The History of Multitool.org

[Grant Lamontagne]

Gather round children as I relate the tale of Multitool.org!

I tried not to start a multitool site- I really did.  Unfortunately it was the best- actually the only- idea I could come up with.

Following the success we had building SOSAKOnline I wanted to try my hand at building a forum.  It had to be something that I was interested in, but not something that was already being done, and the best I could come up with were multitools.  Since SOSAKOnline had it's roots in a SAK subforum at Knifeforums, I really couldn't do a SAK forum in good conscience.  BF had a multitool and multifunction (SAK) forum but I was never a member at BF.  Knifeforums was my home and I didn’t want to step on their toes in creating a new site, and the only thing they really didn’t cover were multitools, so I decided this was the only way I had to go and eventually registered the name Multitool.org.  I wasn’t really sure it would go anywhere- after all I have about 25 multitools at the time, but I really didn’t know anyone else who had anywhere near that level.

I started talking to a guy who had messaged me in SOSAK one day looking for info on a wood scale mod I’d done some time before, and it turned out that he had actually pioneered the multitool review site.  I believe the original site was MultiPro which failed and he eventually built The Multitool Manifesto, which managed to get a little further before failing as well.  Rather it didn’t so much fail as it started in obscurity and sank from there.  This guy, David Bowen had some experience I wanted to draw on, some reviews to help us get the site off the ground faster and a passion that seemed to be as strong for multitools as mine was for SAKs.  Interestingly enough I think it was Dave who had linked me to a few threads on Bladeforums entitled “Before There Was Leatherman” and I knew that there was at least one other guy out there who would be interested in a multitools only site, so with a total market potential of three people I decided to make it happen.

I also tried contacting the various manufacturers at the time to let them know that we were starting a new site that was destined to become the ultimate multitool resource site and most kind of paid us just the most basic interest.  I’m sure they all get calls out of the blue like that with folks looking for freebies and threatening to say bad things about them on the ‘net if they don’t play ball.  I never went into it with that attitude- all I wanted was inside information and a contact person to talk to when we had questions.  I was politely told by most that if I had any questions I could contact customer service and if no one had anything better to do, they’d maybe get around to responding to me.  All except one anyway- Chris@SOG was already well involved with Knifeforums and whether he knew me or not he at least understood the potential for online communities, and he not only signed up immediately, but also offered us any and all help and support we may need.  That is why the SOG forum is at the top of the manufacturer’s list on our forum and always will be as long as I’m in charge.  The rest eventually came along, with many not registering and many others registering under names that didn’t let on that they were with the various companies, but more on that later. 

The site actually went under development for a few days until something else bubbled up and it got put on the back burner, then when Esteban and I eventually got back to it something else would crop up and Multitool.org (I was never comfortable calling it MTO in the early days- having just left Toronto MTO was always Ministry of Transport of Ontario) was put on the back burner yet again.  During that time we also tested several different types of forum software before finally settling on Simple Machines Forums(SMF).  It was the perfect forum software in my mind, especially since it was Open Source, a concept I fully embraced largely because it is free.  After about six to eight months or so of being shunted aside and sporadic development I finally decided to just open the site as is, since it was being back burnered so much that I figured the damn thing would never be done.  Of course a few people already had access to the forum to help us test it out.  Here is the very first post and thread ever started on Multitool.org:

http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,2.0.html

I think we were actually running two forums at the time, one at www.forum.multitool.org and the other at www.multitool.org/forum but we’d already decided to kill the earlier multitool.org/forum in favor of the SMF build at forum.multitool.org.  When we finally officially opened it on July 14th, 2006 although by then we had more than the few initial members.  Here’s the original “Open For Business” post I made to let folks know it was going live.  I’m sure members will recognize more than a few names there:

http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,9.0.html

As it turned out, while we were building Multitool.org a German housewife named Helena had developed a website completely independent of us at www.multitoolguide.com and she contacted me out of the blue to ask me if we could join forces.  I was of course thrilled with the idea for a number of reasons.  She was proud of her own site (and rightly so) but she also recognized that a site like what we’d built at Multitool.org was going to be much bigger and more exciting- while she’d compiled info from other sources we were doing it all in house, there were several of us working on it and being in North America we had better access to multitools than she did- plus her newborn didn’t allow her a lot of time to work on her site.  She’d mentioned that at the time the most use her multitools had seen was carrying dirty diapers to the trash!

