Best hard or soft cover reference for MTs

[pa_strunk]

Not that Al Gores' internet doesn't have the answer for everything, but does anyone have a favorite printed reference for MTs. Preferably with lots of pictures for the less intellectual collector.

[dks]

There are several for SAKs. E.g Sak owners manual.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Not that Al Gores' internet doesn't have the answer for everything, but does anyone have a favorite printed reference for MTs. Preferably with lots of pictures for the less intellectual collector.

I've been working on one for years, but it keeps getting made obsolete. 

Def

[Poncho65]

Not that Al Gores' internet doesn't have the answer for everything, but does anyone have a favorite printed reference for MTs. Preferably with lots of pictures for the less intellectual collector.

I've been working on one for years, but it keeps getting made obsolete. 

Def

Need to get one out for 2016 and then every couple years a new edition

[Chako]

Surprised nobody has done one yet. If I had the time and the inclination...heaven knows I have enough metal to make a good go at one.

[sLaughterMed]

In the meantime, the Multitool Encyclopedia (wiki.multitool.org) is a decent reference

[pa_strunk]

Hope somebody does print one someday and the In the meantime, the Multitool Encyclopedia is without a doubt a great reference.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Years ago a man named Bob wrote a series of articles called "Before there was Leatherman" which detailed a number of multitools prior to 1983.

Due to a number of poor decisions this man became a very good friend of mine and, not only provided permission to use said articles, but also provided numerous updates to those articles and Avenue more besides.

I've also written a good chunk of a book,  mostly the crud that you find mixed around the important bits in a book.  And, I've also looked into publishing costs, and that's about where we fall down.  We would be looking at approximately $2k to do it the way we would want to do it, and I'm not sure we would sell enough books to make that worthwhile.

Def

[sLaughterMed]

If you can find 100 buyers, it comes out to $20 each.

Maybe try a kickstarter for the publishing costs? if you meet your goal, you will know you have enough buyers to justify a run.

[Grant Lamontagne]

If you can find 100 buyers, it comes out to $20 each.

Maybe try a kickstarter for the publishing costs? if you meet your goal, you will know you have enough buyers to justify a run.

I'd refer you to our recent failed shirt pre-order, but I imagine you get the picture....

Def

[ColoSwiss]

If you can find 100 buyers, it comes out to $20 each.

Maybe try a kickstarter for the publishing costs? if you meet your goal, you will know you have enough buyers to justify a run.

I'd refer you to our recent failed shirt pre-order, but I imagine you get the picture....

Def

Maybe you should start a thread - "Would you be interested in a solid book on Multitools at $25."; and see how many responses you'd get. Assume half of them would actually come through with the money.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Certainly worth a shot.  I'll look into pricing again as the info I have is probably a few years out of date now.

Somewhere I even have a copy of a magazine I mocked up long ago.   I thought about producing an EDC magazine to keep up a bit better than a book,  and I actually printed a few to see what they looked like.

How's that for an MTO secret?   I'll bet most of the mods don't even know about that one. ....

Def

[jerseydevil]

Some might have, some might not. At the same time, there are also mods who can't remember what they had for breakfast....

[dks]

The shirt pre-order failure was kirk's fault.

[AlephZero]

The shirt pre-order failure was kirk's fault.

Goes without saying, that one...

[zoidberg]

Certainly worth a shot.  I'll look into pricing again as the info I have is probably a few years out of date now.

Somewhere I even have a copy of a magazine I mocked up long ago.   I thought about producing an EDC magazine to keep up a bit better than a book,  and I actually printed a few to see what they looked like.

How's that for an MTO secret?   I'll bet most of the mods don't even know about that one. ....

Def

Wait, what day is it?

[firiki]

I meant to say I'm interested in a MTO T-shirt

Too busy at that moment, life is increasingly hectic it seems!

I need a vacation!

[strmliner]

Surprised nobody has done one yet. If I had the time and the inclination...heaven knows I have enough metal to make a good go at one.

Yes you do, Chako!  Go to it dude...   

[Sea Monster]

To answer the OP - I would suggest that you're standing (uhh, cyber-geographically speaking) close to the premier resource right now.


