Famous or Infamous?

[Grant Lamontagne]

Tim Leatherman has been called the "Inventor of the Multitool" which most (if not all) Multitool.org members should know by now is not entirely true.  I hadn't realized that SOG had gone on that bandwagon with a similar statement.  While reading about Spencer Frazer, the CEO and founder of SOG Knives.  He is also responsable for all of the designs produced by SOG.  You can see all of his info on SOG's site:

http://sogknives.com/about/spencer/index.php

The bit that I found interesting was this line, in which they are mentioning their innovations:

We were the second company to produce a folding multi-tool with the Paratool.

It seems that they either believe, or are willing to promote the story that Leatherman "invented" the multitool.  Of course it's written to sound impressive, which it does and adds to an impressive list, but you have to wonder a bit about it.  Especially since the tool in question is the ParaTool.  If it had been a compund leverage model (PowerPlier, PowerLock etc) then it could have been listed as the "second company to produce a 'W' style folding plier" which may have been more accurate.  At least then they would have been in the same catagory.  However, since the design of the ParaTool is radically different from the PST, that opens up the catagory somewhat, and there are numerous previous examples that disprove this theory.

Of course, being the second company to the market with a substantially different tool and not a knock off sounds more impressive than being the second company to the current generation of the market. 

But then, history is written by the winners, and I am certain almost everyone at SOG drives a better car than I do, so I guess it's up to them to tell the story how they want to!

Def

[Swiss Man]

  :twak:I beleive that the first multi tool would have been a stone with a sharp edge something you could use for beating your food to death and then perparing it over the fire.   I don't think Leatherman SOG or SAKs were around then.

[Grant Lamontagne]

That would depend on your definition of course, but I think we can all agree that it's not likely anyone would have designed that rock!

It may have been chosen for it's shape, or chipped away to make it more effective, but I don't think you could call it engineered, invented or developed.

Def

[J-sews]

The bit that I found interesting was this line, in which they are mentioning their innovations:

We were the second company to produce a folding multi-tool with the Paratool.

It seems that they either believe, or are willing to promote the story that Leatherman "invented" the multitool....... 

Upon further investigation, it appears that they picked their words carefully, and with a reason. The SOG ParaTool was patented in 1992, but SOG was already selling the full-sized ToolClip at least one year prior  to that.

However, the ToolClip was made and imported from Seki, Japan, which is apparently why SOG chooses to overlook it in their Website history blurb. Hence the "We were the second company to produce a folding multi-tool with the Paratool" quote.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Interesting... that particular slip went right under my radar!

Good catch!

 

Def

[Fred]

i am going to guess that the folks at Leatherman also drive better cars than you do!

 

bout time you put in that pokey stick icon thing

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's not too hard to drive a better car than I do!

Def