30 Day Coghlan's Campers Tool Challenge!

[Jothra]

Now begins the 30 Day Coghlan's Campers Tool Challenge!


Is that a fish scaler? Aww, man...

This being Day 0 of the challenge, this post will be an explanation of the challenge, followed by my first impressions of the tool.

The 30 Day Coghlan's Campers Knife Challenge is simple. For 30 days, I replace myusual go-to multitool (my trusty and long-suffering Leatherman Wave) with the $6 knock-off version produced by Coghlan's Ltd. of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Unlike the  Coghlan's Multi-Function Army Knife from my last challenge, this tool is not simply a repackaged and rebranded common knock-off—instead, it's a unique knock-off!

I chose this tool because it's incredibly easy to find in outdoors stores across North America, not to mention all over the entire internet. The idea behind the challenge is to find out if, in a pinch, the Coghlan's knock-off can survive in place of a more popular piece of hard-used gear.

Most of the functions on the knock-off army knife survived,to my everlasting amazement. Can the Multitool version perform as well?

The Coghlan's Multi-Purpose Campers [sic] Tool claims to have 14 functions, as listed on the back of the package:


The fish scaler has a ruler and wood file built in? Those things are both deal-breakers, which means they designed a useful fish scaler. I'm shocked.

The list seems accurate, though the "1 1/2 inch knife blade" is completely unsharpened, and will probably function well as a reamer, since the Punch/Awl is not very reamy. This beats the Coghlan's Army Knife box from the 30 Day Coghlan's Army Knife Challenge, which had more mislabelled parts than a paint-by-numbers done in the dark by a baby mole.


Clockwise from top left: Leatherman Skeletool, Leatherman Wave, and Campy the Campers Tool.

The pliers themselves seem sturdy and wobble-free. They aren't very fine-tipped, but most of the plier work I do is grasping and turning anyway. The lack of hard-wire cutters may be an issue, since there are two important tests these pliers are going to have to survive: cutting coat hangers (this happens with alarming regularity) and tying either sidewalk mats or door aprons on construction sites (which happens with even more alarming regularity). When I get back to construction near the end of June, we'll get to really mangle some plier heads. For the record, the Wave has been tying steel mats for years, anytime other pliers weren't available. As the picture shows, this has lead to no real damage at all. Will Campy the Campers Tool be so lucky?


From left: Wenger Evo s18 SC, Campy the Camper's Tool, and Leatherman Wave.

The only serious problem I already see is the main blade. It did not come very sharp out of the box, and I'm having trouble putting an edge on it. It's finally utility-but-not-amazing sharp. We'll see how long that lasts on a blade so generic that it doesn't even sport the usual "Stainless China" tang stamp.

Everything else is nominal. All the tools open and close like they should. The whole tool is stainless steel, which I like just fine, though the edges of the handles aren't rolled in, so hard squeezing may be a tad uncomfortable.


Campy, middle, about the same size as the Skeletool, left, but smaller than the Wave.

So now that the Day 0 preamble is over, let's get started with the 30 Day Coghlan's Campers Tool Challenge!

Edit: I almost forgot to mention that, like last time, the only way this ends early is if the tool absolutely does not work anymore. In this case, that means completely demolishing the plier jaws. Any damage to other functions ain't nothing but a thing.

[gregozedobe]

Thank you for your noble self sacrifice.     

I hope it doesn't prove too painful and I look forward to your progress reports (I enjoyed reading about your last long-term "test drive").

[Nhoj]

We salute your sacrifice
I hope this is as interesting as the last time.

[Jothra]

I think the plier jaws will be fine. It's the wire cutter and the main blade I'm worried about.

One of my resolutions for the next few months is to spend more time MacGyvering stuff, so hopefully Campy will spend a lot of time doing spectacularly goofy things.

The Wave I usually keep in my bag is working on six years of odious, heinous jobs. I don't use it nearly as much as my SAKs, but I have punished it more than any tool I have ever owned. It's unlikely Campy could survive quite that kind of torment. Fortunately, it probably won't have to, because I don't intend to carry it for half a decade.

I'm not sure I've ever thanked you guys for reading this stuff. There wouldn't be any point if I was just talking to myself. Thanks!

[TheDude]

Reminds me of that "Between a rock and a hard place guy".
I think I lasted about a day with mine and then went back to my  turned me off the LM for years.
But still took a place of pride in my tool box untill it became more.... Actually it might still be there.
Anyway good luck Campy! Hang in there little guy.

[Chako]

You are tougher then I am. I could never use it for two days in a row let alone a full month.

That is one tool that does feel like it is worth 6 bucks.

