My brother is giving me a hand working on my boat, and it's his birthday on Thursday. He asked me if I could sort him out with a multitool, either bought or built from anything I had kicking around - so I quizzed him on what he thought he needed and why. He has used budget multitools in the past, but has made his purchasing decisions based on price rather than knowledge, and has bought a few nasty bits of crap in the past.
His wish list
Pliers: Cutting solid core copper wire, twisting wire (which generally kills the cheaper multitools he's used to using), stubby pliers better than needle nosed for more strength, and turning the odd nut when necessary - often automotive based, but not always
Knife: General use, but decent quality unlike the "made of cheese" versions of the cheap crap tools.
General use screwdrivers including a full 3D Phillips
Additional: Saw not needed, file could be very useful, scissors a bonus but not essential, something to use as a scribe
I chewed this over for a while, and before the weekend I handed him some tools to play with. I told him to try them out but try not to destroy them,
and let me have the full set back if he wasn't happen for any reason with a full explanation of why it didn't suit. That way I could tweak away at the tool array until I got something which suits him.
Well, he popped down to the boat today and we were figuring out the installation of a horizontal twin coil calorifier, and I needed to trim away a little excess insulation around one of the threads. Quick as a wink his hand went in his pocket and out comes the tools I had gifted him.
"Wayhey" I said
"You're carrying them, that's a good sign".
"They're absolutley perfect!" he replied, and proceeded to tell me how he'd got a good deal of use out of them over the weekend, helping a neighbour with car trouble and doing some work around the house
The tools he has quickly fallen in love with are not majorly expensive, but have put a big smile on his face. I wasn't going to start throwing big buck tools his way, as he doesn't have the familiarity with them - and can be quite good at misplacing stuff
For the pliers and specifically his preference of stubby pliers, I had decided to let him loose with a Jeep branded "Spyder-Guppie" or a re-brand of the Cattlemans Cutlery tool. I chose this not just for the fixed pliers (I suspected he might have more difficulties with the typical folding ones), but because the blade is UK legal (I feel happier that way) AND it has the small adjustable spanner.
It's not the greatest knife in the world, but it's not dreadful either - but I still wanted him to have something better so I added a SAK. I figured this was a good way to get a file in the equation too, so I chose a Mountaineer. The awl can serve as his scribe as well as piloting holes for woodscrews, and he gets his bonus scissors. All that was left then was the drivers. Whilst there's drivers on the Jeep tool, they are oddball sized hex bits, so I figured I'd throw a Screwzall into the mix too. If I had a spare IDL T7, I'd have thrown that in instead, which would have been useful for pulling blade fuses and other task that might foil the Jeep tool's pliers
OK, it's only early days - but the Screwzall rides on the Mountaineer keyring, the Jeep Tool in a pouch on his belt, and a big grin on his face. I suspect that these should be with him for some time, as he still has the Swiss+Tech .... something-or-other (pliers tool on a plastic keyring thingy with piss poor LED light) on his keys that I bought him a few Christmasses ago.
So far so good