Enlightenment

[AlephZero]

I admit I'm not quite creditable at 260lbs as any kind of military personnel (maybe chef ), but I do NOT let anything dictate what I can or cannot wear or use, I grant it, many of the stuff I have could be considered "tacticool", but that's how I like it... I'm not trying to impress anyone with it, that's just me.

I love militaria, and that's funny cause i dropped out of the military after 3 months 

I say live and let live

[theonew]

I wouldn't say I've reached enlightenment but I have definitely evolved. A few years ago I modded a Scientist thinking that would be the perfect SAK for me. I found that I missed having the awl and small blade and that the combo tool, while fine for bottle and can opening was a little too thin for use as a screwdriver. So then I modded a Passenger Plus and it was my urban EDC for about a year. But I still found myself switching to a Farmer for camping, day hikes and even dog walks. The saw was just too handy to be without. So I then modded an Explorer Plus by swapping the scissors for a saw back in October of last year. This is pretty much the sweet spot for me. All the tools see use and I'm actually surprised how useful the back layer fine screwdriver has been. I've used it as a tension wrench to pick a lock, remove a very small and very recessed phillips screw from a children's toy, and it is fits the calibration screw on my cigar humidor's hygrometer better than anything but a jewelers screwdriver. This SAK plus a LM PS4 is all I carry 90% of the time and so far it hasn't let me down.

[GearsNTools]

Very few companies really do proper hardening, and you'll always find out when it's too late. It's a lot of brittle steel out there, carbide problems, remains of austenite, etc, etc. I care more and more about trust in the hardening process rather than the exact steel as time goes by.

Probably nothing beats a Mora on price/performance, but it's possible to beat it on performance.

You'll always end up EDCing a Victorinox, no matter how many knives you own.

And this is just a general complaint: I prefer fixed blades, but laws and public opinion of knives are no fun.

I'm really glad you brought up the part on steel hardening.  people don't realize that you can really mess up a high quality steel (poor crystal growth, hydrogen embritalment, uneven cooling ect..)  and be left with a poor quality blade even if it's made of "high quality" steel.  on the flip side an ok steel can make a great blade if it is treated correctly. 


That's why it's always good to do a little research on blades before you buy, other peoples experiences are worth much more than the packaging. 

EDC: Leatherman Charge TTI
Tool Box: Leatherman Surge
http://www.youtube.com/user/gearsNtools

[ducttapetech]

Yup! That's what I had to do in order to reach my conclusions. Buy lots of tools and try them all at different times, in different conditions and circumstance, and in different pairings/combinations. Good fun, but very expensive 

I'm still in the process of doing just this.

A few points I'd add.
...
9) I can't understand a reason to get a 91mm SAK with plier layer when for virtually the same weight, you could get the Leatherman Style PS, which are much better pliers.

10) I am not a blade-steel connoisseur. I am not going to waste time becoming an expert blade sharpener. Give me steel that I can sharpen easily. Vic and Leatherman (lower end) got this just right, IMO.

11) I STILL don't like semi-serrated blades.

Yeah... that's about it for now.

Lynn, you make some very good points. I disagree with #9 however, as the Vic pliers are superior to a die-cast LM's. They will not break like other brands.

Saddly yes they will. I broke the pliers on my CT 41 a few years back on a clip for a steel fence post. The LM would have done it easy. I love the vic plier, but comparing 91mm pliers to a LM style is not really fair.  Kinda like comparing a shovel to a backhoe.
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[ToolJoe]

    As much as I yearn for a Skeletool, the Juice S2 serves me just fine as a backup tool. Even with that, I rarely use it these days. A Victorinox Recruit and a $3 Coleman pen light serve 95% of my daily needs. Also, if the Alox Electrician had the smaller screwdriver/can opener plus what it has, they would have a homerun and i'd buy one in a heartbeat. Also, why does no one make a utlity knife with screw drivers on it? I think that would be a home run.

[Cupboard]

Also, why does no one make a utlity knife with screw drivers on it? I think that would be a home run.

They do:
http://www.irwin.com/tools/utility-knives-blades/irwin-fk250-folding-utility-knife

[firiki]

Here is my 2 cents:

I like simple solutions whenever possible. More perplexity means more things can go wrong. That's why I prefer good, dedicated tools. Finding the right tool for oneself is a science of its own. The tool I use most often is a knife.

Serrations do have a raison d'etre. Most patterns I see, however, are useless in my opinion. I strongly dislike combo edge blades. Most tacti-cool and Rambo knifes don't appeal to me.

The pocket knife was perfected with the Alox Soldier/Pioneer for me too, in fact I don't mind its lack of scissors much. Deciding which 91mm line SAK is my favourite can put me into a deep state of meditation that I usually exit empty-handed.

Thanks to this forum I came to know Mora knives. I recently acquired a Fireknife they make, so far I find it more than decent for the money it cost. As others pointed out, the quality Mora and Victorinox offer is incredible in terms of value/cost. Both these companies make fairly inexpensive and dependable tools. I still like my carbon steel Opinel #8 a lot.

Annealing and tempering is crucial when making a tool. I get the feeling that most manufacturers neglect this stage of their production for some reason or another.

Ease of maintenance is a priority for me and a sign of a good, user-friendly design, I think. Also, I strongly believe in the "form follows function" principle which leads me to discarding more knives/tools than I'd like to. More money doesn't necessarily buy one better products. Lotsa hype out there so "caveat emptor" for me. I want my money to get me things of good quality that I won't have to replace often. That would be more profitable I think.

Multitools are great to have, though I think few of them are carefully designed. Even my trusty Vic Spirit could use some improvements -a serrated wharncliff knife blade and better scissors would be nice and I'm missing a medium flat SD and a way to make the handles less slippery on it.

The original Wave looks cool to me as do the ST300 and the Rebar, I'd like to try those out at some point.

The perfect multitool cannot be for not everyone has the same needs. Besides that, even if someone did make the perfect multitool they'd still need to improve that design.

I still have a lot to learn.

Multitool.org is a true multitool. Cheers to the great MTo folk