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Last week, we took apart a typical computer toolkit and talked about what each tool does. But what do you do if you're on the road (like I am now) and need some handy tools (e.g. to hack the phone jacks in a hotel room or to take apart your laptop after chunks of your breakfast burrito end up inside the keyboard)? You probably don't want to lug your entire toolkit with you. It's nice to have something that'll fit into your notebook computer bag or on your belt.
Street techies, meet the Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool:
 Contrary to the name, the Leatherman has nothing to do with leather working or the leather gay bar scene. The Leatherman gets its name from its inventor Tim Leatherman. Leatherman concieved of the tool while vagabonding through Europe in 1975. He found his "scout knife" to be inadequate for all of his diverse needs on the road. The main thing it was missing was pliers. When he got back to the states, he drew up plans for a new kind of multi-purpose pocket tool centered around pliers, and the Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool was born. The tools on a Leatherman are:
The Leatherman is incredibly well-made and has a 25-year warranty. It's made out of 100% stainless steel, measures 4" (10cm) closed and 6.25" (6cm) open, and weighs 5 ounces (142 grams). The literature on the tool claims that "all parts are polished to ensure smooth operation and reduce the potential for corrosion. The Phillips screwdriver is modified to fit both #1 and #2 sizes. Hard-wire cutters have been incorporated that cut material that no competitive product can handle." I don't know if this is true anymore (there are several competing tools such as the Gerber Multi-Plier and the Para-Tool), but I do know that my leatherman has served me very well over the years...and call me a hopeless geek (and maybe one that read too many Batman comic books as a kid), but I'm comforted by having this mini-toolkit on my belt (via its hard leather case) and always at the ready. Sadly, it doesn't come with a Bat-a-rang, but then, I don't have too many calls to scale the buildings of Gotham, either. In the last few years, Leatherman has introduced the PST II (which adds a pair of scissors, a serrated knife, a diamond-coated file and a sharpener) and the Micra, a much smaller version of the Leatherman that weighs only 1.75 ounces. As someone who would rather not wear a belt, I might be down-sizing to the Micra soon. Click here to see an exploded view of the Leatherman tool. - Gareth Branwyn [8/15/97]
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