KIT & GEAR: LEATHERMAN

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.

Iwas 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

prioritising a functioning bottle opener.

Construction is predominantly bead-blasted stainless steel with the screwdriver/nailfile housed in a glass-filled nylon panel. I honestly don’t know why this one part isn’t steel as well, but it’s all very robust as is typical of Leatherman tools. The tweezers are also housed in the nylon side plate, and they are as tight as a tight thing celebrating Ultimate Tight Day in Tightsville! You might lose a bit of nail getting them out, but they do come out and work as well as any tiny tweezers. Although all-metal, they are quite like those found in a Swiss Army knife.

Closed, the Style PS is slightly under three inches and weighs less than two ounces – it’s a “keychain” tool. You aren’t going to loosen a stubborn barrel nut with this but, as is often the case in airsoft, if you need to remove an outer barrel, you have problems that probably aren’t going to be resolved on site.

I appreciate that I’m possibly sounding far from super enthusiastic about the Style PS thus far, so let me redress that. Despite my cynicism this is a very accomplished tool, one that I reach for every single day, it is just so damned handy. Those pliers are not going to win prizes for sheer strength but they are easy to use thanks to the handle shape and the spring action and perfect for holding or manipulating small items one handed. To give you an example, I have used them several times to hold a needle when sewing bits of kit for the dog. Some of those leads are made of really tough webbing and my fingers are just not up to forcing a needle through it. I can sew sufficiently well using the Style to grip the needle, not something I could do with many other tools.

They happily cut wire and cable ties, and accepting that they have limits because of their size, are largely faultless.

The scissors probably get more use than anything else and they are excellent. Victorinox are rightly lauded for the quality of the scissors in their knives, these are right up there. If you do a bit of searching online, you will find lots of complaints about the spring for the scissors breaking. The thing about the internet is that it’s a bit of a time machine; content that is many years old remains accessible along with more current reviews and opinions. As best I can see, all the stories about spring failures are from many years back and there are few reviews mentioning this as a problem these days. I have absolutely no complaints – I find them easy to use, very precise in their cutting and utterly invaluable. While it is simply not possible to truly replace a blade with two blades (I carry a basic Swiss Army Cadet for blade duties), I have no qualms whatsoever about going away and leaving my knife at home, safe in the knowledge that I can cope with pretty much anything.

The nail file is, well, a nail file. It’s fairly coarse but does the job and the screwdriver end works fine, both as a driver and as a pry tool although I wouldn’t attempt to lever a tin of paint open with it! I’ve already mentioned the tweezers – they work fine, and the poor carabiner is what it is. I simply added a better one to the tool.

I’m sure it’s been said before that the best gun in airsoft is the one you have in your hands at any given moment. The same is true of multitools. You can watch hours of video (try YouTube if you doubt me) and read acres of print comparing the minutiae of which tool is better than other tools, but the truth is that if you only have one with you, that’s the best one at the moment.

Being so small, the Style PS can go with you anywhere and everywhere. There is no weight penalty, you could frankly wear it round your neck on a bit of paracord and forget it’s there. The key thing is that if you need it – it is there - and within the limitations of its design it should sort you out. I’m sure I made the same observation about the Swiss Army Classic knife; but for me the Style PS wins because of those pliers. For airsofters, the ability to crimp a wire, to pull a bit of forest out of their gun is more important than having a fine, short-bladed knife. You could carry both to be honest, but if it’s got to be just one – get the Leatherman!

Prices vary quite largely in the UK – expect to pay between £30 and £40 GBP which isn’t super cheap although it does come with Leatherman’s 25-year warranty. Cheap or not, it’s worth the cost because it is simply so useful. You won’t build a house with one but you may just be able to keep it runningl. AA