[Steinar]

Looking forward to reading the results from this one... 

[El Rago]

I like your style Jothra, I am too looking forward to this review.

[jerseydevil]

   Here we go again.....

[Jothra]

30 Day Coghlan's Campers Tool Challenge: Day 1

It's day one, and I've already needed to cut a piece of coat hanger. This may sound odd, but wire coat hangers are practically the most useful cheap and Cheerful multitool of them all.

Anyway, I needed my lighter to fix some shoelace ends, but the flint was too worn to push against the flintwheel properly. Campy graciously cut a tiny shim from a piece of coat hanger (one of the more unique items in the lockbox of my truck). Placed under the remaining flint, the shim created enough tension to force the flint and wheel to spark like the early pangs of unrequited teenage love.

Since I had the mangled hanger out anyway, I went ahead and made a few more cuts. Because there is no hard-wire cutter at the base of the jaws, the hanger likes to slide up towards freedom with each cut, but it didn't cause any real problems. I could probably fix that myself by filing a slightly wider cutter down there myself, but I think I'll see how I do without it instead. My hanger-cutting left no noticeable damage on the wire cutters at all.

Yes, I dug out a proper flint when I got home.

On an unrelated note, here's something hilarious I noticed today. It is hilarious because, as we all remember, Coghlan's is a Canadian company:


I guess it is the fish scaler, not the fish scaleser.

I know metrification kind of stalled out in the mid-1980s, but Metric System. Seriously, the changeover was substantially finished by the time I was one year old. I think it may be safe to assume that including metric numbers on a tool manufactured for a Canadian company might work out somehow. Heck, Leatherman includes both scales, and they're American. Although I like rulers on multitools (I wish my Evo s18 had one on the saw or something), this isn't a big deal. I just find it funny.

[Jothra]

30 Day Coghlan's Campers Tool Challenge: Days 2 and 3

On Day 2 I used Campy's knife to cut rope and drill holes in a rectangle of ridgid insulatiom (the blue kind), then used the fish scaler to push the rope through the holes to make a sort of hanging platform attached to 10 feet of rope. Then I used this platform and a big lidless tupperware container full of water to demonstrate centripital force to a bunch of kids. Do it by spinning in a circles like a lunatic, and you become a rock god.

Sorry, no pictures of that one (not allowed), but I'll throw up a sketch later.

Day 3, today, was food prep. The knife did fine. Also: the pliers adjusted some very old bicycle cantilever brakes. Still shiny, though none of the tools even remotely lock.

[TheDude]

Do they make a nice "snap" sound so you can atleast pretend?

[Jothra]

Do they make a nice "snap" sound so you can atleast pretend?

There is no snap. there is neither slipjoint nor friction to hold them in place. There is nothing. The tools open from the inside of the handle, but even the Kick/Fuse/Blast-style dummy-lock is absent. With care it shouldn't matter, but criminy.

Anyhoo, Day 4 has been a bit of a workout. The pliers managed to take off a bolt on an under-the-chainstay U-brake, and temporarily bend the tension spring back into shape until the bicycle's owner can get the spring replaced. The plier jaws still look and feel like new. The knife, however, needs some sharpening after that styrofoam work from yesterday, which is hilarious.

[Nhoj]

Wow sharpening already. At least the wire cutters are in tact. I thought they would be dented beyond use by now.

[Jothra]

Wow sharpening already. At least the wire cutters are in tact. I thought they would be dented beyond use by now.

Yeah, the wire cutters are still pristine, but the blade is very bad. I rarely use my MT blade, in favour of my SAK, but it's still too bad it dulls so fast. You CANNOT bank on the knife blade. I'm already giving that a fail.

[trey]

It took me a minute to figure out what you didn't like about the scale.  No changeover here.  We had a couple of metric scares but it never took.

[Jothra]

It took me a minute to figure out what you didn't like about the scale.  No changeover here.  We had a couple of metric scares but it never took.

Metric and I are buddies. But far more important to me is that I'm four days in, and one of the most vital tools on Campy has already biffed it.

[Grathr]

Another great hardcore cheap tool challenge! 
 

[Cupboard]

That sort of knife is good as a scraper. There's no particular edge to dull by abusing it and you're unlikely to chip it either.

[Gareth]

Keep up the good with mate, we appreciate your hard work.

[Lynn LeFey]

Serious thanks for another torture test on a very cheap tool. This tool is (as far as I can tell) identical to the High Uinta MT I reviewed here...
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,39450.0.html

I said it in that review, and I'd reiterate it... I'd prefer this to the cheap chinese SAK knock-off tool to throw in a emergency kit (for instance). Not super happy with EITHER for long term, though.

