In an emergency, often the most important thing to do is to fix what is broken, and that is where a multitool excels.

And that may be all that is needed to turn an emergency into an inconvenience and prevent the emergency from becoming a survival situation.

The one time I left out of the house without my Leatherman Supertool, I got trapped in the bathroom at Albertson's at almost 11:00 pm.

Making a feminine hygene run for my honey-bunny and before leaving the house I looked at my leatherman and thought "nah, I'm just going to the store".

Never again will I buy tampons without my multitool!!!

Some jack-leg pulled the screws out of the door knob on the men's room so that when I pulled the door closed, the knob came off and I was trapped.

I tried yelling help through the hole where the knob used to be but to no avail. The night stocking grunts had their ipods or something else stuck in their ears and I was on my own. (I wonder if Les could make a Survivorman episode out of that?)

Fortunately, I had my Delica stuck in my waistband and used it to jimmy the door open (not what I had in mind when I bought it but what the heck).

I told my wife to bury me with my Leatherman when the time comes and she quickly told me she was not about to stick a perfectly good multitool in the ground.

BTW: not only do I carry my multitool EVERYWHERE, but I also have added feminine hygene goodies to the hurricanne box, car BOB, etc so I won't have to make anymore midnight runs to the store.

I suspect that the troll thing came to pass because your question has been asked here more than once. But if you did not spend hours (days) reading back issues, or do a certain amount of searching, you would not know that. Enjoy your Wave, I do mine (and it is my third Leatherman).

ps. I prefer to have my Wave attached to my belt, if yours is in a jacket pocket, and you are not wearing the jacket when you need it, you are SOL...

"...simple trigonometry..."

An oxymoron, right???

I acknowledge a multitool has its merits, but I still wouldn't carry it everyday. Maybe if I was a firefighter or working in maintenance or something like that, but not all the time. Most of the items I listed I do carry everyday. The folding scissors and Sliver Grippers are on my keychain along with a Fox-40 whistle and Photon II. The p51 is in my wallet and the Spyderco Delica is on my waistband and doesn't show.

As for using the multitool saw in the woods, say in a winter setting the cold would catch you. Say you're wearing a parka, you have to remove your mitts, grab it from the sheath (unless you carry it on your neck) open the tiny saw in the bitter cold, be careful not to drop it in deep snow and so on, it's out of the question.

Bah- I have size 12.5 feet, 12 give or take an eigth. I also know my hands and feet for measurements like a Russian infantryman knows his spade. If I don't need to be closer than a quarter inch, my shoes come off. :P

It was part of the tone of the post, I couldn't tell if you were looking for advice or to bicker. If I had thought it really was trolling (better than 60% chance), I wouldn't have bothered to add.

Nothing wrong with carrying the "equivalent tools" to a multitool every day. In fact, that's what the multitool evolved from -- trying to cram the essence of that functionality into a single package.

You can certainly get the same functionality in stronger tools, for less money, but with more bulk.

In my younger days, I rarely carried a multitool with me on my solo backpacking trips. I could assemble equivalent "capabilities" and save several ounces. And in situations where you carry everything on your back (and are responsible for others' welfare too), those few ounces are better spent on backup clothing etc.

The thing about a good multitool is that I have it within reach at all times. There are more powerful tools in my car in the parking lot, in my shop, etc. etc. Every "kit" I have has better tools. But if I'm on the 30th floor of some office tower, they might as well be on Mars.

Something that just occured to me (sorry I'm posting so much in this).

I may have mentioned it before, buy my girlfriend recieved a Leatherman PST as a gift before she left to Africa on a 2-year Peace Corps stint. Used it A LOT. It still looks pretty good, despite a bit of rust spotting on the blade. But apparently the entire village used it and loved it.

Anyway... she still sends packages to her village. If any of you have old/retired multi-tools and want to donate them, I'll make sure they get sent in her next care package (my contributions last time were soccer balls, a pump, and some Photon lights). PM me if you're interested.

Sorry for the "ad" type of tone with this, it's supposed to be an endorsement for teh usefulness of a multitool in certain situations!

For some good stories about the usefulness of a mutitool, check out the "Tool Tales" section under the "Leatherman World" heading on Leatherman's website...

There are some interesting applications of their fine tools in there...which I imagine similar brands could serve, as well. I own a few Leatherman and Gerber multi-tools, and I have to say I prefer Leatherman above the Gerbers, though I have no ties to either company.

Harley