Reviving old threads

[Pilotsupergrip]

Apologies, I exaggerated for argument's sake. My bad, I shouldn't have put words in your mouth. Anyway, I believe you might be onto something here.

It's okay, I didn't take it in a bad way I needed to clarify my post also in my opinion. I appreciate the input of your replies!

Lähetetty minun SM-A426B laitteesta Tapatalkilla

[Simon_Templar]

It's okay, I didn't take it in a bad way I needed to clarify my post also in my opinion. I appreciate the input of your replies!

Lähetetty minun SM-A426B laitteesta Tapatalkilla

Great! Btw, I checked ouf your other posts: congrats on your baby! Also, I liked your LM bitdriver idea and wondered if you ever tried out a Cybertool? I think you might like it. The CT34 in particular is fantastic, but since you are a Spartan man, the CT29 might be even more down your alley.

Cheers,

Simon

[Pilotsupergrip]

Great! Btw, I checked ouf your other posts: congrats on your baby! Also, I liked your LM bitdriver idea and wondered if you ever tried out a Cybertool? I think you might like it. The CT34 in particular is fantastic, but since you are a Spartan man, the CT29 might be even more down your alley.

Cheers,

Simon

Thank you very much! It's nice you read my other posts too.

I happen to have a Cybertoolish knock-off. It has the drivers, pliers, scissors and a file that has no bite as all the tools are lower quality. I don't carry it but it always has invited me someway. I've liked the idea of a Cybertool for some time because of that knock-off but im pretty frugal when it comes to new gear as I like to use what I already have. But out if curiosity now that you pointed this out I may have to investigate a bit how a Cybertool would fit my needs. It certainly has functions I would use. I've thought of getting a Handyman or Swisschamp but given little thought to Cybertool. Interesting and good recommendation from you!

Lähetetty minun SM-A426B laitteesta Tapatalkilla

[Simon_Templar]

I've thought of getting a Handyman or Swisschamp but given little thought to Cybertool. Interesting and good recommendation from you!

I wouldn't want to steer you away from the Swisschamp as I believe it is, together with the Spartan/Pioneer, the essential Victorinox. Still, you should keep in mind it has the exact same width as the CT41. So if you value a bitdriver more than the in-line Philips, magnifier and fish scaler, that might be an alternative for you. There is a long thread about this, I assume you already saw that?

Incidentally, the Handyman is exactly as wide as the CT34.

Cheers,

Simon

[Simon_Templar]

One word - Tapatalk

Take the photo on your phone, open the Tapatalk app (with MTo the only forum followed of course ) find the thread you’re interested in, (you can individually follow threads or whole topics), hit reply and upload your pic. No resizing required

The only thing that doesn’t work as well as are the forum specific emojis….I’m sure I’m not the only one very used to typing
: like : (without the gaps)

It’s free too, although better if you pay which is very cheap, less than A$20 a year

Thanks for the tip, Echotech. I just installed the app. Do I understand correctly that I won't be able to use the forum's emojis unless I know the commands by heart?

Cheers,

Simon

Gesendet von meinem SM-G781B mit Tapatalk

[Echotech]

Thanks for the tip, Echotech. I just installed the app. Do I understand correctly that I won't be able to use the forum's emojis unless I know the commands by heart?

Cheers,

Simon

Gesendet von meinem SM-G781B mit Tapatalk

Unfortunately yes, you’d be surprised how good you get at it. Ones like the smileys work but I type out like, twak etc.

[Simon_Templar]

Unfortunately yes, you’d be surprised how good you get at it. Ones like the smileys work but I type out like, twak etc.

  Too bad, I have grown very fond of the forum smileys by now. I guess I will just use Tapatalk to post pictures (it really is very convenient for that, I might even participate in another challenge now) and otherwise continue with the browser   

[Echotech]

Too bad, I have grown very fond of the forum smileys by now. I guess I will just use Tapatalk to post pictures (it really is very convenient for that, I might even participate in another challenge now) and otherwise continue with the browser   

I use a mixture of both but you’ll find you’ll get very good at remembering the characters for the emojis

[Huntsman]

@Simon

As ET says most of the emojis are pretty memorable and self-explanatory like:
 : ahh :    : twak :    : cheers :    : think :   : tu :   : woohoo :   : cool :     : pok   :   

I often type them out when I am updating a post in edit mode

Edit:   : iagree :    !! 

[Echotech]

[Simon_Templar]

Thanks guys, I will experiment a bit. The only one I always found easy to remember is . That sound is just so perfect. There should be more (old) Batman-style sound effect emojis!

That said, I noticed that in addition to no offering them, Tapatalk also does not display the forum emojis. :ahh: That's a bit of a bummer, those emojis really belong to the forum expérience in my eyes.

Cheers,

Simon

Gesendet von meinem SM-G781B mit Tapatalk

[dks]

Multitools are not that exciting  and nothing especially interesting is coming.
They are generally seen as tools, without any "soul", unlike knives, where there is still a lot  of excitement, with new materials and designs.  The traditional thread here is very popular, though not that many post in it.

Victorinox has some new products and there was some excitement around its recent fixed blade, but the rest of their product range has been the same for years, with different, LE, colours.

Swiza tries to produce some more variants, and I a am happy they are still around and accepted, despite what many, me too probably, were saying when they first appeared.

The lack of interest, in forums not in sales, in Victorionox can be seen by the little interest, in forums (here and BF) on their yearly damascus LE offering. A few years ago there would have been several postings before and after the release, but know there is very little.  Those of us that buy them bought them and that is it.

So, summarising, for lots of posts, get into GECss

[Archibald Tuttle]

The world, as always, is changing. Behold the last three years and the always present, for good or bad, herd mentality .
Legacy forums are going away, replaced by other options. Look at knifeforums, Britishblades, EDCforums, etc. etc. etc.
The subjects discussed here, great tools, improvisation, creation and innovation aren't going anywhere. MTO is a light in the darkness, if that ever disappears, you honor it by bringing  a positive attitude and a candle to your situation. This is a amazing site and moment in time, thanks to all who made it possible. 

[Huntsman]

Not a SAK thread - But definitely reposting - What a hoot

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,55957.msg2437161.html#new

[Simon_Templar]

Multitools are not that exciting  and nothing especially interesting is coming.
They are generally seen as tools, without any "soul", unlike knives, where there is still a lot  of excitement, with new materials and designs.  The traditional thread here is very popular, though not that many post in it.

Victorinox has some new products and there was some excitement around its recent fixed blade, but the rest of their product range has been the same for years, with different, LE, colours.

I agree the SAK (multitool) market is conservative with little innovation. This may indeed contribute to the current slowness of the forum. On the other hand, the lack of innovation is not a new phenomenon. It dates back to 9/11, after which the heyday of SAKs was over (as well as Wenger's).

Although it would certainly be fun to get lots of shiny new models with wacky new implements from Victorinox, I doubt this is what fuels this particular forum. Sure, they would be subject to discussions, but those kind of discussions inevitably ebb away once the newness factor wears off. Recent examples for this that spring to mind are the 1897 replica or the new box cutter tool, both of which received extensive but ultimately short lived attention.

I therefore believe that while a certain amount of tool news (and related excitement) are indispensible ingredients for any forum such as this one, they may not be the main draw. At least to me, the main attraction here were always the variety of people from all over the world and their musings about all sort of things, with SAKs only being the lowest common denominator as well as the point of departure for such musings.

To pick just one example, there was (hopefully still is) this senior forum member Carl, who used to share his views and life experience on how more is not always better, despite what one may think when one is still young and arrogant. I always liked to read his thoughts as they made me think myself, whether I agreed with him or not.

It may sound silly, but I for one am convinced that SAKs, in particular how we see them, what we use them for, why we covet them and what place they have in our (everyday) lives, make great metaphors for life and have the potential to teach us things about ourselves and our fellow men. I don't know if that makes sense to any of you, but to me it's true and this is what I found on this forum. I hope I will continue to do so.

