KIT & GEAR
AIRSOFT MULTI-TOOLS
smallest knife in the range with a petite
30mm blade, scissors and a combined
file and flat head screwdriver. Having
aluminium scales (hence the Alox) it
doesn’t even have tweezers or a toothpick.
What bloody use is this?! I mean, it’s a
keyring knife! Ah... This is where you live
and learn.
SMALL BUT USEFUL
This tiny knife is surprisingly useful, and
when you get hold of a Classic SD with
the normal scales, and therefore add the
tweezers and toothpick, it gets even more
useful, and if you then persuade someone
to buy you the Manager version of that
knife, with the addition of a Philips head
screwdriver, bottle opener and wire stripper
and a pen you start to realise that you have
a proper tool kit in your pocket. A toolkit
that is shorter than your pinkie and which
weighs, well, I think the technical term is
“bugger all”. The knife takes and holds
a fearsome edge, is long enough to be
useful but short enough to cause neither
fear nor alarm amongst the populace at
large. Indeed, with a blade length of only
1”1/8 (30mm) you can carry it on a plane
within the European Union, thanks to EU
Directive 2015/1998 which permits blades
up to 60mm in the cabin.
All the other tools work as they should
and although I wouldn’t want to strip
the engine of my Trabant with it, it has
surprised me with just how functional it
actually is. Suffice to say that it is, and
has been for some years now, my daily
carry. It appears I can live without pliers
and a multitude of different screwdrivers
provided that the ones I do have are of
decent quality. It opens boxes, helps me
fix my bass, set up my guitar, dig crap out
of my teeth, keep my nails in check, lever
things open, tighten up errant screws,
cut string, open packaging. The list isn’t
endless, but it is pretty long.
In all of this I realised that on a skirmish
site, while a multitool can be a boon,
maybe there is a limit to what you actually
need. Frankly, if you’re the sort of player
who will strip a gun in the safe zone, the
chances are you already carry sufficient
tools with you to do that. If, on the other
hand, you want a handy tool that will deal
with all the little irritations; loose screws,
cutting paracord and tape, or opening your
M&S sandwiches, you really don’t need any
more than this. It’s cheap – the basic SD
can be had for about £10 -and it’s robust. I
would strongly recommend tying paracord
or similar to the keyring loop so you don’t
lose it, or clipping it onto your gear with a
small carabiner, but apart from that it will
take all the abuse you care to throw at it
and ask for nothing more than a rinse in
clean water to get rid of mud. If you want
to go super-light, the Alox variants are
even thinner and weigh less.
Any tool that isn’t with you is no use,
that is absolutely stating the obvious, so it
follows that a tool that is always with you,
even if not perfect, is a better tool. I have
become so attached to this little knife that
when I lost one on holiday in Seville, I went
straight to the nearest shop that sold them
and bought another. I have probably given
them as presents to my entire family by
now, its capabilities were a revelation and
it can - and does - go everywhere with me.
If you were to carry just one tool that
wasn’t specific to your loadout to a game,
make it one of these. It won’t weld a
broken barrel back on, and its rubbish for
stripping a gearbox, but for loosening,
tightening and prising things out of places
they shouldn’t be, it’s an absolute boss. AA
TAP THE IMAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.airsoft-action.online
57