[enki_ck]

Lynn's back.

We've missed you, Lynn.

[Jothra]

Thanks to an automatically set mouse button action, I have to rewrite this entire post. Argh.

Serious thanks for another torture test on a very cheap tool. This tool is (as far as I can tell) identical to the High Uinta MT I reviewed here...
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,39450.0.html

I said it in that review, and I'd reiterate it... I'd prefer this to the cheap chinese SAK knock-off tool to throw in a emergency kit (for instance). Not super happy with EITHER for long term, though.

I agreed with this sentiment at first, but the longer I go the less sure I am.

Day 5, only two days after I had to re-sharpen the knife (The Rigid Insulation Fiasco of '13), and having only used the knife on cheese, grapefruits, and one (1) orange, this is my result attempting to cut a grapefruit:


It's like watching a train wreck! A citrus-flavoured train wreck!

This is officially the last test of the blade I will be making. I don't want its abject failure to dominate the next 25 days of reports.

Day 6 started out as part of a fun weekend of bicycling in a nearby large city with a friend of mine. It ended that way, too, but we had an interruption when a bolt came loose in the SPD cleat of his right bike shoe. Since the cleat wouldn't twist with the rest of his foot, he couldn't get it out of the pedal.

Things Campy could, could not, and need not do:

• Could: marlinspike the ridiculous double-knot on the shoe. (Phillips screwdriver)
• Need not: remove the pedal (neither of us would ever go cross-city cycling without a bike-specific multitool).
• Could not: unscrew the spindle for the rear SPD cleat latch thingy (without a lock, it's bloody knuckle time!) (Phillips screwdriver)
• Could: pull out the loosened spindle. It was super tight (go spring tension!) (pliers)

After that, it was gravy. So the pliers are still winning, but the lack of any slip-joint, friction, or...well...any lock makes the screwdriver a menace.

Day 7, we re-assembled the pedal. Campy's pliers helped get the pieces back in, but the screwdriver was incapable of turning the spindle back in. Here is a re-enactment of the nice pinch I got, since neither of us had a camera ready at the time:


Pinchy pinchy!

...and here's what it felt like:



So, the screwdriver is great, provided you want to use it as a marlinspike and not for the screwing or unscrewing of screws. Win? Maybe not.

So, as of Day 7, the only thing that's really impressing me so far is the plier part of the tool. I may as well have spent the same amount of money on a pair of actual, regular-for-real type pliers. But with 23 days to go, onward must we trundle![/list]

[Chako]

One must suffer for his art...and thus...you are very brave. 

[Lynn LeFey]

Jothra, do you think the SAK knockoff would have succeeded at any of the tasks the Camper's Tool failed?

It seems the blade on the SAK knockoff is better. What about the drivers?

Also... yeah, I've considered that instead of a super-cheap plier based multitool, a better inexpensive option might be a SAK or SAK-alike and a $2 pair of locking pliers.

[Jothra]

Jothra, do you think the SAK knockoff would have succeeded at any of the tasks the Camper's Tool failed?

It seems the blade on the SAK knockoff is better. What about the drivers?

Also... yeah, I've considered that instead of a super-cheap plier based multitool, a better inexpensive option might be a SAK or SAK-alike and a $2 pair of locking pliers.

The backside Phillips on the Coghlan Army Knife is far superior, mostly by virtue of having a proper slip-joint lock. Actually, that and the bottle opener driver are my two favourite components on Coghlan. They never once let me down, even during serious construction and demo.

[Lynn LeFey]

I just used my 'High Uinta' version of this tool for the can opener. It works quite well.

I suppose I need to test the blade on mine. I don't wanna...

[Jothra]

Day 8 shall hitherto be known as The Day the Can Opener Worked!

It opens cans by punching, just like Jackie Chan. The lack of a lock makes no difference, since can openers only work in one direction.

I had Shrek Soup.

[Grathr]

 

[Jothra]

Despite possible appearances, the challenge has not been abandoned. Rather, things have been pretty easy on young Campy, but that will change in two days. After the Monday stat, Campy gets a rude introduction to commercial construction in what may become known as the day the challenge really started.

In the meantime, I've still been using the blade for easier food prep (another couple of sharpenings, and still a little wary of the non-locking tools), and the pliers have actually stayed in my good books by continuing to...well...ply. The wire cutters have also not failed yet, though I've mostly only been using them on things like zip ties so far (as well as the Day 1 coat hanger job).

So far, I'm willing to call the pliers a possible victory, but we'll see what real abuse* brings!

*By real abuse, I mean something like tying rebar. I actually have pretty high hopes for this part of the challenge.