Purrell Military Hand Sanitizer

Hand sanitizer is always a good idea for your EDC, first aid kits, travel bags and other kits. This version features purrell's traditional hand sanitizer product in a special bottle with the military in mind.

The product itself is an alcohol based gel with usually 70% of alcohol, applied over your skin and rubbed it will kill 99% of germs and bacteria, it dries very quickly leaving no trace or residue except the characteristic smell of alcohol.

Among other uses hand sanitizer is an excellent fuel so it can be used as a firestarter when camping.

In this version the bottle is refillable, in foliage green color and made of a very strong plastic, it can be dropped and abused in several ways and won't be easy to break. It also offers a low infrared profile for night operations, there are grips on the side to help use the bottle with just one hand.

We find hand sanitizer a very useful EDC product, this version maybe more masculine than the colorful bottles you can get at the pharmacy but the product is still the same, so you can pick the container that you like the most, this is just one of many options.

You can get it for $3.50 from CountyComm.

Leatherman Squirt S4-P4

The squirt S4 is a keychain multitool by leatherman conceived as an improved version of the classic Micra. In the squirt the most significant change is that tools can now be opened with the scissors closed, the tweezers can be sepparated and the handles are now in color.

There are two models of the Squirt, the S4 featuring scissors as the main tool and the P4 featuring pliers as the main tool. In both models the accesory tools include a small blade, a small screwdriver, medium screwdriver, nail file and cleaner, philips screwdriver and tweezers. There is also a splitring attachment point in one of the handles. There is also a ruler in the handles in case you need to make a quick measurement.

The main tool either the scissors or the pliers work great and they are spring activated the spring being very noble so it will last as long as the tool itself. all the tools work well as expected in a leatherman, the tools can be opened without deploying the scissors or pliers. The screwdrivers are strong enough to be used for little prying and scraping jobs if needed.

Compared with the Micra the Squirt is a little bigger due to the handles being thicker this is the price you pay for being able to use the screwdriver without opening the tool. In our opinion you don't have to replace your micra if you already have one but if you don't then this is a nice tool to consider. Along with the Victorinix minichamp this is a top quality and useful keychain multi-tool.

The squirt is available in red, blue and gray. You can read more about it at Leatherman's official website. And order for about $25 from Amazon.

Mistery 7-14 x 25 pocket zoomable monocular

We have to start this review saying that mistery is the brand of the monocular, nothing misterious about it.

The monocular is made of rubber with glass coated lenses, there are two rings as controls. One of the rings controls the monocular focus and the other controls the magnification factor from 7 to 14 times.

The image quality is good and the focus is easy to set, the bigger the magnification factor the more narrow the area where you can obtain focus in 7x the image is clear and the details can be observed very well in 14x the image is still clear but not as clear as in optical instruments of higher quality.

The lenses are fine but do not capture enough light for the diameter they have, probably due to a suboptimal coating or the lens construction itself, this means that the monocular won't operate very well in dark environments and won't be able to pick many details after sunset.

The monocular is 5.5 inches long, slightly bigger than the regular pocket monoculars but this one is zoomable and the others are not so the extra size is easy to explain. The construction is solid and the monocular seems to be well made for its price.

A good product that works well in both 7x and 14x but don't expect extraordinary images.

You can order for $17 from DealExtreme.

All-Ett Wallet

The All-Ett is a very special wallet designed to be very light and very small, according to the company a normal wallet can be up to 16 times bigger than the All-Ett Wallet with the same content inside.

The "original" model has 4 pockets for cards, two pockets for bills and one extra deep pocket for things such as receipts, airline tickets and others. Among other versions we can highlight the european version with just 2 pockets for cards and the travelers version with space for your passport, ticket, and money.

The All-Ett is made of a very thin nylon material called "spinnaker cloth", it is thin as paper but very strong, and that explains why after loading the wallet with 10 credit cards the wallet is as big as the 10 cards are without almost any extra volume due to the wallet itself. The material is also washeable and water resistant and it doesn't get bad in the humid summer days.

The slim approach of the All-Ett wallet multiply the options to carry, you can use it in your front pocket or back pocket and is hard to notice it is there.

For those looking for a wallet with basic features but as thin as paper and very light the All-Ett is certainly a terrific product.

You can read more, see the different versions and order for about $20 from the official website.

Wagner Swisspen

The Swisspen combines a multi-tool and a pen, it can be seen as a Victorinox classic mounted on top of a pen with the addition of a LED flashlight.

The tools included are scissors, letter opener and the file, the section of the pen with the tools can be detached to help using the scissors. The cross logo can be pressed to activiate a small led flashlight that can run for about 10 hours using a coin cell battery.

