What is your perfect multi-tool if you could design one?

My perfect Multi-tool:
Leatherman Wave style pliers (beefed up) and folding design

Outside tools (locking)
1. main blade: 154cm, or better, hole opening plain edge drop point/true spear point blade with bronze washers
2. file: leatherman style with crosscut and diamond (if possible make it removable so it can be used as a knife sharpener)
3. one handed opening sheepsfoot fully serrated blade with cutting hook on back (A la Leatherman Charge XTI)
4. saw: Gerber style saw adapter

Inside (locking)
1. can opener with medium screwdriver at top (like Victorinox) and wire stripper base (A la Leatherman wave)
2. small sized flat screwdriver (as on Leatherman wave )
3. reamer/awl (w/ sewing hole)
4. large lanyard hole (A la Leatherman Crunch)
5. removable tweezers
6. hex bit adapter with a long double sided philips/flat bit (large flat, regular philips)
Also, if possible add a corkscrew and glasses screwdriver in there somewhere.

Case should be molded nylon with a thick opening and should have a place for bits and saw blades, if possible use a good belt clip and make it possible for horizontal carry. (Tec-lok?)
How about you?

Paul810:

Don't forget the wide padded shoulder straps to hold up your pants after you mount that thing on your belt.

My perfect multi-tool would be a solar rechargable, waste fuel powered, self-maintaining robot that could recognize voice commands and have whatever I need on its body.

Simple commands like "build me a shelter" would allow the robot to view the terrain we are in and use what ever is at hand to conform to the request.

In case of injuries to myself, I could always have it carry me while the robot sucks air from our environment and breaks it down into potable water.

Until then, I'll do the best with what I have, and I prefer a tool pouch with a slip jaw pliers (plumbers pliers), needle nose pliers, a knife, sharpening stone, multi-tipped screwdriver, and a short pistol handled saw with different blades. This should serve me well enough in the Wisconsin area.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I´d like to have good scissors on mine and no hook on the sheepsfoot blade. The cutting hook makes it harder to control the blade when you hold the tip. The hook would also weaken the blade. I´d also like to have 10 cm main blade with drop point tip. The 154 cm main blade was a typo, wasn´t it? I have a sword that´s shorter than that.

154cm is a type of steel.

It can be a funny thing when you have forums that are used internationally. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I stand corrected and learned something new. Thanks for the info.
Our metric unit set put me on a totally wrong track <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />.

Yea, 154cm is a crucible made blade steel similer to ATS-34. Leatherman will be using it on the new Ti tools. I have used it in Benchmades for years and I like it, not quite as good as S30V, but still a great steel.

Ah, my pet peeve on multi-tools. Scissors. I have never really seen a use for carrying them on a multi-tool. I haven't found much, if anything, I can do with tiny scissors that I can't do with the plain knife blade, serrated blade, and file already on the tool. For something that is meant to conserve space, scissors just never seem to be needed in there to me. I was recently told however that fisherman find the scissors extremely handy, so I guess mileage may vary. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Actually, if done right it wouldn't be any heavier then a Leatherman Supertool. If produced it would probibly weigh about the same as the new Leatherman Ti.

Excuse my ignorance, but if the USA doesn't use meters and centimetres, do you still work in feet and inches? (We officially gave them up in 1971 if I remember correctly)
It must make trade between the USA and Europe that much more complicated. Wasn't the initial flaw in the Hubble space telescope due to a misunderstanding in the terms of reference?

The misunderstanding on my part was intronduced by the facts that 154cm isn´t really common here and we use upper case letters for steel designations.
I saw a documentary about the Hubble telescope. AFAIR they said that a flaw was introduced because a tiny flake of paint was missing and the shiny metal fouled up the measuring. However differences in units and reference systems can and do cause problems. Doing conversions the wrong way is not going to be a highlight in one´s CV.

Yup, the U.S. is I believe the last place to still use standard instead of metric. We're pretty stubborn about it too. They tried little by little to change to it starting in schools, but there was (and is) basically a huge resistance to it. We like what we have and it works so why change it? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />