Multitool Survival Poles?

[BPRoberts]

My wife is fishing around for gift ideas, and she found (I assume from a FB ad) a link to a shady website selling modular hiking poles. I looked at them on Amazon (so they'd at least be easily returnable if they were a scam). Most of them are made up of a series of of rods (9" for the ones I can find documented) that you screw together, with the option to put on various handles (knob, T, compass) at the top, and tools (knife, glassbreaker, AXE!) on the tip. They are (as she pointed out) very cool, and we do like hiking, but they remind me of those 50-in-1 camping multitools that require you to chop your fingers off with the axe to use the hammer, and are liable to break on the first tent peg. Has anyone used one?

[nate j]

I haven’t actually used one of those.

I do have some hiking/trekking poles that I have used a handful of times and like.  They were relatively inexpensive on the big river site but had good reviews; can’t recall the brand off the top of my head.

I also have compasses, and I carry at least one when hiking.  However, being in proximity to metal objects can throw the readings off.

And of course, I have lots of SAKs, MTs, and knives.

As much as I (and many of us here) love multi-functional equipment, some things just work better as separate/dedicated items.

[Sea Monster]

I had a bit of a search to see if I could find what you are talking about - I think I found them...


Seems like a counter-productive idea.

Aside from not having any huge benefits to a random knife, fork, or spondonicle attacheded to the end of a hiking pole - what you want in a hiking pole is....light.

They don't make 'em from aluminium and carbon fibre for nothing - and they tend to have poor shear strength - designed to be used (as much as possible) in compression from tip to handle..

You're really not going to want to use it as a spear or katana or fishing rod or whatever - best case scenario, it works once and you're out a hiking pole....

or, (as per most of the images I saw) you're trying to hike with a 3/4" thick metal tube- which might be handy if you want to break some windows, or do some plumbing - but probably not that much fun for hiking.




Occassionally I see those ads for "cool" products - I go check reputable manufacturer's websites to see if anyone I've heard of it is making them - if not, I assume there's a reason why. (Not to say that the odd kickstarter doesn't have interesting engineering or style ideas that the big brands might not be interested in R&Ding, but if it's a mystery ad from mystery supplier for something with no proof has ever been outside of the room they took the photo of and edited it into a cool outsdoorsy stock image....well, I don't think about it much more)