Cheers,

Simon

[Huntsman]

I know who you mean CBL51 - Yes I loved his musings and stories too
He is also the creator of the infamous Alox Forever thread

So what I love about this forum is

• The Knowledge: Here you can find the answer any question you may have about MTs and SAKs, if you cant find it - we have folk here, who can answer the question. This is how I first became a member - I was expanding my knowledge of SAKs and had lots of questions so asked Google.  MTo always had the answers - So I joined!         
• The Community: The other thing I love is the community and support and friendship we all have for each other. It's surprising how personal some conversations get
• The Diversity: As Simon says - We have a very diverse community of members - And just look at the list of boards - You can discuss anything
• Not too serious: Of course we are all pretty serious about our SAKs and MTs - But usually we don't take ourselves too seriously and some topics go way of course and we celebrate and love that. You hear bad things about other forums where admins and mods police the posts rigidly - which is unnecessary and not much fun.

These were my initial reasons and loves - I think/hope most of this is still true       
 

[Simon_Templar]

You forgot to mention the great moderators, so I will add that to the above list

Cheers,

Simon

[nate j]

…posts around in which people showed pictures of their EDC and in which the SAK was just a tiny speck of color in a sea of flashlights, tactical knives and even sidearms. I remember often wondering where they might store all of that stuff and what serious problems they must have with their lifestyles if they encounter problems in their Every Days (that's what EDC is about, right?) to which a tactical knife or firearms are the solution. 

As perhaps one of “those people”, I shall attempt to answer, at least for myself.


With regard to where I keep it all, I normally wear cargo pants/shorts with eight pockets.  These provide more than enough pocket space for everything, including at times a pocket-sized pistol.  (Inside WaistBand, or IWB, holsters are also quite popular, but don’t work as well for folks like me who are already carrying a lot extra around the middle.) On the odd day that I have to dress up or otherwise wear different pants, I do have to slim down my carry.


EDC is of course Every Day Carry.  It is not necessarily EDU (Every Day Use).  Some items are carried just in case of need/emergency.  Firearms generally fall into this category.  Even police officers, armed security, and similar who carry guns as part of their jobs typically aren’t using them daily or even regularly, but rarely or never.  They are there in case they are needed.  The same is true of things like auto rescue tools.  How many of us have had to break a window or cut a seatbelt to facilitate an escape or rescue from a wrecked vehicle?  With the exception of those who work as first responders, the answer is probably not many.  But quite a few of us carry them on our person or in our vehicle, just in case.


What makes a knife “tactical”?  A pocket clip and OHO locking black blade?

A properly designed and tensioned pocket clip will hold the knife in a consistent and accessible position (no digging around in pockets to find it).  It will also help prevent loss of the knife, as it keeps the knife from just falling or sliding out of a pocket (though of course it can still get snagged on things and pulled out).

If you already have a package or something in your hands and then realize you need a knife, a OHO makes quick work of it.  If you only have a 2HO knife, you either have to put the package down first to open your knife, or try to juggle the package while you also use both hands to open your knife.  From a design standpoint, locking really goes pretty much hand-in-hand with building a OHO knife that is a pleasant to use.

So, I don’t think one needs to be a special operator or mall ninja to appreciate the utility of pocket clips and OHO.

As far as black blades, I personally prefer uncoated steel, but a black blade isn’t always a dealbreaker if I otherwise like the knife.

[Simon_Templar]

Thanks for the explanation, Nate, I appreciate it!

 Maybe non-Americans just don't get it, but I for one don't see a reason why civilians should carry deadly weapons (except when hunting or on a shooting range), and I wouldn't feel comfortable living in a place where they do. There is just too many imbeciles around.

Sure, there is also responsible folks (like the members of this forum for example), but with these kinds of things I think one should look at the lowest common denominator, that is, the weak of mind, the immature and the hot-tempered. So I prefer leaving firearms or other lethal weapons to professional law enforcement and feel safer in my everyday life for it.

I am aware that there is always a risk of becoming victim or witness to a crime, but looking at the statistics, you are much more likely to become shot in countries without gun control, so personally and for the sake of my family I am quite happy with that trade-off.

Just my five cents, of course.

