KIT & GEAR LEATHERMAN STYLE PS
SOMETIMES SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL FRENCHIE HAS WRITTEN ABOUT MULTITOOLS ON MORE THAN A FEW OCCASIONS IN AIRSOFT ACTION AND THIS MONTH HE’S GOING TO ADD TO THAT GROWING PILE, BY TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT ONE OF HIS FAVOURITES.
I
was given my Style PS as a gift; one I had requested as I was trying to reduce the weight of metal I was lugging around daily on the off chance that I would be called upon to fix something. On the face of it, the Style is rather limited but living with for several months has revealed just how damned useful and competent it is. So, sit back and allow me to explain what it is and why it might be your best friend - both on and off site. Leatherman appear to have designed the Style PS with travellers in mind and one eye of the styling of their Skeletool. With the increased restrictions on what can (and cannot) be carried on flights since 9/11, anything with a blade has been problematic unless it is in hold baggage. There are exceptions within the European Union but since we no longer are, we’ll leave those aside. Consequently, the Style PS has no blade, which might seem to be a bit of a deal breaker for many but the scissors it does have go a long way to outweigh any perceived fault. I’ll list the tools Leatherman claim for (Image courtesy of Leatherman Inc) this tool as it will help when discussing what it can do: 1 Spring-action Needle nose Pliers 2 Spring-action Regular Pliers 3 Spring-action Wire Cutters 4 Spring-action Scissors 5 Flat/Phillips Screwdriver 6 Tweezers 7 Nail File 8 Carabiner/Bottle Opener Assuming that most of you are familiar with multitools, you will also be aware of just how often one feature is described as four, so this list isn’t wrong, it’s just a bit “advertise-y”. There are a set of sprung pliers which have a reasonably narrow nose, a larger centre section and a wire cutter. That’s three separate tools according to Leatherman! The carabiner has the weakest spring I have ever encountered and should not be trusted to secure your Style to anything, the bottle opener should work fine though. I suspect the poor carabiner is a direct result of 84
SEPTEMBER 2021