While building the site I also knew that there’s a common conundrum with starting a new site.  To get content you need people.  To get people you need content.  We had a few people but I didn’t really expect anyone to really have any significant contributions (you couldn’t blame most of them- it was a new site with not much going on and they all had lives) so I created a few different profiles and spent the early days arguing with myself on the forum to generate discussion and even some controversy.  It worked and soon the forum started to really blossom as people who weren’t me started joining in! 

One of the most significant developments in the early days was the recruitment of a guy from Bladeforums who I didn’t know, but who was obviously a significant source of info, as he’d written quite a few chapters of the “Before There Was Leatherman” threads, some of which I’d read before but I never really knew how extensive they were.  I finally signed up on BF, something I’d tried to do when BF started but wasn’t allowed since I only had a Hotmail address in the early days, and despite knowing Spark from his days at Knifeforums, he refused to let me in.  It was a long time before I let go of that grudge, but at this point I needed that guy that wrote these historical articles.  After all, this could not be the “Ultimate Independent Multitool Resource” if I couldn’t get this guy on board, and I created my account on BF just to get this guy… and maybe spam a little…

I sent this guy (username Jooliesews) a message telling him about this new site, and I was fully prepared for an abrupt PFO message back from him, but I really didn’t care- I needed to take a shot, and as it turned out he was actually a nice guy.  It seemed like he really didn’t belong at BF, since BF at that point both because BF barely covered multitools and because BF had the rep for being the place where guys went to swing their dicks and crap on others while moderators only came to the aid of their friends and lorded over the rest with a lofty disdain.  What was this nice (seeming) guy doing there?

Well it was a good thing he was a nice guy, because I don’t think he really knew what to think of this new site- I’d like to think that he saw the potential and decided to stick around, but I really think he was just curious to see how long before we’d crash and burn!  Later on he told me how unimpressed he was in the early days but he appreciated how much effort I put in responding to every post whether I had an answer or not, and how I admitted there was a lot I didn’t know rather than trying to be the Be All and End All of the multitool world.  Of course his username was shortened when he joined here and he became J-Sews, or Bob to those who know him a little better.

As we started to get popular and word started to get around, other sites started to pop up trying to do what we did.  Most didn’t last, but one prominent member in the early days who had equal sized ego and shoulder chip contacted me once to tell me he had registered the domain multi-tool.org and that he was starting his own multitool website and insisting that he wasn’t trying to copy us.  I’m not sure how registering  a derivative of our name and doing what we were doing largely with information taken from our site and members was not copying us was supposed to be a legitimate endeavour but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and play nicely- I even offered to buy him out and make him a moderator here, but he was insistent on doing his own thing.  Unfortunately things went south and he eventually had to be banned after deciding I was the Anti Christ and abusing Bob and I in a series of private messages that I wasn’t included in.  I'd even allowed him to promote his “not a copycat” site here even though he’d never linked back to us on his site, which in my mind would have only been polite.  To this day it still irks me whenever I see folks posting links to multi-tool.org, especially when they are referring to us and just misspelled it.  I’m sure that had nothing to do with his decision to register the domain that he did.     I believe he’s still occasionally active on BF, and he still updates his site from time to time.  I do wish him the best, even though I know he’ll never really go anywhere with it- Multitool.org’s biggest strength has always been the community, and as Dave Bowen found out earlier, a one man multitool site just doesn’t can’t compete.

Amusingly enough, a couple of months after we'd opened for business a Multitool subforum opened at Knifeforums, moderated by a guy named Joe Flowers, aka Joezilla, who was also a member of SOSAK and a member of Multitool.org.  I offered to help Joe in any way I could to get the new multitool forum off the ground, but I don't think that to this day it's really gone anywhere- not that it's a mark on Joe, as he's gone on to do bigger things like being a part of Woodsmonkey.  I remember having a chat with James Nowka from KF a few months after the multitool forum opened at KF and he suggested I was copying him.  I had known Jim pretty well for a few years at that point and I knew he wasn't terribly serious or upset, so I told him how hard I'd looked to try and find something that wasn't being done on KF, and that since he started the multitool forum after mine that technically hewas copying me!  Jim is a really good guy and I don't think he was anything but amused at my attempt to start a forum, and even more amused that I had this forum with a couple of hundred members and I was accusing KF and it's hundred thousand (or so) members of copying us!    Interestingly enough, when I spoke to Jim at SHOT this year he mentioned that he's checked in on us from time to time and he's quite pleased to see how well we have done- it's a great feeling when you are acknowledged by someone who could just as easily see you as having copied or backstabbed them.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

