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.

Buck Transport

The transport is a keychain folding knife by Buck made in collaboration with Peter Whittaker.

The transport is 2 7/8'' long when closed (7.3cm) and the blade length is 1 1/4'' (3.2cm). The transport locks and unlocks using a button on the side, interestingly the knife is also locked preventing accidental opening.

The transport features a bottle opener incorporated and a lanyard half-hole at the back of the handle. The lanyard hole is generous enough for splitrings, paracord, ballchain and other options. There is no pocket clip.

The handle is made of nylon, is strong and has a good grip but may be a little slippery if your hands are wet or greasy.

The blade is a drop point made of 420J2 steel. It cuts well and it is pointy enough to penetrate cardboard and similar materials, the short blade will make large cutting jobs difficult but for small tasks such as opening boxes, cutting cord and similar tasks works perfectly well.

One thing we liked is that the transport really doesn't look scary at all, you can deploy it and use it at the office, when camping and other public places without scaring anybody. A practical little knife that is accesible and easy to use.

The transport is available in red, pink, gray and blue handles for about $18 from REI. You can also read more at Buck's website.

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.