Quick Knife Review: Leatherman e305x

So a friend of mine was clearing out his knife collection of various things and gave me a bunch of knifes. One that surprised me was a Leatherman Pocket Knife, its not branded on the unit, but it appears to be the e305x which is a discontinued unit, but it appears to be similar to many Leatherman offerings.

So first I didn’t bother taking a picture of the knife on its edge, but its one of the thicker knives in my collection. By my measuremnts its just a hair over a half-inch at for the knife frame, and just under 3/4in wide including the removable pocket clip. Its not prohibitively wide, but it does bulk my pockets up a bit more than my other knifes….but if you do heavy-cutting, that extra handle width will really save your hand for extended cutting where a narrow handle will make your hand sore.

The handle is attractive and sturdy aluminum with nylon scales which are a tad slippery for my tastes, but its not like you can’t get a solid grip purchase on it.

The blade is 3″ with a combination edge. I prefer straight edges just because i hate sharpening serrations. (tho serrations tend to not need as much attention as a straight edge) Still there are times when having a serrated edge is good, and many prefer the combo edges.

Now I’ve carried this knife for about two weeks just about every day, used it for my standard uses. Opening boxes, opening mail, utility cutting, cutting hang-nails, etc. You can see the adhesive residue on the blade from opening boxes. I also just cut up a HUGE pile of cardboard for recycling yesterday, and I found the edge to be of good quality, and it retains its sharpness VERY well. I didn’t even feel the need to give the blade a few passes over a ceramic stone after all that cutting. That’s saying something.

So the blade has a standard thumb-stud that is reversable, but it also has the Letherman “Blade Launcher” which is essentially a flipper mounted at the top corner of the knife. Overall the Launcher is mechanically complicated so it doesn’t protrude when the blade is open or closed, and without a vigorous push it only contacts the blade through half of its travel. with a bit of a more vigorous push generally the blade won’t open to lock. I open this knife with the Launcher and add in a wrist flick to get a positive lock. This is very functional, but I wish the system was a little more positive on opening. The blade is secured with a liner lock that’s right on par with most of the liner/frame locks you’ll find.

Now who’s had a pocket knife and wish it had a carabiner? I certainly never had. Still it’s there, and if you have a belt or tool kit or vest you might want to clip this to the clip is there. It has a lock on it where the clip needs to be pressed inward before it can be folded. Leatherman lists this clip as also a bottle-opener, but the only way I can see it being used is as a pry-bar, which isn’t much better as using the notch in the frame to leaver off the cap.

This shot also gives a good look at the pocket clip which is nice, and I believe is 100% reversible for tip-up, tip-down, left or right hand. I tend to prefer tip-up carry because it equates in my mind with carrying a fixed-blade tip-down, but my knives run about 50/50 so frankly I’ve never felt the need to swap a clip.

But overall its a neat knife, not my favorite, but not a bad one, and since I have it in my hand right now to do this review its going into my pocket for the day.

Can’t beat a recommendation like that! 8)