“The Multi-Tool Continuum” by Nutnfancy

MT Continuum: A toolkit in your pocket. That’s what the revolutionary original Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool (PST) by Tim Leatherman promised its users. In many ways it delivered just that. It was small, lightweight, and fairly capable. Today’s MTs are even better and have improved on the innovative and original Leatherman concept. It is a good feeling being able to save the day with a multi-tool that you’ve brought along and an MT in your system gives you piece of mind. Cutting, driving, filing, opening, driliing, reaming, prying, grabbing and many other capabilities are yours if you have your MT with you. Current designs, like my reference medium-duty Leatherman Charge series, can replace the EDC blade with their quickly accessed and well-designed blade options as well. And yet, amazingly, few people carry the MT with high percentage. That’s a shame because an MT can also offer key capabilities in emergency situations as well. But of course and as discussed here, the multi-tool or MT is still a compromise for the better capabilities of a full sized, purpose-built hand tools. Successive generations in the MT arms race have come closer to approximating the functionalities of these full size tools, all while maintaining the ever-important compact size, elegant design, and light weight that makes the MT useful and portable. Also Style should be a part of the functional design and but never its own pursuit if the MT is to remain true to its mission of functionality. “Design elegance” for me is the integration of compactness, versatility, ease of use, comfort, strength and durability into a compact and lighweight MT. Ingenius approaches to this goal in successive MT generations make MTs interesting, engaging, and fun to collect as well. But a standardized methodology for their comparision and evaluation should be given. Set forth in this video are Nutnfancys categorical breakdowns of MTs for review purposes: Ultralight (2 oz or less), Light (2 to 5 oz), Medium (5 to 10 oz), and Heavy Duty (10 or more oz) multi-tools. These categories are weight-based since standardized size comparisons are more difficult to achieve. The smallest tools will provide some key functionalities but as the user accepts more weight and size, capabilities will increase (remaining true to my concept of “Firepower vs Mobility” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z50PFup95F8). And each user approaches the tool evaluation differently base on his or her needs related to their activities; some need the pliers more, some the knife, some the scissors, some the belt cutter, and some the bit drivers. As a reviewer I approach an MT review from my own perspective and experience but include these considerations while occasionally using in or adjacent category comparisons for interest. Current MTs options such as Leatherman, SwissTool, Gerber, and SOG serve prepared individuals every day with their already impressive capabilities. As long as the designers stay true to concepts of lightweight, compactness, and design elegance future MTs could even be better. /////////////////// Music: https://www.archive.org/details/Torley_Wong_-_The_Final_Selection).