Most of us have some form of an on-the-go toolkit, but how much thought have we put into its contents? There’s a community of people who put a lot of thought into this subject, and EMF Camp have put up one of their talks from earlier in the summer in which [Drew Batchelor] sets out their manifesto and introduces tinytoolk.it, a fascinating resource.
The talk is well worth a watch, as rather than setting the tools you should be carrying, it instead examines the motivations for your kit in the first place, and how to cull those which don’t make the grade. If an item seems to see little use, put a piece of tape with the date on it every time it comes out, to put a number on it. As an example he ended up culling a multi-tool from his kit, not because it’s not an extremely useful tool, but because he found everything it did was better done by other items in the kit.
It’s probable we’ll all look at our carry-around kit with new eyes after watching this, it’s certain that ours could use a few tweaks. What’s in your kit, and how could you improve it? Let us know in the comments.
“As an example he ended up culling a multi-tool from his kit, not because it’s not an extremely useful tool”
I recently saw a “short” on YouTube, where a guy makes the case against having those xx-in-one survival kits. Many of the tools are cheap and will fail during the first attempt to use them. I do EDC (every day carry) a multi-tool, but other than a blade and pliers, it is a hassle to use. For instance, It has a Phillips head screwdriver, but the time it takes to screw in/out a screw, is often greater than the time to walk and get a “real” screwdriver that will do a better job.
Please don’t do that. It hurts my brain on so many levels.
I wish more people did this. I find it to be very considerate to the reader.
If you’re only going to use an abbreviation once, and you have to explain it, don’t do it.
Strunk & White are curiously silent on initialisms, but the Chicago Manual of Style strongly endorses spelling them out on first use.
Oh, so I did it backwards, thanks, I will try to remember next time.
I carry my leatherman with me for when i’m out and about, and there is no option to get the right tool from my shed. For some reason it always gives me great satisfaction when i can use that tool to fix something that otherwise could not have been fixed ;)
The vast majority of those survival kits are designed to be cheap, and function once. That’s the point. I can put together a serious survival kit, but only the people who want to invest in it, will buy it. And then it’s, what person do you want to sell it to? Simple system, here is what you need. Knife, combustion device, cover, container (steel), cordage, bandana, compass, light, needles (sewing), tape. Every kit manufacturer that wants to sell it, will save on every item and even leave parts out. So if you want quality, build one yourself. You can either go nuts and buy the best there is, or go cheap and build multiple kits for car, backpack, house etc.
I daily a multitool too. I got a swisstool. It’s mostly for the pliers indeed. Especially since I’m either in the workshop at home or the workshop at work. But the pliers are just amazing to have on me. I also carry a knife on me as the knife on the multitool is just too difficult to get out. It is a lifesaver for me though. I ride vintage and custom motorcycles and having a multitool is an absolute requirement to get anywhere.
For the other things, I wish the GOAT multitool was cheaper. It’s a modular multitool so you can remove the things you don’t use and swap it out for something usefull.
Egads! $299!
https://www.goat.tools/products/goat-multi-tool-add-on-tools
I carry a swiss army knife, it’s the “tinkerer” version and swiss army knives are high quality.
I also carry a Husky folding utility knife, one of the ones with a replaceable razor blade. The blade is replaceable, so I don’t have to worry about abusing the blade or keeping it sharp – just flip around the existing blade or toss it and put in a new one. (On the shelf at Home Depot.)
The ability to actually abuse the knife blade has been highly useful – go ahead and press down while cutting carpet on the cement floor, stick the point somewhere and twist to get something open, cut things you really shouldn’t cut with a knife such as metal things.
I also carry a lighter. My goal is survival, and having the ability to start a fire will get you past a lot of survival problems.
(Also, the folding knife makes a good deterrent for people who want to fight, and owners of aggressive dogs.)
“I also carry a Husky utility knife, one of the ones with a replaceable razor blade.”
A person who went before me through a metal detector at a security checkpoint last week had something like that. I was pleased to see that Security allowed him to remove the blade and keep the rest of it- no it wasn’t TSA-holes.
Either they sell razors much larger than I’ve ever seen, or we’re calling box cutters “utility knives” now. But yes, a knife that can be used in lieu of the right tool can be useful, and that’s why they make stronger knives that just don’t bend or dull instantly in such a situation. Not always available in folding knives, but small homemade straight knives, absolutely. Can get through wood with them, or get thru a surprising amount of metal before needing to be resharpened.
