Kershaw National Geographic Carabiner Tool

This is a mix between a carabiner and a knife with some multi-tool elements dropped into the mixture. The Kershaw five in one is a 4.125'' (10.4cm) carabiner featuring a knife, a phillips screwdriver, a flat screwdriver and a bottle opener.

The carabiner is made of anodized aluminium and has a screwdown safetylatch. It is unsuitable for climbing but can be used attached to a belt, backpack, vest or many other items. The total weight of the tool is 2.7oz.

The knife is made of AUS6A Stainless Steel and is 3.25'' (8.1cm) long when opened. It has partial serrations and a small thumbhole to assist the opening.Once opened the knife locks using a liner-lock mechanism.

Both the carabiner and the knife are good tools but are certainly not in the top quality section of either knives or carabiners, the screwdrivers and bottle opener are also ok. It is not each tool but the combination of all the elements what makes this multitool interesting. If you use carabiners frequently to attach different gear to your backpack or vest you can certainly consider this. One interesting advantage is that being in a carabiner shape that can be clipped to many things makes the tools very handy for quick use in case of need.

You can get this tool for $39 from KnifeCenter or read more information visiting Kershaw's website.

Metal Pen

A long time ago artists used to use silver pointed pencils to create some beautiful drawings. This pen while not using silver is based on the same principle.

The Pen is made of stainless steel with a solid metal compound tip, there is no ball, no ink, nothing just plain metal at the tip. When writing the pressure of the pen over the paper will leave microscopic traces of the metal on the paper producing the writing. Since there is no ink the pen will never dry and the tip will write for a very long time before the metal is consumed. You can leave the pen for years get it back and it will work in the same way it works today.

The metal alloy employed for the tip writes on almost any paper surface and produces a good writing as long as you remember this pen is not for writing the story of your life but more a backup or a novelty pen. The absence of ink makes the pen an all-weather and conditions instrument and the solid stainless steel body works well as a kubotan.

You can read more and order for $30 from grand illusions. Another source for about $25 here.

CR2 Ion

The Ion is a very small 2 stage flashlight using a single CR2 lithium battery and featuring a Cree XLamp led.

The light is activated twisting the head, a slight twist will bring the "low" mode of the flashlight keep turning and you will get the "high mode", a simple and yet very attractive interface that I found superior to the twist on-off models.

The Cree Led coupled with an aluminium reflector and the AR coated ultra clear lens produce a very smooth beam that is almost 100% flood. This means the light illuminates a wide area without reaching far for illumination. This makes the Ion an excellent light for indoors use and as a task light, reading, repairs, inspection and other tasks are ideal with this little flashlight.

The light can run for about 1 hour and a half on "high" mode reaching an amazing 140 hours on low mode. The body is constructed of HA-III aluminium knurled for a good grip and operation of the twist head. It will resist all sorts of impacts and scratches without damage. The interior of the light is coated in chemkote for better contact and resistance to corrosion, orings make the light waterproof and dunkable.

The tail features a small hole for a splitring and a stowaway splitring for keychain or neck carry. Even with the splitring installed the light can stand on its tail and be used in candle mode.

The Ion is a extremely small task light using top quality materials and design, it won't be the brightest light in the block but can certainly be the most useful one.

You can get it in black, aluminium, gold, green, red,blue, natural or maroon at Fenix-Store for $150.

Camelback Water Bottle

This is a 25fl.oz water bottle from CamelBack. It is constructed in Lexan polycarbonate a material that is bullet-proof so it will resist many hits, bumps and impacts without breaking.

Lexan can also be heated without much damage so when camping and after removing the lid you might use this bottle to heat water but of course a metal utensil should be preferred.

The cap features a no-drip bite valve, you flip up the valve and then bite to drink, flipping down the valve closes the valve making it quite safe against spills. With the valve up liquid should not spill unless you bite or press the valve but I wouldn't say this is a 100% spill safe as fliping down the valve. The cap is unscrewed to fill the bottle which is wide-mouthed for easy refilling.

