I just think of my multitool as a set of pliers with a knife blade in the mix . Truthfully, I'd rather have another tool instead of the blade most of the time as a knife is always on me. I just think the knife is of much more use day to day and I like to have it easily deployed and with the exception of a few multitools, this isn't the case. That said, I think you can go overboard carrying too many blades most of the time.