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Removed carb heater on 1945 Piper Cub up in Canada summer ’97 — took it to town to truck stop for weld ($10, thank you !) and reinstalled, even re-lock wired it. Made it all the way to Nak Neck on the Aleutian Penninsula. Hell of a tool in a pinch, kinda like a good pocket knife. You can do a lot with it if you have to. Doesn’t add much weight to an overloaded Piper Cub either………get the original along with a roll of good duct tape, your ready!
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One of the requirements for a TRUE Alaskan is that you own a minimum of one leatherman (I have 4), and you also must have one on your person at all times, or within close proximity for those who live around others and find the need to pay attentio to personal hygeine (shower/bathe)...
I love my PSTII, since it has the scissors and the hook sharpener. I leave work and step into the salmon stream.... how about that Adirondack Jack? I, too, stay near the stream, in the stream, on the stream (drift boat!), and WOW! what fishing! Almost makes 11 1/2 months of winter seem worth it all!
My secaond favorite is the micro tool, since I can rely on my wife to always have hers with her! My best use story? Performed an emergency "surgery" on myslf using a micro for the knife and tweezers, and the PSTII for the needle nose. I "stabbed" myself with a cabinet: I lowered it off my shoulder and slid (oops) the 1/4" maple backing along my chest/stomach area, only to have a sliver 2" long embed itself in my stomach area, through my shirt.
Once I got the shirt open, I discovered the sliver had gone in deep, not just uder the skin! I thought I could just use the tweezers to backit out... not so easy! The skin had "swallowed" it in, leaving a smaller entrance hole than the actual end of the sliver (1/4" wide)... I ended up using the knife to mak a couple of incisions, and used the needle nose to back it out. I was then taken to the E.R. to have it looked at and treated.
On the other hand, we had a friend fishing with us, and was stabbed by his gerber while releasing a sockeye salmon... he had the pliers and the blade open at the same time, and used the pliers to remove the hook. The ungrateful fish swatted his arm with it's tail, and shoved the blade into his leg, just missing the femural artery... that kind of ruins a fishing trip, since we had to make the 2 mile hike out in bear country with a wounded man...
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Eric,
We've all seen "The Edge" and read the Leatherman ads in "Outdoor Life," so we know your stories are all made up. My guess is that you're actually living in an Arlington Heights high rise apartment and working at the Rand Road Sears selling tools. And your name isn't really Eric. Close?
*Never go anywhere without my Leatherman Supertool, Micra and one handed Gerber folding,locking knife! No leather sheaths on any of them.Use my old non-locking Leatherman to hold stuff I'm welding until it burns up and then good riddance to that knuckle crunching, pinching, nasty....thing!
*I second Barry, and his daughter, on the Spyderco..mine is the Endura and the clip fits nicely in the waistband of my jeans. The best Leatherman I ever bought ( and still have) is one I got while doing a tour at Ft. Bragg....it had a notch in the pliers teeth to crimp blasting caps, which came in handy since our demo bags were always short. SOG makes a nice multi-tool as well. Thats my two cents...De Opresso Libre
*45 piper huh? I learned in a J-3 then on to a Luscomb-sadly though after getting license haven't flown since and that was in 59.
*A Battery 4/77 Aerial Rocket Artillery 101st.
*or one of those KIA test car guys?
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I have both Leatherman Original and Gerber and like the Gerber because it opens 90% of the time as it is being withdrawn from its nylon sheath,a handy as well as unique phenomena!And I've used Gerber"s warranty.They back it fully.But I have broken the Gerber jaws using what I consider to be mild abuse and not the Leatherman.I feel the Leatherman has less brittle stainless and makes it more durable.
*I have been a repairman for the 2 top soda manufactures and use my leatherman EVERY day.In the past i have tried using some of the wanna-bee multi tools and worn them out or boke them very quickly.I have just purchased a nylon sheath that holds my mini-mag,locking leatherman,3 pens, and 2 pocket screwdrivers.I guess instead of a pocket protecter i can wear this and look like a techie geek...hehe. I would not give up my leatherman for anything. And by the way, you can beleave this or not...When i came up to an Automoble accident i had to use this blesset tool to open a woman's airway. I guess this thing is a REAL life saver.