After a couple of years of being open and growing quite steadily we’d pretty well stayed more or less static- I’d added more reviews as I got more tools, usually from eBay or wheeling and dealing with other members, and we’d eventually started the Multitool Encyclopedia, mostly as an offshoot from SAKWiki, which I started as a more factual locale for SAK info to appeal to the guys who wanted more solid info than the magazine type articles I wrote every month for SOSAKOnline.  The Multitool Encyclopedia never built as fast as SAKWiki unfortunately and I believe about 99% of what’s there was done by Bob alone, and for that if nothing else I believe all multitool collectors (and many manufacturers) owe Bob a huge debt of thanks.

The first real huge step forward for Multitool.org came in late fall of 2007, and amusingly enough had nothing to do with Multitool.org, at least not initially.  I had gotten a call from the head guy at Wenger NA whom I knew reasonably well from some of the work I’d done with SOSAKOnline and he asked me if I was interested in going to SHOT 2008 to cover the release of Wenger’s new project, which he couldn’t tell me about in any great detail.  Of course I jumped at the idea and set out immediately to get a passport.  At this time the US had just started to require Canadians to have a passport to get into the US, so I never had one before- I only needed my driver’s license to get in previously.  Of course since everyone and their dog was trying to get a passport the wait time was several months and I wasn’t certain I would get it in time, especially given the Christmas holidays that tend to louse everything up.  Luckily I managed to get it in record time thanks to a lot of extra running around on my part.  Even more interestingly Bob offered to come along as well- I’d gotten to know him reasonably well on the forum but what was he like in person?  Still, it would be nice to have backup so I agreed happily.  I even made this video to promote the site and burned a bunch of small business card sized CD's to hand out at the show.

Multitool.org Ad

That first show was a serious eye opener for me.  Some places we went like Victorinox didn’t have any idea who we were (I was amazed that no one at Victorinox knew who I was or knew of SOSAKOnline and yet Wenger thought highly enough of us to invite us 75% of the way across North America to see their new product), and some had known us quite well.  The folks at Gerber didn’t seem to know us, but I guess I was talking to the wrong people because there were a couple of designers I met later who have been reading here almost since day one.  I just assumed that we were incognito at most booths, and that seemed to be more or less accurate.  Chris@SOG knew who we were after we introduced ourselves of course, but I was really surprised by CRKT- no one recognized us by sight but we ended up spending a fair bit of time talking to Launce Barber and Tom Stokes from ID Works, both of whom were very familiar with the site.  I thought that was great and I really felt like my little side project was actually something worth talking about, but even that didn’t prepare me for what happened at the Leatherman booth.

We finally managed to locate the Leatherman booth and anxious to see the new Skeletool and Freestyle (the Freestyle was the cheaper version of the Skeletool in those days with a non removable multidriver end) we split up, each hoping to get some decent pics of the new toys.  I managed to wrangle a Skeletool, CX and Freestyle and because of their odd shape I was having trouble getting pics.  I tried to get Bob’s attention, but he was engrossed in a conversation with a couple of Leatherman employees and kept waving me off.  I snapped a bunch of pics of the new toys and went over to find out what was so exciting that Bob was passing on a chance to play with the new tools.  I couldn’t understand what mere people had over the awesome new designs, radically different from any tool previously released.