There is a small plastic handle in the valve that helps attaching the bottle to a backpack using a carabiner or something similar. On the side there is a scale listing the aproximate volume of liquid left in ounces and mililiters.

The cap is standard sized so it will fit if you want other water bottles such as Nalgene and similar. We found the bite valve very easy to use and very practical for outdoor activities or urban hydratation, the bottle is practical and easy to carry and can be refilled with any normal water bottle or just from the tap if drinkable.

You can order it from REI at $12.

Sima PLE Lens Cleaner

This is a pen-shaped lens cleaning kit by Sima, there are similar products by other manufacturers as for example Nikon.

One of the tips of the pen features a cleaning compound that will not spill or dry out, it can be used to remove minor scratches, grease and dirt from lenses without damaging them. The product is applied making circular movements over the lens with the soft tip. It removes fingerprings, smudges and other marks. This end of the pen has a cap.

The other end features a retractable soft brush that can be used to remove dust and small particles from the lens before cleaning, dust can scratch the lens when cleaning if you don't remove it first. For clean lenses the brush is good enough, when the lens is not clean you have to use the brush then apply the cleaning tip and then brush again.

This kit can be used with camera lenses, sunglasses, reading glasses, camcorders, telescopes, binoculars, flashlights and anything that has a lens and needs some careful cleaning. It has been particularly useful to remove grease and fingerprints from sunglasses and flashlights to me and can also be used to clean your wristwatch.

It can be obtained in most optics or you can order for $8.50 from this site.

12 in 1 Pen Tool

This is a pen-sized multi-tool, it's basically a pen that carries inside several accesories. It includes a short blade and a long blade x-acto style. A hole punch, phillips screwdriver, a file, a flat screwdriver, scraper, tweezers, a small fork,a pen,a saw and a wire-stripper / staple-remover.

The tools are as expected not the best in each category but they can be used to do the job, the blades are very useful for precision cutting and small cutting jobs. The process to switch from one tool to another takes about 20 to 40 seconds, the biggest problem being the storage of all the small accessories that can get lost in the process.

It is a nice gift and as the size this tool is it will probably be an excellent addition to many EDC kits, think about all the pen holders in clothing or bags that you are not using. The tools work great for hobbyists, specially when you frequently deal with micro repair jobs and small things.

You can get it from Duluth Trading for $17.50

Buck X-tract

The buck x-tract is a multi tool featuring a knife as the main tool, it comes with pliers, two screwdrivers, can opener, bottle opener and a lanyard attachment.

The knife is a 3'' 420HC steel knife with a semi-serrated blade, very sharp from the box and useful for all the normal cutting jobs you can think for a knife. It can be opened and closed with one hand using thumbstuds and features a liner locking mechanism.

The pliers are small and have wire/cable cutters, they can also be opened with just one handed operation.

The can/bottle opener is smaller than many others but certainly suitable for the job. The last two accesories are a slidling philips and flat screwdrivers. The handle is textured thermoplastic offering a good grip that may be slightly slippery if the tool is used with greasy hands.

The X-tract offers a nice combination of accessory tools for the buck knife which is of very good quality, if you like buck knives you will love to have the X-tract.

You can read more information at the product webpage or order for $33 from this site.

Firesteel Fire Starter

The Firesteel firestarter is a small kit for fire starting that can be easily carried in a keychain since it is shaped as a key.

Essentially the firesteel is a high grade piece of flint that when scratched with metal will produce many sparks. The firesteel comes with a metal striking tool that you can use or not since any steel knife will work in the same way. In our tests small pocket saws worked great and you don't have to scratch your knife if you use one.

To use it just strike the metal striker or a metal tool against the flint to produce sparks that you can use to light up tinder, such as tinder quick, magnesium scraps, wax covered cotton balls or others the amount of sparks it produces should be good enough to get the fire going.

The tool will be good for thousands of uses and if it gets wet it can still be used without a problem. It may be a little too big for some keychains, in our opinion the plastic handle is too big without a good reason so sanding it with a dremel to a smaller size may be a practical option.

The firestell can be ordered for about $9 from Countycomm.