly, Sebenza Large, Guardian Tactical Recon 40. It's just awesome having a pair of pliers and screwdriver in my pocket. Screwdriver on demand has been so useful to fix every doorknob that starts to jiggle.

I don't have an Arc, only the Free P4. My two cents however would be that even taking into consideration the superior Edge retention of Magnacut (I own three blades made from that steel, it's possibly my favorite stainless so far), it will likely come down to ergonomics as well. What I mean is how long do you expect to be using the knife blade? If you simply use it to open or cut down something, the Arc will be totally fine (likely also the P4, Charge etc, if you can get over the blade deployment not being super quick, and the fact it will need to be sharpened more often). On the other hand, if you expect to use the knife for, say, 15+ minutes at a time at least occasionally, the Free handle platform in my opinion (as someone with fairly calloused hands) is simply suboptimal in terms of ergonomics. And that's the main consideration that prevented me from pulling the trigger on the Arc, because I don't feel I would use the Magnacut blade to its potential because of that. That being said, I applaud the step Leatherman took with the Arc, and hope it leads to further innovations in multitools.

Great vid! Did you need to use the smaller KME jaws or did the standard ones work?

Thus guy is worried about how well his knife will cut an apple, while I'm thinking of self-defense against a pitbull chomping on my arm. 🤣🤔

Yeah. An Arc and a spyderco Endela Wharncliffe K390 is what I carry for work. Civil it is a TRC this is freedom M390 and a UG tools Tiny MagnaCut and sometimes a leatherman

Love the analysis, makes sense. Probably wasnt feasible but I wish they could have overcome that narrow blade width just a bit by giving us a hollow ground blade like the free p2 and maybe just a couple notches higher with the heat treat. It is already a pretty expensive knife though, and I dont know how that might have complicated things for them or affected their overall earnings equation. Still, like you said, in the end if it works noticably better than all those before it then it does seem like a win.

Solid review that's very informative and useful but a bit over my head when you started talking about how you sharpened it and strop it. I wish you would've tested the factory edge for a while, then changed the edge geo and then did a comparison video.

9:50 .. You have all the stuff .. if you want a skinny blade knife, for kitchen use on your Leatherman, just stick it on the sanding belt until it's all skinny, I plan on taking half millimetre off mine when it comes, (Just keep the steel cool)

Is it possible to achieve hair popping sharpness with this blade geometry?

On all my fixed MagnaCut blades I go 12k then ceramic spyderco UF306 with a 0,25 micron diamond strop. With my Arc how ever I choose 3k resin bonded diamond stone with a 4 micron strop. Cuz in the case of Arc the geometry doesn't benefit from a polished edge. You'll need some aggro serrations for the optimal performance. Field maintenance is done by fällkniven DC4 und CC4 with aliexpress' 2 and 4 micron diamond paste on the leather sheath

I still have to carry my Spyderco smock for the fidget factor alone. And cutting up pizza for the kiddos

Should I just buy it? It’s nice to have multi tool but is it justified for the price?