-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Best Multitool For Outdoors?
- Thread starter JK Knives
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2006
- Messages
- 1,350
Lotta replies buddy (we do have a multitool section here!)
Geared to the outdoors you say; do you need regular size pliers in the outdoors? (those darn nails in the wooden horsies!) SAKs are pretty nice and are considered multitools.
You make your own sweet blades, so I'm thinking the blade on your MT doesn't need to be as important as the other tools in it.
We all have different needs and tastes, hand sizes, tool likes, even visual (shiny, camo or black oxide) and if you can hold a few, open em up and play with them that will really help you out.
As you can see Leatherman and Victorinox are pretty popular and you won't go wrong with either, they make em good. Sog has the strongest pliers in the MT business and you can buy individual tools from them and switch em out easy.
Gerber....well lets just say the kids like em and they are fun (good warranty and service) and the rest have their pros and cons, just like everyone of them.
The one I reach for (and I have a few), the one that feels great in my hand (ergonomics), the one that fits ME is the Victorinox Spirit. Not saying it's the best (who can say that for you?) but I like the tool selection, the quality in it, and the lifetime warranty!
but whatever you get, please let us know so we can argue and debate some more!
(j/K)
good luck bro:thumbup:
Geared to the outdoors you say; do you need regular size pliers in the outdoors? (those darn nails in the wooden horsies!) SAKs are pretty nice and are considered multitools.
You make your own sweet blades, so I'm thinking the blade on your MT doesn't need to be as important as the other tools in it.
We all have different needs and tastes, hand sizes, tool likes, even visual (shiny, camo or black oxide) and if you can hold a few, open em up and play with them that will really help you out.
As you can see Leatherman and Victorinox are pretty popular and you won't go wrong with either, they make em good. Sog has the strongest pliers in the MT business and you can buy individual tools from them and switch em out easy.
Gerber....well lets just say the kids like em and they are fun (good warranty and service) and the rest have their pros and cons, just like everyone of them.
The one I reach for (and I have a few), the one that feels great in my hand (ergonomics), the one that fits ME is the Victorinox Spirit. Not saying it's the best (who can say that for you?) but I like the tool selection, the quality in it, and the lifetime warranty!
but whatever you get, please let us know so we can argue and debate some more!
(j/K)good luck bro:thumbup:
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
- Messages
- 2,437
Hope you enjoy it. If you get a chance after you have had it for a while, please let us know your thoughts and experiences with that model. 
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2007
- Messages
- 2,587
A little update. My wife ordered me a Vic Swiss Tool Spirit this morning! Of course I can`t have it till Christmas.Thanks for helping me choose.
You won't regret it.
I've used several.
Victorinox certainly makes the shiniest. They are nice objects to behold. The Spirit is a nice, not too bulky tool with a good selection of implements. The knife blade is odd looking, but i love it. I wish Vic made a single blade pocketknife with that blade in it.
The Leatherman Wave may be the best do-it-all tool if you need one hand opening blades.
The Leatherman Kick is one that I probably carried the most because of it's simplicity and light weight. The Blast is similar but perhaps a bit better suited to outdoors use.
Downsides of each: The Vic Spirit, though having tool access while closed, is still pretty fiddly to use. And I find Vic screwdrivers pretty limited. They're buffed near into oblivion, and I find a bit on the stubby side. I did manage to deform the hard wire cutter edges cutting a pretty small fish hook, leaving a burr on the wire cutter edges that tends to hold the pliers closed. The scissors don't open up very wide, which seems like it should be a serious limitation, but is probably not as bad as it appears in actual use.
The Leatherman Wave seems to me almost too clever for it's own good. It has these little cams designed to retain the blades when the tool is opened, but they look a bit Rube Goldberg-ish. It's nice to have a bit driver, except it uses proprietary bits that are even stubbier than the Vic Spirit.
The Leatherman Kick is the least expensive and most primitive of all, with nice screwdrivers and reliability. This old design however suffers from clumping. And it lacks niceties such as locking implements, file, saw, etc. Just the basics here. The Blast, on the other hand, is just like the Kick, except it has a fuller compliment of locking tools.
Having outside accessible tools isn't a big deal to me. If I had to start fresh with an outdoor oriented multitool, I'd probably go with a Leatherman Blast for it's reasonable cost and usability. Though the new Supertool 300 sure looks like a winner and a real tool.
Victorinox certainly makes the shiniest. They are nice objects to behold. The Spirit is a nice, not too bulky tool with a good selection of implements. The knife blade is odd looking, but i love it. I wish Vic made a single blade pocketknife with that blade in it.
The Leatherman Wave may be the best do-it-all tool if you need one hand opening blades.
The Leatherman Kick is one that I probably carried the most because of it's simplicity and light weight. The Blast is similar but perhaps a bit better suited to outdoors use.
Downsides of each: The Vic Spirit, though having tool access while closed, is still pretty fiddly to use. And I find Vic screwdrivers pretty limited. They're buffed near into oblivion, and I find a bit on the stubby side. I did manage to deform the hard wire cutter edges cutting a pretty small fish hook, leaving a burr on the wire cutter edges that tends to hold the pliers closed. The scissors don't open up very wide, which seems like it should be a serious limitation, but is probably not as bad as it appears in actual use.
The Leatherman Wave seems to me almost too clever for it's own good. It has these little cams designed to retain the blades when the tool is opened, but they look a bit Rube Goldberg-ish. It's nice to have a bit driver, except it uses proprietary bits that are even stubbier than the Vic Spirit.
The Leatherman Kick is the least expensive and most primitive of all, with nice screwdrivers and reliability. This old design however suffers from clumping. And it lacks niceties such as locking implements, file, saw, etc. Just the basics here. The Blast, on the other hand, is just like the Kick, except it has a fuller compliment of locking tools.
Having outside accessible tools isn't a big deal to me. If I had to start fresh with an outdoor oriented multitool, I'd probably go with a Leatherman Blast for it's reasonable cost and usability. Though the new Supertool 300 sure looks like a winner and a real tool.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 4,360
I'm a big fan of the spirit, but the wave is high up there too. Just make sure to keep it clean and oiled at least before you go out. Those little tools can rip off the tips of fingernails pretty easy.