There are so many paths to follow there! In my collection I have:
Gerber Sport 400, 6oz.
Swiss Army knife (Hunter??), 3.5oz.
Leatherman Micra, 1.8oz
CRKT Wrangler folding knife, 1.6oz.
Victorinox paring knife, 0.7oz.
And the Tool Logic SL3 Fire just arrived in the mail. It weighs 2.7oz, has a 3″ blade (50/50 straight/serrated) and there is a decent whistle built into the handle, along with a Swedish Firesteel firestarter. The blade has a special knotch at the base for scraping the firestick. There is a lanyard hole and a steel clip. The blade has an oval hole for one-handed ambidexterous openeing and it has a liner lock. The quality is good, with all the components except the Firesteel made in Japan. Most of the screws are domed Allen-head, with one large slotted screw that holds the pod for the Firesteel.
The literature says that a Mag-Lite Solitaire will fit in the same pod that the Firesteel uses. There are other models with an LED light option and I think I would go there before the Solitaire.
So, your can play chess with tool options all night. Getting down to reality, I don’t need pliers for much. If I were working with climbing equipment or something with screws, springs, pulleys, etc, I might want something as heavy and complicated as the Gerber. I use it at work, so it goes in my commuter pack.
The Micra has a lot of bells and whistles and it’s light. Score high for handling little cutting chores, trimming fabric, trimming finger and toenails, even nose hair for the brave of heart :) Tweezers too. I’ll slide that one back on the goes-with-me side. In fact, I carry it daily.
Out with the ol’ Swiss Army knife– the Micra covers all the same bases. That goes in my car survival kit.
CRKT Wrangler. Good basic knife, but I’d take the more multi-purpose Tool Logic rig for survival value, better cutting tool and easier opening. I just might Ebay it.
The Victorinox paring knife. If I were going to go Spartan and have one single cutting tool at the lightest weight and the lowest cost, this one would win. If you were doing a lot of cooking, it would be great. It will go in the car camping kitchen kit for now.
So I’m left with the Micra and the SL3 Fire at a combined weight of 4.5oz. That gives me:
back-up fire starting
3″ locking cutting blade
whistle
scissors
bottle opener (shut up)
3 screwdrivers
nail file
small knife
tweezers
some redundancy for loss or breakage.
I could get along with just the SL3 Fire. It satisfies the RamboFactor and wouldn’t be half bad for cooking. I’ll pass on using it as a grooming tool!