As it turns out, Bob hadn’t started the conversation he was having, although I didn’t find this out until later on.  It seems that one of the women he was talking to recognized him from the website and approached him and that amazed me because a few hours earlier when I met Bob for the first time at the show I hadn’t recognized him and I was looking for him!  Once she had realized who she was talking to she’d called another Leatherman employee over to talk to him as well, as if he was some kind of celebrity!  Once again there was a serious swelling of pride as Bob quickly told me that these Leatherman people were actual site members and knew who we were.  Bob was happy to have connections, but me being the arsehole I am decided to push it- I asked if there was a chance that we could interview Tim Leatherman sometime, or if he even did that sort of thing.  The lady we were talking to said “ask him yourself, he’s right behind you.”  What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I think both Bob and I left the reps rather abruptly as we turned around and there he was, the man himself, Tim Leatherman, standing behind us.  Despite him facing the opposite way talking to someone else there was no mistaking the lanky figure from all the photos we’d seen.  On top of being rude to the very nice Leatherman reps I think we were also quite rude to whomever Tim was talking to as we stumbled over ourselves to get a chance to talk to him, only to realize we were both so stunned that we had no idea what to say!  I imagine it was quite funny to watch, and I wish we’d have had a videographer recording the moment so we could laugh at it for years to come!



All the elation I’d felt from having various designers and marketing people knowing who we were was nothing compared to meeting Tim Leatherman- I managed to stumble out with something like “Hello Mr Leatherman, my name is Grant Lamontagne and I own Multitool.org” and I recall Bob following up with something as subtle and helpful as “I’m Bob.”  Tim was very polite as we struggled to get over our shock and say something worthwhile but it was obvious to us even in our stunned state that he had no idea who we were or why he should be talking to us.  Given that it was the end of the day we’d agreed to come back and meet him the next morning, so we got a quick photo with him and went on our way, and I’m certain if a video of the meeting existed you’d see us giggling like schoolgirls all the way out.

The next day when we got to the Leatherman booth Tim was signing tools for people and when he spotted us he got a big smile on his face and called us over as if he’d known us for years.  We realized at that point that he’d obviously done some research after we’d left, likely starting with grilling a few of his employees and probably visiting the site later on.  We had a lengthy chat while he signed a green custom Charge Bob had brought, and we each bought PST’s for him to sign as well- one I still have and one we gave away I think when we introduced the Charter Membership feature.  It was a great experience and I appreciated that while Tim had every right to snub us (the phrase “I’m important, I have a website” doesn’t carry a lot of weight regardless of what some people would try to convince you) and yet he treated us not with the polite indifference of someone just being nice at a show, but as colleagues, and I’ll never forget that.  The man is a class act from the get go.

While we rode the SHOT coverage for a while the site continued to grow but there still wasn’t really a lot new or exciting.  Yes we had some cool info and some inside tracks I’d tried to develop earlier, but the next great thing to happen to the forum was once again something that no one saw coming, least of all me, and this story goes well back to the early 90’s when I stopped by a house of a new customer on my paper route and some funny looking guy with long hair opened the door.  That was the humble beginning of many of the really big changes here on the site as that hairy kid grew up (despite some of the things that we did together that should have put an abrupt end to both of us) to become the guy you all know as Whoey.



Over the years we’d drifted apart and back together a few times, and throughout the early development of this site Micah had been on the other side of Canada then the UK and had just come to rest in Spain and was planning to come to Nova Scotia to visit his family so he got in touch with me.  Given that the last time I’d spoken to him I could barely turn a computer on I think he was pretty amazed to find I’d started building a small web based empire.  I was kind of surprised to see that he’d joined up here on MTO since he really had no specific interest in multitools.  He started making some suggestions on how to improve the site since he was building sites for other people at the time- apparently not being able to speak Spanish makes it difficult to find a job in Spain so he was working for himself.  Being more of a designer he was able to pick out a lot of problems that Esteban, a programmer and I, some dumbass who came up with an idea but no idea how to implement it could never see.  I made him an admin on the site and told him to go ahead and make any changes he liked rather than try to explain it to me and have me try and find the relevant settings.  Not long after making some significant visual changes on the forum he set his sights on the Main Site and radically changed the look of the whole place, taking us from a very basic site to something very slick and professional looking- after all, we’d initially set sail on the site without finishing it, assuming we’d fix it up after it opened, but sadly we never really did anything with it.  Everything you see here that is beyond the most basic forum functions are all the result of the work Micah has put into this site, and he single handedly built EDCSource for us too.

As I said, there’s been a lot more to it over the years but those are the highlights.  If you are still reading this, congratulations of making it so far, but I totally understand if you’ve skipped over much of it!

Any questions? 

Def

[82brutus]

Just one question:  Who did you say you were again?   

Actually, it's an awesome story and it had all the thrills, chills and spills of a good spy novel.  I bet if you posted it to tattoosteve's GAK giveaway, you'd give them a run for their money. 

