Knife(multitool) collectors

[HLaB]

My Katana

Were you in Kill Bill ?

 

[col]

Were you in Kill Bill ?

No , a club though so its all safe

 

[col]

Yeah, as pointed out it's the locking blade that's the problem. I have a Wave myself but keep it in the rear of my car, you could potentially get done if its within your reach when driving, that counts as carrying it in public apparently. You can carry one as long as you can demonstrate that you have a valid reason to do so. Now the law is something of a grey area here, and its open to interpretation by courts and police. If you are eating your dinner with it at home then fine, if your carrying it in your pocket on the way into a pub to eat your dinner with it and you get found with it then you might have something of a problem. There is loads of information about knife law on the British Blades website, a lot of it from people who work in the police and legal fields. Plenty of case studies also. Even a lot of police officers lack really good understanding of this area of the law. The courts are super hot on knives at the moment, its very much flavour of the month.

Its in its case, at the bottom of my bag. to be honest we would have been goosed if I hadnt had it with me when i broke down, great bit of kit.

 

[junglegusset]

Its in its case, at the bottom of my bag. to be honest we would have been goosed if I hadnt had it with me when i broke down, great bit of kit.

Yeah, they are useful. Shame they don't do a bike specific tool, lighter weight and with some allen keys.

 

[Gareth]

I have two Kershaw Multi tools: one which includes a very tough 2 inch hacksaw blade and the second without the hacksaw blade attachment, but with a pair of very sharp and tough scissor type cutters that will cleanly cut 27 strand, 90kg stainless steel wire, big game fishing traces. The first I bought 12 years ago, and the second 10 years ago.

I chose the Kershaw over other brands because their "mole grip" type locking plier function is more useful to me than the standard type plier jaws.

 

[Arch]

I have one penknife, a little Swiss Army job a couple of inches long on my keyring - blade, file plus flat screwdriver tip, scissors, tweezers and toothpick thing. Amazingly useful. It's not supersharp or anything, and the blade is too small to do a huge amount of cutting, but I use the scissors all the time to snip things, and the tweezers are often in demand for removing splinters etc. Inch for inch, or gram for gram, I bet it gets way more use than many of the Swiss Armies and Leathermans with all the whistles and bells that some people buy, but never actually use!

The other knife I have is a basic Opinel folding knife I picked up cheap in a supermarket* in France, and which lives at home and I'd only carry it when camping.

*We'd stopped at a place for coffee, 8 of us, and went to the supermarket for our lunchtime picnic fare. Some of the group already had Opinels, and those who didn't promptly snapped these ones up when we saw them in a box at the checkout. Come lunchtime, the food was unpacked and our leader said "Can someone cut the tomatoes?" and we all whipped out our new knives in a frenzy of wanting to try them out....

 

[vernon]

That's a mighty fine weapon Col....but I'm a little more concerned about the flooring and its possible proximity to the skirting board.

Yes but can it slice a bagette lengthways leaving no crumbs.

 

[subaqua]

a £10 rolson multitool from Maplin. it lives in my rucksack which goes virtually everywhere with me. blade gets sharpened once a week on a decent sharpening steel. plier bit has removed cable locks on mates bikes when the lock mech has jammed., the screwdrivers and bit set has sorted out problems when out on the MTB. I looked at a leatherman but the hairy northern spark in me baulked at the price . sometimes buy cheap buy twice isn't true.

 

[Night Train]

I chose the Kershaw over other brands because their "mole grip" type locking plier function is more useful to me than the standard type plier jaws.

I managed to break the jaws off on my previous Leatherman tool many years ago. I have a habit of crushing pliers to death.

 

[Arch]

I bet it gets way more use than many of the Swiss Armies and Leathermans with all the whistles and bells that some people buy, but never actually use!

I should add, I don't include those people who really DO use their tools a lot (oo err), I mean those people who buy things for the kudos but don't actually like to get their hands dirty...

 

[Gareth]

I managed to break the jaws off on my previous Leatherman tool many years ago. I have a habit of crushing pliers to death.

I have several fishing friends that have done the same with their Leatherman multi tools.

I hearld from the heavy duty end, and brute force regions of the engineering industry: agricultural & construction equipmet, off-shore and mining and ironically pliers are one of the few things I have yet to break; I've worn a few pairs out including some of the high quality top end brands, but never broken any.

 

[swee'pea99]

I haven't been without my mega swiss army knife since my dad got me one for my 21st birthday. When that one went awol, I immediately bought another, regardless of the cost. Use it all the time, not least because the scissors are the best I've ever found for trimming fingernails! As to the 'not supersharp' blade, Arch, have you tried a knife sharpener? (That sounds rude but it's not meant to be.) I only ask because if it's the genuine thing, it really should be able to take - and keep - a razor sharp edge. That's just one aspect of the sheer quality that's built into every aspect of the things. They're so...Swiss!

Incidentally, I was told once by a Swiss guy who'd been in their army (as all males are at some point - they still have conscription) that the different knives reflect different ranks. As a private, you get the little knife with a couple of blades and a nail file; sargeants get screwdrivers and things for taking bits out of horses' hooves; but only when you get to be a general do you get scissors, a corkscrew and a saw.

 

[Night Train]

I have several fishing friends that have done the same with their Leatherman multi tools.

I hearld from the heavy duty end, and brute force regions of the engineering industry: agricultural & construction equipmet, off-shore and mining and ironically pliers are one of the few things I have yet to break; I've worn a few pairs out including some of the high quality top end brands, but never broken any.

Here's the last pair of pliers I broke.
I was trying to cut a bit of V brake spring and managed to break the pliers. I have now found a quicker and easier method for spring cutting.

 

[Arch]

I haven't been without my mega swiss army knife since my dad got me one for my 21st birthday. When that one went awol, I immediately bought another, regardless of the cost. Use it all the time, not least because the scissors are the best I've ever found for trimming fingernails! As to the 'not supersharp' blade, Arch, have you tried a knife sharpener? (That sounds rude but it's not meant to be.) I only ask because if it's the genuine thing, it really should be able to take - and keep - a razor sharp edge. That's just one aspect of the sheer quality that's built into every aspect of the things. They're so...Swiss!

Incidentally, I was told once by a Swiss guy who'd been in their army (as all males are at some point - they still have conscription) that the different knives reflect different ranks. As a private, you get the little knife with a couple of blades and a nail file; sargeants get screwdrivers and things for taking bits out of horses' hooves; but only when you get to be a general do you get scissors, a corkscrew and a saw.

My Dad always used to call it a 'thing for taking stones out of Dowagers' tiaras'.

I'll try sharpening the blade, talking about it made me think I ought to - although I don't know that I want it razor sharp, in case of cutting myself while folding it! I mostly use it for cutting food or things like small cable ties, which it manages fine. Actually when it comes to cable ties, I'm often using the tip of the blade to release the latch, in order to reuse the tie....

 

[col]

I managed to break the jaws off on my previous Leatherman tool many years ago. I have a habit of crushing pliers to death.

The good thing about Leatherman is the lifetime gaurantee on any failure, send it off they will replace it.