How often do you actually use the knife on your multi-tool?

sailfish

sailfish

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Jan 1, 2019
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A long time ago I used to carry an old Leatherman PST on me all the time along with a small pocket knife. Eventually I stopped carrying the PST mostly for simplicity and weight savings since I didn't find the need for tools in a pinch often enough to warrant it. That was probably twelve years ago. Fast forward to today, I find myself in situations where a having a multi-tool would be handy considerably more often. Thus, I recently started carrying a Wave+ I've kept around and retired the PST for carry since it's kind of a collectible now.

I still carry a folding knife every day, and between way back then and now, one thing remains constant: I simply never use the knife/knives on my multi-tool because I have a dedicated folding knife on me that deploys much faster and easier and has superior ergonomics and blade steel. The multi-tool is for just that, the tools. Pliers, screwdrivers, file, even the saw every now and then. The Wave+ is kinda heavy and chonky, so I began seeking a slimmer, lighter tool that was still big enough to make full use of the pliers, more akin to my PST. The Leatherman Rebar got my attention in this regard, and I saw that there was a version that substituted the knife blades for a pair of scissors. Considering I never used my multi-tool knives because I carried a knife anyway and scissors can be indispensable at times, I found it to be a worthy compromise and ordered a knifeless Rebar yesterday.

So it got me thinking: how much do multi-tool carriers actually use the knives? I understand some may carry a multi-tool solely so this question pertains more to those who still carry a pocket knife alongside their multi-tool.
 
I use the knife on my leathermans and other multi- tools only occasionally on nasty, cruddy stuff I don’t want on my good knives or for scrapping. I have two dedicated edc knives for the bulk of cutting tasks. I have found they aren’t ergonomic for making precise cuts and just seems ackward.
They will work in a pinch just like the rest of the tools on board as I also have dedicated tools that are just better. That’s the main purpose I carry a multi-tool is having something that will work in a pinch when I don’t have anything else with me.
 
I carry a Victorinox Swiss Champ. The one I currently carry, I have carried every day for at least 5 years. I have used every tool on it, except for the knife blades. The one I had previous. I may have used the knife blades a few time. I don't remember for sure. I carried it for over 20 years. But if I did it was a very rare exception. I have other knives for cutting things. The Swiss Champ is in my pocket for it's tools.

O.B.
 
There was a seven year stretch in my life where I only carried an original Leatherman Tool on my belt. I wore out two belt pouches.

I did not carry another knife during those years, and never found myself lacking cutting power.

Usually, if a knife was needed it was because I was hunting and would carry a Buck 119 in tandem.

I used that Leatherman for everything.
 
I don’t know that I’ve ever used the actual knife blade on any of my Leatherman tools. I would actually like it if they would put a saw on the Bond instead of a knife blade, that would potentially be more useful to me. That and a good stockman and I’d be in good shape.
 
I carry a Wave+ and a Victorinox Explorer (don't ask me why; I don't have a good reason). I find that I use the Wave's blade far more often than the SAK, simply because I can deploy it faster. I guess I'm sort of the opposite of sailfish in that my multitool has superior ease of deployment and blade steel than my pocket knife. I don't own any modern tactical, one-hand-opening folding knives, so the Wave serves that purpose for me.
 
There is just 1 single particular task which the blade on my multitool gets used for once in a blue moon at work, but that's absolutely it.

To me a multitool is just not a pocket knife.
The way I see it a multitool is a way to carry tools that wouldn't be as easy or convenient to carry otherwise, and pocket knife is one such tool that doesn't fit that description.

Why rely on an inferior multitool version when you can just carry an actual pocket knife ?
 
I rarely use the blades on multi tools. However I do like the option of having 1 or 2 additional razor sharp blade available if needed.
 
I’ve carried the deluxe tinker everyday for about two years now, in addition to a main folder. I use the SAK everyday in one way or another. Many times when I left it at the house I regretted it and tried to improvise with my regular folder.
 
I rarely if ever used the blade on either of my Leatherman tools. I gave them to my son and son in law.
They Do use the blades enough to bring them to dinner for a sharpening.
SAK and a knife or two works for me. If I need pliers , I grab my BF approved Knipex 6"
 
I'm not a real multitool guy, and have owned only the Leatherman squirt and micra. The micra didn't make the cut, so for the past 6 1/2 years the squirt has been the only multitool I've owned and used. Strangely enough, I actually use the little squirt blade a good deal. I love the chisel grind, and it makes a great florist knife for trimming the ends off the flowers I bring home to my wife fairly often. After 50 years of putting up with me and my often curmudgeonly ways, she deserves some nice flowers now and then.

I don't carry much knife these days, never really did. My pocket knife was always some traditional pocket knife like a small stickman, two bladed hack, or SAK. The small SAK's still get carried as my EDC pocket knife, and I now only actually own the 58mm classic, the 74mm executive and my old war horse the Wenger SI which is retired. Other coin pocket/keychain size EDC knives are the Boker 240 pen, Buck 109 companion, a well worn Christy knife, and a Victorinox florist knife. I've come to really love the chisel grind in my old red giant stage of life. Easy to sharpen, rugged, and cuts like the dickens.

On days when I just have my squirt and Christy knife or 58mm 74mm SAK, the thicker squirt blade anchored in real metal with real decent size rivets, is my dirty work heavy duty blade. Goes through cardboard well, zipps open Amazon boxes, cordage, and trims off stray branches of stuff our back in the garden/yard work days. All other light duty stuff is dealt with using the coin pocket knife of the day. I love the blade of my squirt. Great under the radar urban cutter. Did I mention that it cuts like the dickens?
 
Almost never. 99.99% of the time I'm carrying a multitool, it's riding along with my primary knife. Still handy to have as a backup, or a second blade shape/profile for specific tasks, though.
 
In all honesty, I could get by 98.9% of the time in my day to day with nothing more than a pliers based tool, including the knife blade.

For a good stretch, I used a MT for most every cutting task even if I had a "better" knife on me. If the MT had an external blade, then it was just that handy.

Now my cutting chores tend to be opening a package of a pump seal or cutting off a bit of old gasket or whatnot. I don't need to skin a deer or whittle a dead blow trigger or anything. Usually I already have my MT in my hands fixing a problem and need to cut something to continue fixing the problem. I don't need a super steel. I don't need to worry about it cutting 1003 strips of cardboard before it won't pop hair off my arm...I just need the casing on the overly short wire trimmed back 1/4" so I can put my thumb on it so I can flip the tool around to use my philips driver to tighten it to the lead ;)

Tools like the P4, Surge, MUT, and Skeletool have really been handy. I probably prefer my ST300 and Rebar more in terms of comfortable use, but that external blade has come in handy a lot.

It's one of the reasons I'm thinking about picking up a Curl in the next few months. It would be a slimmed down tool and less complex than my P4 that I have carried for a couple of years. It would certainly handle weekend projects with ease, I would think.
 
I used the blade on my Leatherman Bond to whittle a piece of fence board into a couple of garden stakes this morning. Then I used the saw to cut them to size.
 
I actually use the blade on my EDC somewhat often, mostly to cut fruit when I am out with my daughter and she wants a snack.

Incidentally, I recently started carrying an old Wenger Ranger instead of my trusty Leatherman Kick. 99% of the time, it is not necessary, but I do like having a liner lock. However, the Ranger in a bit bigger, so potentially scarier for other parents (in playgrounds, etc), but I think the presence of the corkscrew makes it read "tool" much more than "knife."
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