Thanks for all the work you've done to get this far!  It's a great place for sure.   

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's funny- as I was reading the BF history this morning I thought our history was nowhere near as interesting... considering ours came out this long I guess I was wrong again!

BTW, Travis was the one who originally designed the logo here- I had a few idea in mind, including having all of the letters built out of multitools, but he (rightly) pointed out how lame that was.  In the end we went with the old Iron Man style lettering and we've been using it ever since.





Def

[dks]

So, Bob's real name is Joolie??
 
Many thanks for the info.. I actually read all of it...  When you posted about writting this I assumed you were joking..     I think you need to add an abstract/executive summary too, for the lazy people.

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Executive Summary:

I started the site.  It's here:

www.multitool.org

Thank you.



Def

[Threeme2189]

That is a very interesting story.
Congrats on a job (very very) well done!

And the rest, as the saying goes, is history

[nelson]

Fascinating, I really enjoyed that and hope there will be a few more chapters to add in the future

Thanks for taking the time

[Grant Lamontagne]

I could spend a very long time telling funny stories of what's happened here over the years...  

Glad you enjoyed it!

Def

[New_World]

multitools are awesome!

[BIG-TARGET]

Great empires have humble beginnings!!!

HAIL M.T.ORG!!!!

[Grant Lamontagne]

See, now that's the right attitude! 

Def

[Ashley]

I read from beginning to end and I'm glad to say I'm not a part of this forum. You all did excellent!

Sent from Ash forum mobile

[Grant Lamontagne]

You aren't a part of the forum?  Since when?

 

You've got an awful lot of posts for someone who isn't a part of this place.   

Def

[EZ822]

I can't wait for the movie version . Seriously it's a very cool story. Thanks for sharing.

[nuphoria]

Oh jeese... I can't read all that!

You all did very well indeed and many gifts should be bestowed upon you

[BIG-TARGET]

The Grant Manifesto

[BIG-TARGET]

See, now that's the right attitude! 

Def

Let me know when you create M.T.Org's DEEP SCIENCE Division.  And we can start our way towards world domination!!!

[Chako]

A good read Def! 

[Nikos]

Indeed a great read boss. The funny thing is, when I first started lurking the forums in early 2007 it already felt like a great place with a boat load of great guys and all the info I could use. Although people have come and gone since then (some dearly missed tbh), the content has been steadily growing and improving; however, it's the community that imo makes this the best online place to hang out. Truth be told, the encyclopedia and main site have never registered with the inside of my skull; every time I need some info on a tool, I first search the forums, then google for it...

Here's to all you MT.o pioneers.

[Grant Lamontagne]

The community was always the most important thing to me, and while some of the names mentioned above were instrumental in creating the framework for the site, it would have been completely wasted without everyone else who has contributed over the years.

Def

[665ae]

Pretty cool history!  Although I'm disappointed, you mentioned copycat but no mention of countless cameras lost while fishing or the infamous phantom Bear Grylls knife!

[Mercury]

Excellent story Grant, very humble beginnings for a site that is literally the most comprehensive collection of Multitool knowledge on the net!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Pretty cool history!  Although I'm disappointed, you mentioned copycat but no mention of countless cameras lost while fishing or the infamous phantom Bear Grylls knife!

Those weren't out stories- they were just posted here.... 

Def

[Pacu]

things really picked up when Pacu got here as his fish forum he haunted went belly up

 

awesome history ..i liked this place the minute i found it

[Grant Lamontagne]

Hard to believe you have been here that long huh?  Of course I thought you'd disappeared for a while, but it turned out you were just changing your name to different fish names and I didn't realize it was still you! 

Def

[THE_LONGBOW]

Great story. Like it is with most great things, they start with humble beginnings. As one of the newer members here, MT.O has become one of my favorite forums.
Thanks for all your work and time to make this site great.

[Chako]

Here is a weird and useless fact. I have posted 6000+ photos to this forum. 

[Pacu]

I always enjoy a post with your pics

great eye candy

[82brutus]

Here is a weird and useless fact. I have posted 6000+ photos to this forum. 

That can't be quite right. Oh wait, that's group shots of the multis not individual photos of the museum, er i mean "collection", right?

Sent from my phone.