On the p38: I carry a PSK with all the frills in it in my pants daily and a FAK with about the same amount of bandages etc in the other front pants pocket. I carry a leatherman and a small folder on my keychain as you point out I am overly supplied with can opening equipment. I have tool enough to be fairly well equipped with my PSK only. Should I lose my leatherman and my keychain I still have 5 blades (two safty razors, two Xacto blades and 1 P38 with the long edge sharpened), 1 saw (wire saw), 2 spear tips( the aforementioned Xacto blades) .

The p38 without modification is a great can opener, a decent butchering tool for small game (the can opening blade can zip open a rodent quite handily), a spoon for eating the stuff from the can, (if you get the colemans adaptation on the p38 it's handle is mod'd as a spoon). The steel is not the best but it can take an edge that is adequate backup roughly equivalent to a sharpened dog-tag. Don't view any tool as simply what it was designed for - look at the other possible uses for the tool. I doubt that your "fist sized rock" can opener is anywhere near as versatile as the tiny little scrap of metal lovingly called the p38 (here is where the patriotic background music downs out all thought of disagreement!) <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />