Comment by ubermonkey
2 days ago
That's a wild assertion about the knives, dude.
I've carried one pretty much every day of my life (so, starting at about 14 or 15; I'm 55). A tool that can trim a thread, open a box, open a bottle of wine, tighten a couple kinds of screws, punch a hole, and pluck a splinter while still being small enough for EDC is a big win in my book.
Is it the BEST screwdriver? Certainly not. Is it the BEST corkscrew? My WineRabbit is losing no sleep on that question. Are there better tweezers in the house? Absolutely. But the SAK is in my pocket, and is good enough for most tasks.
Yesterday the knob on my office door was loose. It's the kind of household issue that often drags on, bc you notice it when you're doing something else, kinda make a plan to get a screwdriver and fix it, but then forget about it until the next time you touch the doorknob.
But because I had my Swiss Army in my pocket, I took 10 seconds to tighten the screw right then. Problem solved.
As they say in photography, the best camera is the one you have with you.
We appear to agree it sucks at everything and is better than nothing, which is why I have one in my satchel but not on my keyring. Why did that need so many words? Meanwhile, I haven't intentionally installed a Perl interpreter so far this decade.
We don't really agree, though, because I don't think it sucks at ANYTHING.
It's pretty good at everything it does. Are there purpose built specialist tools that are better for many of the things it does? Sure! But the efficacy of a Swiss Army Knife shows that, most of the time, you don't need to bother chasing down the perfect screwdriver (e.g.) if there's just a loose screw to deal with.
Oh. Spoken like someone who's never used a really good screwdriver.
Myself, I like Wiha's fullsize multibit one that I got in 2018 or so, first because it's an excellent, versatile, thoughtfully designed, and very repairable tool, and second because keeping it and one big flathead in my toolbag is all the screwdrivers I usually need around the house. Granted, that's about a 20-pound toolbag. But it's also everything I'll need in the 90+% home repair/maintenance case, along with my socket set ~99%, and I never have trouble finding it or anything that lives in it. (Unless I forget to put things back, of course. But that's on me.) Same for everything else a Swiss Army does, which is why there isn't one in my toolbag.
I don't really need to convince you, of course. I'd just hate to see anyone inadvertently misled into overspending on a broadly unsafe "all things to all people" social statement play, the exact equivalent in taste and quality of a Mont Blanc fountain pen, rather than invest the same money in more reasonably priced tools worth using. And what's on my keyring is a Leatherman Squirt.