A last update from the OR Show…
I’ve been collecting knives for a while because I like how they often embody the cultures who created them. Swiss Army knives are tight, compact and high quality, just like Switzerland. American Buck knives are big, simple and durable – a bit like America. Italian switchblades are flashy and sexy… when they work. The classic No. 10 Opinel knife from France is beautifully functional and dangerous. I’m stereotyping and digressing, but within my knife collection I have a bunch of multi-tools as well. I’ve always been loyal to the Leatherman brand, in part because I once saw Mr. Leatherman speak, and he was explaining how he started the company out of his frustration of having to carry a whole tool kit with him when traveling in Europe so he could fix the plumbing in hotel rooms. It would never, ever, occur to me to try to fix the plumbing in a hotel room, but I admire his obsessive nature and the fact that he created an entire industry out of it.
I own the original Leatherman, a Micro (nice, but a hassle with TSA types) and a Juice. I recently ordered a Skeletool based on pure sex appeal alone as they are little works of art. But, as soon as I got it, the bottle opener and wire-gate clip gave me some buyer’s remorse as they kind of cluttered up an otherwise elegant design. I was ready to just suck it up, but Leatherman came out with the brand new Freestyle model, which is a streamlined Skeletool sans bottle opener, and perhaps unfortunately, the screwdriver. These are very nice little units as the knife blade can be opened with one hand and the needle-nose pliers are surgically precise. In general, both the Skeletool and Freestyle are much smaller than they appear in photos. For reference, I can almost hide an entire Skeletool in my closed hand. Still, I like’m a lot.
The Skeletool with the bottle opener.
The Freestyle tool - basically a Skeletool, sans bottle opener.