To the meandering subject - Whilst any number of people here could provide very useful consultation on the subject, I suspect (no insult intended) few would be suitable to the task of authoring or editing the book.

While it would be handy to know all the variations of a PST, I suspect by page 60, the reader might want to have moved on 


Would it sell?
Who knows, I see any number of "bibles" in esoteric book stores on subjects that I didn't even know existed, but that are (apparently) lauded as The Book on the matter, perhaps

Multitools For Beginners  by Grant Lamontagne
Sweet As Multitools Bro by Zoidberg
and
Multitools: Who needs women anyway, by Chako

could go down in literary history,
with a single printing each, perhaps in 10 years time I'll find them ridiculously overpriced by gouging dealers in markets and pawn shops.

[kaput]

What if you stacked the Leatherman, gerber, sog and victorinox catalogs on top of each other. And called it close enough...? 

[tosh]

The Book!!
Def, I can't wait for this to actually happen...I'll publicly place my order for 3 copies right now!
I love books and over the past 4 years have gathered a fair few namely Wenger, Victorinox and Sheffield Cuttlers.
But I'd love a big thick coffee table book that I could just leave lying around to flick through and admire.

It would be an awesome addition to anyone's multitool collection.

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'll start poking at Bob then.  TBH, I can't think of a better person to handle the meat of a book like this than him.  I can handle all the filler, but if you want real, accurate info, Bob's the guy to go to.

Def

[gregozedobe]

I'll start poking at Bob then.  TBH, I can't think of a better person to handle the meat of a book like this than him.  I can handle all the filler, but if you want real, accurate info, Bob's the guy to go to.

Def

I agree that Bob seems to have better info on older plier-based MTs than any of us here, he has great knowledge as well as a fantastic collection of tools. 

Watch out though, he may try to divert the project so he can focus it on old (1800's and 1900's) cap crimper pliers     

[Grant Lamontagne]

That is a serious concern with him as well! 

Def

[Alan K.]

I've got a buddy who has written about 20 books.  The process is a lot simpler than you would think.  1) Become your own publishing company so you can assign the ISBN number, and 2) Find a printer who will charge you a set up fee and then print books on demand without requiring a minimum order.  3) Get your book on Amazon for say 20 dollars for a paper copy and 5 or 10 for the electronic version.  The Amazon orders go directly to the printer who creates the physical copy of the book and ships to the buyer. The printer takes their cost and profit off the top and sends the rest to my buddy's pay pal account.  4) Once you are selling books on Amazon you can order a few dozen hard copies and walk them into book retailers and offer them at 1/3 retail and tell them you will come in for a book signing.  They love having authors come in for a signing, but they won't sell your book unless it is selling somewhere else and that's why you put it on Amazon first.

[Poncho65]

I'll start poking at Bob then.  TBH, I can't think of a better person to handle the meat of a book like this than him.  I can handle all the filler, but if you want real, accurate info, Bob's the guy to go to.

Def

I agree that Bob seems to have better info on older plier-based MTs than any of us here, he has great knowledge as well as a fantastic collection of tools. 

Watch out though, he may try to divert the project so he can focus it on old (1800's and 1900's) cap crimper pliers     

That is a serious concern with him as well! 

Def

 

[Poncho65]

I've got a buddy who has written about 20 books.  The process is a lot simpler than you would think.  1) Become your own publishing company so you can assign the ISBN number, and 2) Find a printer who will charge you a set up fee and then print books on demand without requiring a minimum order.  3) Get your book on Amazon for say 20 dollars for a paper copy and 5 or 10 for the electronic version.  The Amazon orders go directly to the printer who creates the physical copy of the book and ships to the buyer. The printer takes their cost and profit off the top and sends the rest to my buddy's pay pal account.  4) Once you are selling books on Amazon you can order a few dozen hard copies and walk them into book retailers and offer them at 1/3 retail and tell them you will come in for a book signing.  They love having authors come in for a signing, but they won't sell your book unless it is selling somewhere else and that's why you put it on Amazon first.

I know nothing about book publishing but this is something to look at and seems like a step in the right direction to me

I really do hope something comes of this and I will buy one