But uhh… if somebody reveals/brandishes a box cutter, the real deterrent isn’t the blade but rather the assumption that they are unstable enough to go from zero to slicey in an instant and will fight without any self preservation. That’s the weapon of somebody who is desperate enough to tackle you into traffic and get you both run over. Not that everyone who carries one is like that, but there’s enough out there not to take the chance.
“Either they sell razors much larger than I’ve ever seen, or we’re calling box cutters “utility knives” now”
They have been called like this for quite a while and people use them in many fields. That is why they you can get different shapes of blades and some are made of special materials plus you can get a heavy duty handle for mechanics and carpenters or solid but much smaller for electricians. At my work only person that use them for box cutting is store keeper – he has the one with retractable blade (everyone else has locking blade).
How many shapes of blade and material can you get out of a trapezoidal razor made of cheap steel and sharpened only on the long edge? How can 0.6mm-thick generic steel be heavy-duty? We have to be talking about something different; the refills that I am picturing look like this:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Oym5L-jbL._AC_UF350,350_QL80_.jpg
Whereas, for a normal length blade, something like this would be normal
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81-SVXHO9IL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
and this would be heavier duty, as a straight blade instead of folding
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TyS8kU81y4c/hq720.jpg
I learned this name (English is not my native language) from tool makers like Milwaukee and Stanley. So I did my research (because even respected tool manufacturers sometimes try to “redefine” well defined terms) and googled images for “utility knife”, checked Wikipedia and even found this:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/review/box-cutter-vs-utility-knife/
“How many shapes of blade and material can you get out of a trapezoidal razor made of cheap steel and sharpened only on the long edge?”
I have seen around 4 shapes and 3 materials but never really googled that. This could be a rabbit hole of it’s own – I am sure Chinese market offers them in more variety than Stanley.
“How can 0.6mm-thick generic steel be heavy-duty?”
I said “heavy duty handle” not “heavy duty steel”. But in this case “heavy duty” is rather cutting drywall, carpets or rubber mats where you apply more force and blade can dull fast than prying stuff (although people apparently use those blades to remove staples) or chopping things off.
I truly hadn’t actually been told about that term, so even though I admit I am biased towards “real” knives, it’s interesting to know the context. And I don’t mean to imply you didn’t get the term from sources that should be good. I just haven’t run across any of them, and it doesn’t match what I previously heard of.
My position is more that if we take all the knives someone could wear (so, excluding tableware and cookware for instance), and divide them based on how heavy duty they are, or how well they tolerate rough use, then almost all knives are heavier duty than a disposable razor blade knife. Including the handle, I suppose, if it can’t hold the blade perfectly in place. Although thinking about it I could see how a handle that can be hammered on could still be heavy duty even though the blade would break if you actually did. (But you could do that with the knife in the last of my three images without breaking it.)
So what shapes are there then? I guess the box-cutter kind, where it exposes a wedge of blade, and then maybe something that exposes the full length, maybe something that exposes only the middle behind a guard or something to purely cut things off? What else? And materials, do they make these out of high end steels even though you’re going to throw them out instead of resharpening them? Or is it more of just a cheap grade and expensive grade? Just from your experience if you don’t mind; I’m not asking you to do my googling for me.
I am not really into those blades much. Stanley offers two types of heavy duty and carbide plus some regular. I think Milwaukee has similar offer. You can get them hook shaped, concave, serrated, rounded on the corners, sharpened on shorter edges etc. Once online I found one that looked like spearpoint – but that was some chinese market and I was making request for company and had to choose some well known brand otherwise it would nit be accepted.
Project Farm has run some test on those blades – both blades and handles. I like his testing procedure.
For that matter, when did people start calling them “box cutters” anyway? They’ve been “utility knives” to me for at least the last half century.
Maybe it’s a regional thing, like pop vs. soda.
Maybe! After all, it’s obviously coke. :P
Ah! a Southerner! Do you also say “tag” for a car license plate?
I think they became being called box cutters because that’s what mass media called what the 9-11 hijackers used.
Another rabbit-hole to fall into! Awesome!
Video sponsored by Amazon. Prep for an event that never comes.
From the video: “where do we get things? Anywhere but amazon, bc amazon is evil!”
Also, “non-commercial, no affiliate links”. Whatever @zoenagy3466 is smoking, I don’t want any.
Also, this is prep for things that happen to us all the time. Perhaps someone commented without watching the video.
I made a small toolkit a few years ago and I probably use it about 2-3 times a month, especially when I’m around people who aren’t used to fixing thing which just need a screwdriver / wrench. I’ve probably gone through 2 or 3 tubes of superglue for small fixes and things that keep stuff working well.
