Gerber Clutch

The clutch is a pliers-based multitool that has a size bteween a keychain tool and a full multitool, it is similar, slightly bigger than the leatherman squirt, bigger than a LM micra but smaller than the Leatherman Juice series.

Available in red or greay it features slightly textured handles with cutouts.

One of the handles labeled "nailfile" you can find a flat philips driver, a flat driver that also acts as a cap lifter and bottle opener and the nailfile with a pointy shape to be used as a nail cleaner too.

The second handle is labeled "blade" and features a small blade, eyeglass screwdriver and non removable tweezers.

All these tools can be used without opening the pliers, the labels help you know which side to use. The pliers have square shaped ends and are not spring activated, to our taste rounded pointy pliers are better. They work well an are strong and the handles offer a very good non slippery grip. The small tools behave as expected, the tweezers being short, wide and non removable are not very useful.

The tool has a spliring attachment point in case you want to use it in your keychain or attach it to some clip or lanyard.

The clutch feels compact and heavy for its size and the general impression is that the tool is a good quality product, being quite affordable in price it is a good option if you like the tool selection offered.

You can order from REI for $18.

Flat Mini Keytons

The flat mini keytons are very light and small handy tools made of aircraft grade titanium. The keytons are 2 1/4'' long and 0.048'' thick, they weight only 0.2 ozs (6 grams).

The keytons feature three screwdriver tips, they can be used for screws, small prying, scraping and other jobs where you need a strong and flat tool.

Being made of titanium the keytons will never rust and are extremely strong for their size, the anodizing is strong and will not get scratched from contact with keys and other metallic elements. The keytons have a generous lanyard hole that can be used to thread cord, the walls are too big for a splitring so you need to thread cord first if you want to keep it in your keychain.
Being as flat as they are the keytons can also be carried inside a wallet, you will never note their existance.

Available in bronze, blue, pink, purple and gray/green. You can order from Peter Atwood's website for $25.

Freeplay Sherpa

The Freeplay Sherpa is an emergency flashlight that can be used without any power source using a hand crank to charge the light.

There are many hand-crank lights in the market and most of them are fakes, this one is for real. You have two ways to charge the flashlight, the first one is winding the hand crank, 2 minutes of winding will give you 50 hours of good light and up to 80 minutes of dim but useful light.
The second method is charging in an AC, a 24 hour charge will then give you 20 hours of light.

The light uses an array of 7 leds and has two brightness levels, one for maximum brightness and a dim setting for long runtime useful inside a tent or at the camping site, you can always recharge if you need more light so using the high mode if needed is not a problem.

The beam is floody good for ambien illumination and as a tasklight, the reflector provides a good throw so the light will be seen from a good distance and can be used to signal your position in an emergency situation.

The sherpa is a good quality emergency light that really works, it has a very good relation of charge time and light time, on the downside it is a little big to be an emergency device, it is not regulated and it doesn't have a strobe or beacon mode to attract attention. If the ability to be able to charge and use a light is what really matters this is an excellent option.

You can get it for $33 from BatteryJunction.

Do It Yourself: LED Throwies

LED throwies are simple home made illumination devices using a LED, a battery, some duct tape and a magnet. They were created mainly as a way to do urban graffiti but can also be used as simple illumination devices, trail lights and markers.

The basic throwie model requires a 10mm LED (red pictured but other colors can be used), a 2032 coin cell battery (very common and easy to get), some duct tape and a magnet, neodynium magnets recommended.

The construction is simple just make the LED legs contact the positive and negative sides of the 2032 battery, since a LED is a diode this will only work in one position. Stick the magnet to the positive side of the 2032 battery and wrap with ducttape. To use it just stick it to a metallic surface and voila!.

Runtime for a simple throwie can be several days, with a red LED one week of runtime is normal depending on the LED used and the quality of the battery. If you want to use the throwie as a marker or locator you can use a small piece of paper to prevent the contact between the battery and the LED and remove the tab when you want to use it.

Variations include the use of a photocell to turn on or off the LED based on ambient light extending runtime, adding a simple switch, use of 3mm or 5mm LED and smaller batteries to make it even smaller etc etc.

For the ones that like minimalistic EDC you can always have one ready in your kit with a tab to prevent activation and use it when you need it, they are easy to do, can be made by children, fun to use and economic.

If you want even more information you can read this article at Instructables.com

Rayovac Sportsman Xtreme 1 Watt Headlamp

This is a light weight and small headlamp made by Rayovac using a single AA cell. The light has two 5mm red leds, one 5mm blue led and one 1 watt luxeon led as its principal light source.

