Multi Tools

   Multi Tools inspire mixed feelings in my tool loving soul.  On my desk you see three multi tools, I have several others but these serve will serve to illustrate my feelings.
   The tools with the red handle is a Corona Fusion 11.  It claims to be 11 tools in 1.  As you can see it is has most of the classic gadgets.  I recently bought this tool from thetoolstore.ca, mostly on a whim.  My wife is the serious gardener and has serious garden tools.  This one will serve me as a secondary tool and make is so I do not have to borrow any of hers.  Is it a great tool no.  Is it a decent tool for the money, sure.  It has to be remembered that good by-pass pruners cost $60.00 and this whole thing cost around $20.00.  It will dead head roses and dig a few weeds and I expect to be perfectly happy with it, knowing it is a lower cost multi tool doing an average job at a variety of tasks.


  In the middle of the pack is my Filzer bicycle tool.  It is mostly a collection of hex keys with a Phillips and slot head screw driver thrown in for good measure.  It handles basic road side bicycle repairs, nothing more, nothing less.  It is a very light weight sturdy tool and I really hope to use very seldom.  There are a variety of companies make tools like this and two or three times a season they are needed they prove a real time and effort saver.  


   The lower tool we all recognize as a Leatherman tool.  Leatherman makes great tools.  I bought my first Leatherman years ago when I was an office manager for a lawyer.  The tool sat in my desk drawer and came out two or three times a week to deal with some fiddling issue relating to stuck drawers, uncooperative file cabinets and the occasional jammed printer/copier.   I can`t begin to estimate the time and money  that multi tool saved.  It was an instrument of measurement as well as a repair tool. If the problem was beyond the Leatherman, it was too big to be handled in house and a repair person was called.


  I strongly feel that multi tools have a real place in a shop and home.  The only thing that must be remembered is that they are a compromise tool, not the very best tool for the specific task, just a good tool for small stuff and better than using something that is not a tool at all (butter knife) to do a job.  Their strength is small size, handiness and multiplicity.  If I can I use the exact tool for the job, but that tool is not always were I am.