Cheers,

Simon

[aicolainen]

I returned to MTO today after a "short" break. Definitively weeks, probably months.

I frequent a couple of forums and they all struggle to keep up with new habits and the competition from more accessible platforms like FB, IG etc.
These platforms play into the fact that most people have developed short attention spans. It's fast, easy and superficial.
On the flipside they have terrible indexing and are next to useless for longer, meaningful discussions and as knowledge databases - hence why I stick to the good old forums.

So why did I take a break? Well it wasn't intentional, it just happened. It's a value proposition, and spending time in real life generally have a better return on the time invested. But let me break it down a bit more;
I'm not a collector. I visit forums to find out what works, get new ideas, learn about modding - anything that could improve or make me more efficient in my real life. Of course I enjoy the off topics and social interactions as well - but it's a side effect, it's not what pulls me in.

As someone mentioned in an earlier post; there's not a lot going on in the multitool sphere. Very little invention and new ideas. The established brands are just wrapping their old ideas in slightly different packaging.
That's sad, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if there was a thriving community of modders and DIY'ers sharing ideas and how-to's.
Unfortunately (for me at least) that's not a common theme. Pictures alone are only interesting for so long.
This isn't something that's just affecting this forum, it's a trend I see almost everywhere. The only place(s) I can still reliably read threads from creative and skilled DIY'ers sharing their process and reasoning are in forums concerning sports shooting and hunting.

Now this may come across as if I'm a blue collar / tradesman using my tools all the time. I'm not. Like most who have chimed in I'm an office worker, but I work in electrical/electronics engineering, so I kind of have one foot in the office/computer space and the other in the more practical lab-/field prototyping/testing space. This duality makes multitools an ideal compromise in many situations, because I often need tools, but as an office worker I lack the pocket space, tool bags etc. that a tradesman would have for his/her tools.

[Huntsman]

Good to have you back aicey and thanks for the post - Good comments

Totally agree with you about FB etc vs forums

It's probably been said above - But there are a few factors I think working against MTs, SAKs and their forums.

• The disposable society in which we all live these days - Products are designed to, and people tend to, throw away - rather than fix - Although with increasing environmental awareness in the world, and business, hopefully this will revert somewhat
• As a corollary to the above - People are lazy and less self-sufficient
• Of course the increasing anti-knife attitudes and laws of governments across the world - Let's not go there now!!
• If you look at the MTs and SAKs that are, and have been, available over the years - There has been so much innovation and products - so now, maybe this whole industry has plateaued, in terms of innovation and new stuff. Hopefully the products and industry will remain, as I firmly believe we all need these products (although see first point above! ) - But as aicey says maybe we leave the innovation to the modders    

[smiller43147]

I've felt the same thing recently.  Bumped an old thread that still resonates with me: https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,78686.new.html

[SteveC]

Good discussion and interesting topic.   

I'll bump this thread as it's pretty relevant to the health of the forum   

[Tasky]

EDC is like anything - There are people who just do it, there are people who get proper geekily into it, and there are people who try to build it into an entire industry, subculture and scene.
I remember when Vaping became a 'scene' and people were showing off their vaper profiles with how long they'd been vaping (usually 2-3 years), what their signature tricks were, who their preferred brand sponsors were, etc... Whole regiments of merchandising freaks and vaping gurus, with the most legendary coil makers and mixologists.

Yeah.

PSG is right in that EDC has its own side of that, to the point where there are articles on how to build a colour-coordinated EDC, because "an EDC" is a set list of things that everyone has to carry and you're not an EDCer if you don't have a flashlight, pen, knife, hank, lip balm(!!) and pocket pouch.... colour-matched titanium everythings, which individually cost more than my car, none of which gets carried more often than a couple of days per month at best. 

However, while this forum does feature an element of showing stuff off, I've certainly spent my time talking the hind legs off donkeys about the minute details of the ILP or Wenger's scale tools.
You gimme an engaging topic, I'll fill the thread with posts about it. In truth, my biggest regret is that I have so littl etime to take photos and make videos about all this cool smurf that sits in my numerous pockets... and I'll delight in telling you aaaaaaaaaaall about those pockets, too!!

