I rarely used anything more than the blade and the scissors in the field, so I ditched it for a Spyderco Endura knife to save weight. It ended up being just another heavy, overbuilt hunk of metal in an ALICE backpack already overstuffed with more heavy, overbuilt Marine Corps gear. Having just backpacked through Spain, I went with the European variant and bought a Victrorinox Swisstool. When I joined the Marines in the mid-1990s, Leatherman tools were the rage and every boot second lieutenant at The Basic School rushed out to get one. He prototyped the hell out of his idea and persisted through eight years of rejection before he partnered with his college buddy, Steve Berliner, and changed the multitool market for good in 1983 when he shipped his first 500 multitools to Cabelas. Let’s fast forward to 1975 when a mechanical engineer by the name of Tim Leatherman set out to design a Boy Scout knife with pliers. Admit it, you were fascinated by these things as a kid - and while they’re not the most ergonomic or specialized tools, they are pretty handy. One of the earliest known multitools has been dated to the Middle Roman period in the 2nd Century CE, and everyone’s familiar with the Swiss Army knives first made by Victorinox in 1897 and popularized during World War II with their iconic red handles. The great astrophysicist and astronomer Carl Sagan once said, “The uniqueness of humans has been claimed on many grounds, but most often because of our tool-making, culture, language, reason, and morality.” Our tool use is one of the main things that differentiates us from other animals on the planet and humans have carried and used multitools for millennia. The best multitools are elegant in their simplicity, but they are few and far between.īut, when I’m far from my workshop, I have to admit, a good multitool does come in handy. What I’m not looking for are compact tools ill-suited for the task that are jumbled up in a clumsy, heavy, metal contraption. When there’s a task to be done, whether it is stripping electrical wire, driving a Phillips head screw without stripping it, or cutting through oak dowels, I prefer proper electrician’s pliers, Phillips head screwdrivers, and carpentry saws. I have a love-hate relationship with multitools. We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs.
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