The headlamp has 3 modes that can be rotated using the single button switch, the first press turns on the two red leds, a second press turns on the blue led and a third press turns on the white led.

The three modes are quite bright for a single cell lamp, reds are useful to preserve night vision and blue is good for contrasting when you need to find something, it can also be used for blood tracking and other activities where blue light is recommended.

The white beam produces a good hotspot that can be used to take a night walk without any problems. Runtime is 2 hours for the white beam, we haven't tested the red /blue leds but we think runtime might be longer for them.

As a distinctive feature the light has a difusser that can be used over the red/blue leds or the white led, since it rotates from one position to the other. The difusser makes the light produce a floody beam that is very useful for a task light, for reading and other activities where you need smooth beam without a tight hotspot.

Balance is good and the up/down rotation is adjusted with a plastic ratchet. The ratchet is very solid and the assembly does not move when running. This model is probably not intended for outdoor activities but is certainly very good as a tasklight for indoors use or camping.

Using just a single AA cell the light is very light and confortable to use. A very good option for a light tasklight or a backup headlamp.

This model is available for about $20 at WallMart and similar stores, discounts might apply so you may find it at an even lower price. You can read more at Rayovac's website.

Imation Wristband

Yet another presentation for a USB flash drive, in this oportunity in the shape of a wristband.

The Imation Wristband is basically a USB drive surrounded by a rubber band giving it the shape of a wristband. The USB connector is used as a buckle to secure the drive to your wrist, bag handle, backpack or other places.

The band is not sizeable and measures 210mm (5.59'') so you have to make sure that it will fit your wrist in a confortable way. Being made of rubber and in only one size we estimate only a few will find the band confortable to the wrist.

The idea is interesting but with the size of flash drives today one has to wonder why carrying it as a bracelet is a need or even a good idea, you can put today's tiny drives on your wallet, keychain, necklace and so many places that the bracelet might even be impractical and too geeky for your taste.

The product is available in several colors and different memory sizes up to 1gb, probably bigger versions coming soon, it can be customized with your own logo too.
You can read more at Imation's website.

Streamlight Stylus

The Stylus is a pen-shaped flashlight by Streamlight. Among the many penlights in the market the stylus has the distictive advantage of being one of the thinnest versions being as thin as a regular ball pen or a mechanical pencil, other products are bulky when compared to a pen.

The stylus has a button on the tailcap for momentary activation, you can also tighten the end cap for constant on mode when needed in a penlight momentary use is probably the most used mode so the button is very useful.

The light uses three AAAA (that is four As) batteries, not very common to find but not hard or impossible, the AAAA batteries have the same length as AA or AAA batteries but are thinner. Some models of 9v batteries are made of 6 AAAA batteries so in case of emergencies you can "attack" a 9v battery to get the AAAAs.

The beam is dim as expeced from the regular 5mm led in this light but useful as a small task light or for quick inspections, it has a long runtime of more than 50 hours. The total brightness for the white led version is 10 lumen. The pocket clip is more oriented to a shirt than a pocket because it is rather small, so it can be seen as the regular clip you can find in a pen.

The light is available in white, red, blue, green and UV LED colors and several body colors to choose. You can read more about it at streamlight website or order from EDCdepot for $14.

Victorinox Soldier

The Soldier is the original model issued by the Swiss Army, it is a simple multitool with just 4 elements and the handles are made of an aluminium aleation referred as Alox.

The soldier features a blade, can opener with small screwdriver, bottle opener with large screwdriver and wire stripper and finally a reamer/awl.

The blade is excellent, non locking but stronger and thicker than blades in other popular SAK models, it is certainly beyond the category of letter opener and can be used for most common cutting jobs without any problems. Production year is stamped on the blade.

The can opener, bottle opener and screwdrivers are the same as in other SAK models, they are strong and functional and in case of need can be used for prying or scraping jobs without breaking them.

The awl/reamer is probably the most characteristic item in the soldier since it is not common in other models; it is a very pointy and sharp piece of steel that can be used to create holes, punch, scrape, pry little things and other similar jobs. It can be a handy tool since many times we found a pointy/sharp object is needed and we never have one. It can also become useful as a last resort self defense tool.

The handles made of Alox metal are very strong and very stylish, they have a fine knurling job that make the grip excellent and non slippery. The only detail is that there are no toothpick or tweezers in the Alox handles as you can find in the plastic ones. There is no lanyard hole or attachment point so you have to carry it loose in your pocket or in a belt sheath.

The soldier is a classic knife that is stylish and functional, if you just want a stylish pack of basic tools of high quality this is an excellent idea.

You can get it from Amazon for about $25.