For me, three pages of new posts is a good hour or two just to trawl through the bits that sound interesting, and God help you if you get me talking about something. Several members will attest to that!!

[SteveC]

 

This one


https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,87972.0.html

[PitCarver]

EDC is like anything - There are people who just do it, there are people who get proper geekily into it, and there are people who try to build it into an entire industry, subculture and scene.

Yeah.

PSG is right in that EDC has its own side of that, to the point where there are articles on how to build a colour-coordinated EDC, because "an EDC" is a set list of things that everyone has to carry and you're not an EDCer if you don't have a flashlight, pen, knife, hank, lip balm(!!) and pocket pouch.... colour-matched titanium everythings, which individually cost more than my car, none of which gets carried more often than a couple of days per month at best. 

Yep.
I've settled in to my EDC for awhile now.  While a nice new red Alox MiniChamp is still a Grail for me, my silver matches my hair.  All those that insist on having matching gear have driven me to calling mine "PóBoy EDC"

But, it works for me.  😎

[Pilotsupergrip]

EDC is like anything - There are people who just do it, there are people who get proper geekily into it, and there are people who try to build it into an entire industry, subculture and scene.
I remember when Vaping became a 'scene' and people were showing off their vaper profiles with how long they'd been vaping (usually 2-3 years), what their signature tricks were, who their preferred brand sponsors were, etc... Whole regiments of merchandising freaks and vaping gurus, with the most legendary coil makers and mixologists.

Yeah.

PSG is right in that EDC has its own side of that, to the point where there are articles on how to build a colour-coordinated EDC, because "an EDC" is a set list of things that everyone has to carry and you're not an EDCer if you don't have a flashlight, pen, knife, hank, lip balm(!!) and pocket pouch.... colour-matched titanium everythings, which individually cost more than my car, none of which gets carried more often than a couple of days per month at best. 

However, while this forum does feature an element of showing stuff off, I've certainly spent my time talking the hind legs off donkeys about the minute details of the ILP or Wenger's scale tools.
You gimme an engaging topic, I'll fill the thread with posts about it. In truth, my biggest regret is that I have so littl etime to take photos and make videos about all this cool smurf that sits in my numerous pockets... and I'll delight in telling you aaaaaaaaaaall about those pockets, too!!

For me, three pages of new posts is a good hour or two just to trawl through the bits that sound interesting, and God help you if you get me talking about something. Several members will attest to that!!

Forgot about the vaping! I was doing that for a while myself also. Then I got some coughing and understood to stop it pretty fast . Do people still vape? Haven't seen that in a while.

Of the EDC. I feel the pictures are great to give you inspiration. Some color coordinated or expensive stuff is pleasing to the eye and can be interesting. But it has come to repeating the same stuff fast as Tasky pointed out. At least when it comes to pocket dumps or pocket organizers. What to add or innovate to this as "EDC" is quite fixed in some way? I think none as EDC is rooted on interest in carrying and using the gear, not photography.

So what eventually survives is the essence of EDC. Interest in what you feel the need to carry and why. We share a pic, to let like minded people get inspired. But I would like to see the why a bit more. This goes a bit against how the social media works, we have pics and short videos on every platform. Not sure if we as humans want to see just loads of cool stuff fast or is it just the evolution of the algorithms to keep us scrolling?

I feel the fix to all of this is slowing everything down. And that's what I witness on this forum all the time. Discussions. Long threads. Enough time to get a bit off railed and joke a little, then get back on the topic again. Be "human" on a forum and still nobody judges you. And the will to revive even old threads! Many people here are long time members or lurkers like myself. This is what I feel like I can trust. Like minded people who are into SAKs and MTs and have been for years.

Back to the topic. Im loving this idea of resurrecting old threads. When I get more time I will take some time with this myself also. Many great threads deserve some new content. It's also nice for people who might visit the forum after a long time to see how some threads have survived the time and possible trends. And I feel we all have some threads that have been important or inspirational for us in some way.

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[ToolJoe]

Besides the Skipper, there aren't any other SAKs I've strongly considering adding to my rotation of Spirit and Super Tinker.