I hadn’t thought of adding cyanacrolyte adhesive to my EDC holster!
Thanks!
Jpn Gadget does a lot of EDC kits for various situations.
https://youtu.be/kEiHTF9zYX0?si=EYRXZYPE6qeJaidw
OK, what’s going on with the comment system?
One of the first two comments on this post was from “pwalsh”: A thoroughly innocuous short list of three tools and a bit of commentary on them.
When I later refresh the page there are now ten comments, and the pwalsh one has disappeared.
Broken system? Somebody got a hate on for a particular user? Thinks using folding utility knives to cut carpet is offensive?
And, 40 minutes later, the comment is back…
So, the moderation system is heavy-handed or there’s a bug somewhere.
I hope it is only a (temporary) bug.
Thank you for sharing my talk from EMF :)
I’m a long time fan and daily reader of Hackaday.
Do you have a tiny toolkit you’d like to talk to us about? Do you have a favourite tiny tool? We’re always looking for more content for http://www.TinyToolK.it . Please send us an email on hi@tinytoolk.it.
Any time, my only regret is I missed the talk itself. Probably drinking tea with MK Makerspace.
“Club Mate”?
I have multiple portable tool kits based on the type of work to be performed. There is some overlap of tools but preferable to a bigger heavier multi-purpose kit.
If you’d be interested in writing up your toolkits, we’d be interested to post them.
This is timely, as I plan my first holiday in a few years, and think about what to pack or bring.
As an Old Man On Forum, OMOF, I have evolved to the multiple kit thinking: one for outside use (lawn mowers, chain-saws, automobile, leaf-blower), one for home plumbing (numerous wrenches large adjustable wrench, vice grips, teflon tape, plumbers grease), one for home communications and electrics (wire strippers and wire-nuts, needle nose and wire cutters, screwdrivers and plier and specials inc. RJ-11, RJ-45, coax strippers, Ethernet tester, VOM, terminations, and clamping.) All kits have a decent lock-blade knife.
In my basement work area in a multi-drawer cabinet, I have complete assortments of screwdrivers, pliers, hex keys, spline keys, open/boxed wrenches, chisels, parallel jaw pliers, soldering irons, various solders, heat shrink, electrical tape, hammers, drill bits, hole cutters, steel rulers, torque wrench, tungsten-tipped scribes, and numerous one-off items collected or acquired over a lifetime (well, life minus 7 years which was the age I was given my first socket-wrench set as a birthday present… big, old Imperial set!)
Rather than discuss common tool “kits”, I think it would be more fun to state those less common tools that are just invaluable when needed. My list:
– spring hooks: push hook and pull hook
– parallel jaw pliers with various jaws: brass, steel, hard plastic
– forceps: various lengths
– vacuum solder sucker
– hot air rework station
Caveat. My friend (Phd in EE) was pulled over for ‘driving while black’ in the Peoples Repulik of Kalifornia. He had such a tool-kit. He was arrested for possession of burglary tools.
B^(
A multi-tool doesn’t belong in a toolkit to begin with.
It belongs clipped to your pocket/belt.
On the topic of multi-tools, a small number of better quality tools is FAR better than dozens of barely(or not) usable ones.
For me, the sweet spot for the last 15+ years has been a Leatherman Skeletool, precisely because it is small and uses all it’s volume for only the most useful tools.
– a blade
– needle nose pliers/wire cutters
– a flat bit driver with a second bit spot in the handle
(I also glued a strong magnet into the hollow skeletal body.)
That’s it.
It gets used 5-10 times a week.
I like multifunction tools in such kits. As many electricians I carry long nose pliers. Once I got those with ferrule crimping notch, my life became much easier. Of course for any planned wiring job I take dedicated crimper. I know at least 3 brands doing similar tools and I am really surprised I don’t see them very often. Also recently there has been huge offer of VDE screwdrivers with switchable blades.
I completly see no sense in multitools – the one I have sucks at every task and is heavy. I would rather carry small pliers and 91mm victorinox.
I have reduced my EDC to phone, keys, wallet and brain. Gets you in and out of pretty much anything these days.
There is a small folding knife on my keys that I bought at the check out of an electronics store many moons ago. It is carry-on safe (Heathrow etc tested) because the blade is shorter than 6cm and it does neither lock nor allow single handed opening.
The rest are real tool sets for a task.
“I have reduced my EDC to phone, keys, wallet and brain.”
“Spectacles, testicle, wallet, and watch!”
B^)
Otto Carrot de-pluralized the second word…
Some of those items are not good to solve problems, they rather create them. ;-)