*WOW!! I didn't realize the amount of JEALOUSY you could conjure up by just mentioning that you live in Alaska! Sorry, guys!, The REAL TRUTH is that I actually DO LIVE in Alaska, Eric IS my real name (go ahead, do a search on Anchorage or Wasilla - I'm listed in both, since I have residences - houses, not igloos - in both locations. I plan to add a third residence in Kenai, and do away with Anchorage altogether. So, I guess it's just that some of us are lucky enough NOT to live on the overpopulated east coast. Sorry to upset you by that! Another tidbit: the guy that wrote about flying to NakNeck spelled it wrong: it's actually spelled NAKNEK. Another thing, "The Edge" was filmed in either B.C. or another province of Canada. We fish NEXT to the brownies here... and some of 'em are a good 10' tall standing on their hind legs. That'd make Paul Bunyan feel small. Do a search on Katmai, bear viewing if you doubt this as well... I hope you enjoy your city and populace congested life Barry. If you want to become a real man, come up here for a month in the summer... you wouldn't last a day in the winter! Later!
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Eric,
It's apparent, though, that Alaskans lack a sense of humor. Must be the winters.
*Heard the current Governor, Tony Knowles, once refer to the Anchorage-Wassilla area as "The closest city to Alaska". Suppose he knew something?
*Fred: Yeah, the nice thing about Anchorage is that is so close to Alaska. You can drive there from Ancorage.Eric: Just poured the foundation on our house in Kenai (currently renting in Kasilof). Highly recommended. You're right about the jelousy/envy thing. Had a friend look at our 13.5 acres on the Cook Inlet, views of Mt Redoubt, Spurr, and Iliamna, 700 feet of saltwater, sandy beach. For 1/6 the price he's paying for a s**tty little Eichler (sp?) on a tiny lot in Palo Alto. No view, no forest, no moose, no salmon swimming by. To each their own. 35% of the posts to this Leatherman thread have been by/about Alaskans, even though we're only 0.2% of the US population. Days are 16 hours long already and the salmon start running in May so you'll hear from us a lot less for the next 5 months. -David
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what is best value in Leatherman type tool?
thanks
*Price-wise, the best I've seen on the original Leathermans are when K-Mart runs a special on them. The original sized one for about $29 and the super-sized one for $39-ish. I can't see spending $70 to 80 on a Gerber or some the other ones out there. I suspect this thread will quickly get into a discussion of the different features and their pros and cons. I personally like a good pair of scissors because so many things are safer to do with scissors than with a blade. Also a belt clip. Because I usually don't wear a belt, I like to hang my phone or knife from my Levi's or a pocket rather than in a sheath. Each poster: Can you also mention your best use of a leatherman-type tool? For me: Made 4 repairs to a Toyota Land Cruiser in Zimbabwe last April (door handle, windows, horn wiring, headlamps).
*It makes a great Christmas present. I got one a few yrs back and I still use it to fix minor things around the house. Be careful not to get into anything too heavy, it's murder on the hand and fingers when it folds and pinches.
*Removed carb heater on 1945 Piper Cub up in Canada summer '97 -- took it to town to truck stop for weld ($10, thank you !) and reinstalled, even re-lock wired it. Made it all the way to Nak Neck on the Aleutian Penninsula. Hell of a tool in a pinch, kinda like a good pocket knife. You can do a lot with it if you have to. Doesn't add much weight to an overloaded Piper Cub either.........get the original along with a roll of good duct tape, your ready!
*I have the new style Gerber tool with the attachments that swing out and lock. I preferr it to the leatherman, and it is certainly better than the all folding, non-locking SOG. I use the Gerber tool daily, at first people would roll their eyes when they heard it "click" open with a flick of my wrist, now they come ask for it.Other belt - related items. Spyderco pocket knife - the only true lightweight one hand operation lockblade I have seen, forget the knives with the thumb button! Mini Maglite, pager, and 12' or 25' tape round out the fashion accessories.I wear all of these things EVERYWHERE! Even to weddings! It used to really bother my wife until she asked for the Spyderco to cut chicken at a wedding reception. For some reason adult guests are not to be trusted with sharp knives - regardless of cost. Then I bought her one - Delica limited edition, all black with black nitrided blade to match my Endura - In fact I bought all the men in my wedding party the endura!-Rob
*Ask any soldier. They've always been able to compensate for the shortcomings in issue equipment. My own daughter, an army aviator captain, carries a Spyderco and a black Gerber Multi-Pliers. Reasons? Both tools are easy to open with one hand (pilots used to carry switch blades for this reason), the Gerber is less awkward for accessing the blades, and the Gerber sheath is not as tight fitting as the Leatherman's, and it isn't leather, which deteriorates in typical military operating conditions. The Leatherman tool catches on its sheath's rivets. Gerbers can be had for much less than $70, by the way.By the way, my belt knife, back when I was flying Cobras in the 70's, was a folding Buck Hunter. Also one handed opening. The high tech stuff hadn't shown up back then. I currently have a Leatherman in my toilet kit, a cast-off from my daughter, and it's a must when caught in a hotel room with a bottle of German pilsner and no opener.