The pen itself uses a twist mechanism to hide the writing tip and the ink cartridge is pressurized meaning the pen will write in difficult scenarios such as upside down or over greasy paper. We found the writing fine without smears the trace is thick and clear and the ink doesn't get dry if you don't use it for some weeks.

The weight is balanced to make writing pleasant even having some tools at the pen top, as a result the pen is quite heavy and might be used as a kubaton by trained hands. The tools work well as expected but the pen is sometimes a very strange grip so you are not as confortable using the file or the scissors as you would be with a SAK.

We found this a combo that priorizes the pen over the multitools so it is a good gift for people that want a pen and would like some extra tools handy in case of need.

You can read more and check different models from Wagner's website, or order for about $40 from knifecenter.

Surefire L1 Cree Version

This is a new version of the L1 flashlight by Surefire, the biggest change is that the LED is now a Cree LED replacing the Luxeon LED in the previous model, the body length is shorter making it even better for EDC. The inmediate result is a light brighter, with longer runtime and a more compact size.

The L1 uses a single C123 cell rechargeables can be used but the body may not be wide enough for protected cells, this probably means Surefire wants you to use primary cells and not rechargeables in this light. It claims 65 lumen in high mode and about 10 lumen in low mode. Those values are according to our tests underrated, we estimate around 85 lumens on high compared to other lights we have around.

Runtime is 1.5 hours in high and 16 hours in low mode. Since the Cree is a more efficient LED there is a marked improvement in runtime. When running on high the thermal protection might kick in dimming the light, this probably means that the L1 is designed to be used in low mode with a very long runtime with the high mode available when needed providing a good amount of light with great runtime and a burst mode available.

The beam is round and very smooth, with a long throw and usable sidespill, the lens is slightly frosted to eliminate beam artifacts and the light uses a TIROS optic to focus the beam so it is a light designed for throw with a lens that corrects imperfections diffusing the beam a little. The loss of light due to the lens frost is probably minimal.

The new Cree led is very bright so the new L1 will outperform many other LED lights, in terms of brightness the new L1 in high mode can compete with the L4 and it only uses a single battery.

The tactical two stage switch is easy to operate, tighten for low mode and keep tightening for high mode, the button can be pressed for momentary low/high when off or momentary high when you are in low mode. Unscrewing the tailcap will put you in lockout mode. You can also unscrew the tailcap to only allow momentary low avoiding a very bright light when not desired.

As in many other Surefire lights the construction is excellent in HAIII aluminium, strong as it can be, it won't get scratched or damaged by impacts. O-rings make the light waterproof.

The L1 is an excellent EDC light, very bright and with excellent performance in runtime, the two stages makes it very useful as an all-around light.

You can read more at Surefire's website retail price is $135, you can get it from OpticsHQ.

Kershaw Twocan

The twocan is an interesting combination of a knife and a pair of scissors by Kershaw.

When closed the twocan is just 2-3/4'' long (70 mm) and weights 0.9oz. The material is stainless steel, it has a nice solid carabiner that has good pressure and can be used to clip the tool to a backpack, belt loop, keychain, etc we don't think the carabiner can open by accident so the risk of losing the tool is very low.

After deploying the first blade you have a wharncliff style knife that is 1 1/2'' long, very sharp and pointy from the factory can be used to open boxes, make sharp cuts, remove splinters and many other tasks.

Things get interesting when you deploy a second blade that opposes the first one and has a spring mechanism converting the knife in a pair of scissors. There is no handle so you use the scissors pushing the spring blade with your thumb. The scissors cut excellent because the blades are very sharp and the fit is perfect, they will get a little difficult to use for long cuts because your hand will get in the middle of what you are cutting but for small precision cuts they are great, small rope, fishing line, paper, cardboard are cut without any problems.

The twocan is a great combination of a pocket knife and scissors in a small size and with superb quality construction.

You can get it from Knife Center for $20.

Maxpedition's Micro Wallet

The Micro Wallet is a minimalistic wallet for people that don't like or can't carry big bulky wallets with millions of items.

The Micro is 4.5'' x 3''. When opened it offers an ID window and two card slots. There is a single division running along for bills.

When closed the Micro has a small pocket in one side, there is no closure mechanism, no velcro or anything similar, just fold it and put it in your pocket.

The construction is very strong in cordura nylon with double stitching along the borders. It will not get destroyed by metallic objects such as keys in your pocket.

Maxpedition claims you can fit one ID, two credit cards, some bills, two quarter coins and a spare key in the Micro, this is as far as we could test true, being small if you load it with too many items it will be hard to fold and inpractical.

As an interesting point the strong cordura nylon used for this wallet makes it a little heavier and bulkier than what you would expect for a Micro wallet, we believe a lighter and thiner material would have been a better choice.

You can read more and order for $11 from Maxpedition's Website.