At the end of the handle of this pair of collapsible pliers is a glass-breaker bit, which can be pulled out and replace with screwdriver bits.
Carrying a multi-tool is almost mandatory while outdoors.
Nary a day goes by out in the wild without encountering something that needs cutting, screwing, plucking, prying, snipping, whittling, pinching, crimping, sawing, filing, scraping, hammering, chiselling ... you get the point.
Multi-tools with strong, collapsible pliers are often deemed as the most useful tool for almost any outdoor adventure.But one cannot go a-wandering with a knapsack on your back and a toolbox in your hand, so every adventurer who has made enough mistakes carries a single, compact device with multiple tools cleverly built into it.
Historically, and funnily enough, the earliest multi-tool that archaeologists found had nothing to do with field chores.
It was dug up in the Mediterranean region, made mainly with silver, and featured a spoon, fork, spatula, spike, pick and knife.
Tests showed it was made sometime in 200 to 300 AD, and, it being silver, archaeologists deduced that it must have been the on-the-go dining cutlery of someone well-off.
That was apparently the only historic thing resembling a multi-tool ever found until the late 1800s.
Switzerland, a land respected for its precision hand-crafting of watches and clocks, was one of the first countries in the world in 1891 to issue its army with mass-produced infantry rifles that fired cartridge ammunition – the type with a casing containing gunpowder that propels a bullet pre-inserted into said casing.
But then each soldier needed to be issued with a screwdriver to field strip the rifle for regular maintenance.
This is a windscreen saw. Stab it into a car windscreen and rake it across with both hands to tear through the windscreen and free any trapped occupants.And so someone in the-then Swiss War Technical Department had an epiphany and called for the invention of a multi-functional folding knife.
Inventors rallied and found ways to add more and more tools to them, and that is how the tool came to be generically called a Swiss army knife.
Fun fact: American soldiers coined the term after arriving in Europe during WWII because they had trouble pronouncing the German word for it, “offiziersmesser (officer’s knife)”.
Today, there are Swiss army knives with more than 30 tools in one compact, handheld device, and many are not even made in Switzerland any more.
Some of the things stuffed into Swiss army knives do not even qualify as actual “tools”, such as a toothpick, a magnifying glass, a pen drive, a digital clock and a pin.
In the early 80s, an engineer-inventor from the United States took the concept of a multi-tool away from the pocket knife design and created one that is principally a pair of pliers.
The premise is so simple: just build extra tools into the handles of the pliers.
And the pliers themselves have proven to be indispensable for campers, hikers, anglers, mountain climbers, rescue professionals and soldiers.
You can unhook fish with it and then use it to securely grip fish or any other game caught in the name of survival.
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The yellow tool is a survivalist's emergency whistle that can be slotted into the handle of this collapsible pair of pliers.ou can use it to safely manipulate hot pots, kettles and pans over a campfire or stove.
You can jam the pliers into the earth to use as a bipod stand, and it is stout enough for you to use it to gouge out a hole in the dirt.
You can break windows or windscreens with it in an emergency. In wet, slippery conditions, you can use it to yank almost anything out of anything else.
Manufacturers of multi-tools even built them with steel grades so strong and joints so robust that they could withstand any humanly possible abuse.
Some plier-type multi-tools are for such serious use that they come with bit wrenches with an assortment of ultra-hard carbon steel bits.
Observe the woodsaw folded into the handle. A dazzling variety of tools can be hidden inside pliers type multi-tools.
In recent years, the floodgates of creativity seem to have burst open for multi-tool inventors.
There are now multi-tools crafted from the basic designs of a garden shear, hammer, and even an axe.
There are specialist multi-tools for search and rescue professionals, with scissors so strong they can cut through many things and serrated knives so tough they can tear apart car windscreens.
Thousands of designs exist now and not just for people on outdoor escapades. There are multi-tools for computer technicians, electricians, carpenters, cyclists and golfers. There are even multi-tools for people sitting in offices that come with orange peelers and nail clippers.
A few tips on choosing multi-tools: ingenuity aside, the quality of the steel used to make these gadgets is the reason some of them retail for hundreds of ringgit.
At the end of the handle of this pair of collapsible pliers is a glass-breaker bit, which can be pulled out and replace with screwdriver bits.
There are cheap knock-offs you can buy from peddlers in night markets, but when push comes to shove and you have to use them in a harsh way, you might find them breaking apart in your hands.
Also, some multi-tools are highly rust-resistant, but that means they are made of softer steel imbued with more chromium, while some multi-tools will exhibit higher tendencies to rust because their steel contains more carbon and is therefore much tougher.
This multi-tool for rescuers, designed principally as a pair of scissors, has a seatbelt cutter in its handle.Another point to consider is that you might not want to carry a multi-tool with as many implements as possible crammed into it because it will become unduly heavy and bulky.
How much weight you can carry is often a limiting factor on outdoor excursions, so consider what tools you will most likely need before choosing from the thousands of options available.
And then there are the “faddish” variants: tools worked into bracelets, steel plates the size of credit cards or little titanium baubles that hook onto keychains.
These work great in urban, everyday settings, though something more robust might be more apt while out in the wilderness.
Whatever your taste, having a multi-tool in your pocket or clipped to your belt at all times keeps you prepared.
It is better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it.
