SUL scissors? (or, anyone have these and know the gram weight?)
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Probably not part of an SUL kit, but in my UL kit I carry the Swiss Army Clipper:
It weighs 37 grams but has a scissor (which works really well for cutting tape, moleskin, and opening dinners), a small blade, and a nail clipper.
Someone else needs to tell what these are and where to get them. I forget now, but I clicked on a link someone posted here. Nice cutting scissors. Great on moleskin, foil packets, enough to trim a pack, probably a nylon strap if you worked at it. Finger holes are nicely coated and have room to spare for my large thumb and forefinger. 7 grams. <1/4 oz.
Oh, I ordered a replacement kit of SAK bits – tweezers, scissors, etc. so in a few days, I'll know the weights and could mail one off.
Edited to correct: Guess I was optimistic. The kit contained no scissors. toothpicks, tweezers, pens, scissors SPRINGS, split rings, but no scissors.
Tiny 2.5" embroidery scissors from my grandmother's kit. Finger holes too small for me to be able to really use them.
Wescott titanium 3" embroidery scissors. Very user friendly. A whole lot more scissor for only 0.43 more oz.
Makes the basic little SAK look like a fat pig!
Comparing lenghth of cutting edges:
My only issue with just taking scissors instead of the SAK is the limited functionality. No knife, no tweezers, no toothpick. So I compared various types and sizes of Xacto blades together with the scissors, toothpick and tweezers. The utility knife blade seems like the best compromise to me, since it's actually big enough clean and gut a fish, although I considered the "spear tip" blades pretty closely because they can be made into a spear that could be used for survival fishing. The drawback of the spear tip blades is that both sides are sharp, so you don't really have anything to press down on if you're trying to cut into something that requires real effort.
remove the "finger hole" (child fingers) and it's the same size as on the SAK classic. 0.24oz with or without the drinking straw sheath (which, btw, works quite well)
.24oz is 6.8g
I had an old Swiss Army Knife Classic laying around that began to malfunction a few years ago (for some reason the blades wouldn't stay in the closed position) and had replaced with a new one. Perfect candidate for creative deconstruction.
Turns out the plastic side panels pop off easily, and the scissors are held in place by only one tiny brass rivet. Took the Dremel to it and a few seconds later had the scissors out. Very small and light:
I scavenged the tweezers and tooth pick (lighter than a week's worth of floss) from the old Classic also, and added a cut-down surgical scalpel. This combination of bits gives all the functionality of the Classic needed for camping, since I have no need for the file and screwdriver. Altogether, lighter than just a pair of 2.5" titanium embroidery scissors:
And it all packs into my multiple-use travel toothbrush so need for scissor tip or blade protectors, which just add non-functional weight.
I guess I'll be leaving the Classic behind from now on.
People have mentioned those tiny disposable toothbrushes on other threads, but I thought I'd give one a try for a week, to see if it would hold up for a trip of that length. I was gentle, knowing that I was trying to stretch its useful life from once to 14, and it worked fine. Not like the real thing of course, but well enough. I won't show you the before and after pictures, but I probably could have stretched it a couple more days. The toothpaste dot only lasted for one use, but I carry Dr. Bronner's and use that anyway when I'm camping. No separate toothpaste. The disposable toothbrush also has a toothpick at the end of the handle, so no separate toothpick needed. Weight savings for the disposable over my travel toothbrush + SAK toothpick = 10.6 grams.
But this created a dilemma, because I had intended to use the travel toothbrush as the case for my SAK Classic substitute kit (scissors, tweezers, cut down scalpel) as shown above. What to do, except go through the gear and get creative?
Hikin’ Jim introduced me to Tenacious Tape at the NorCal GGG #1 recently and I was impressed, so I swapped out my yard of 2" ripstop nylon sail repair tape for 20" of 3" Tenacious Tape. And…the Tenacious Tape comes rolled in a little SUL tube/caddy, with just enough room inside the roll to hold all the little SAK Classic substitute bits plus the disposable toothbrush.
At the same time, I decided I wanted a bit more knife than the cut-down scalpel. What I actually use a knife for when camping is to cut cord (rarely) and clean and gut trout. The maximum slicing depth of the scalpel before contacting the handle is 3/4". Pretty shallow for a decent-sized trout. Plus, when the scalpel goes dull, finding a replacement is not easy. The maximum slicing depth for a large Xacto blade is about 1-3/16", so they work better for my primary use, and they’re cheap and easy to find.
But I needed a handle for the Xacto blade, so I carved a small one out of red oak, used a superfine backbone model saw to cut a kerf the thickness of an Xacto blade in the oak, and drilled it for two small brass railroad model bolts to go through the slot in the Xacto blade. I tapered the handle and filed a couple of notches in it, so it can be bound into the end of a split branch to fashion a frog/fish spear or small game arrow point.
Total weight of prior system 18.62 grams. New system 15.49 grams. Less toothbrush, more knife.
The red oak handle, showing the taper and notches
The knives compared
The old kit
The new kitThe Olfa Touch knife is a SUL cutter at 6.5g and about 47mm diameter. Okay for opening food packs or trimming line, but I'll opt for scissors for grooming.
Well this is a surprisingly cool thread. I love that little wooden knife handle. I could definitely go for a scalpel blade MYOG knife…..i have skinned a rabbit with less haha.
These scissors look promising. The company, True Utility, offers some other scissor options as well. I still like the embroidery scissors best. :)
And for your scissors or knife, i HIGHLY recommend a Sharpens Best poker chip. UL way to keep an edge on a blade or scissors. Very effective. My chip is trimmed down to about 3 grams. This is a stock photo. They are 95% plastic so you you can go to town trimming weight.
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