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  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by peakbagger View Post
    The only tools I felt were necessary were, scissors (cutting mole skin and hydrocoloid patches), tweezers (tick removal). I carried a plate compass with a built in magnifying lens to assist with tick ID and removal.
    I have a Plastic Fresnel Lens (the size, shape, and weight of a credit card). Super handy for the tic thing, as well as reading microscopic print on maps. They cost next to nothing. It my case it was nothing. It was a free handout somewhere.

    I have a Tic Twister for tic removal.

    I carry a small sewing kit with need/thread

    A good nail clipper is essential. I'm prone to toenail infections if they are not trimmed just right.

    Otherwise I use a Victorinox Ambassador. This SAK is identical to the ubiquitous Classic, but just a little larger. It has a small blade and scissors. I find the scissors on the Classic to be too small for my fat fingers. The Ambassador is just big enough for me to find useful. It also has a toothpick and tweezers. Unfortunately the tweezers are not very useful (so I use a sewing needle for picking out splinters) and the tic twister for removing tics. I once e-mailed the company suggesting that pointed tip tweezers would be more useful. Their reply made it clear they were not interested in my input.

  2. #22
    Registered User scope's Avatar
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    03-08-2006
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    Chamblee, GA
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    Quote Originally Posted by gpburdelljr View Post
    Look your camping gear over, and I think you’ll find that not much is needed to repair/maintain it. Just get something with only items you might actually use.
    Useful items:
    -scissors
    -knife
    -needle nose pliers (for stuck zippers, etc.)
    -needle and thread
    Add phillips head screw driver for adjusting the clamp on my trekking poles. Less the needle and thread which is useless in my hands anyway. I carry this which has all. It is sufficient for minor uses for each accessory in the unit. I also carry a large folding knife which is good for major use.
    "I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
    - Kate Chopin

  3. #23
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    03-31-2016
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    Mount Dora, FL
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    Not a through hiker, but I've done over a thousand miles of the trail one week at a time. I carry a small pocketknife; a cheap one from walmart that weighs very little and costs $3.00. It's sharp enough to cut moleskin or cordage or to whittle a stick.

    I have never wished I had a tool that would be found on a multi-tool. The file ... I usually bring a cardboard nail file for trimming nails. I will have to bring nail clippers if I ever do a through hike.

    Like others have said, I have carried several things for hundreds of miles before realizing that they were never used, so I eliminated them from my backpack.

    Getting into the lightweight category or the ultralight category involves much of the above-mentioned eliminations of unused equipment. The difference between a 25lb pack and a 29lb pack is quite noticeable. Just add two quarts of water and pick up your pack!

    The lighter your pack:
    - the less fatigued you are at the end of the day.
    - the less likely you are to get injured
    - the more miles you can do in a day (it matters to some people more than others)

  4. #24
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    07-23-2022
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    Anderson, South Carolina
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    Folding hand saw for cutting branches into firewood.

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Birthright View Post
    Folding hand saw for cutting branches into firewood.
    I have never needed a handsaw for hiking. I do carry one when dayhiking for trail maintenance and one year did some post hurricane clean up while dayhiking the AT in GA but I find that if I head down the trail 5 minutes or so from a shelter I can pick up as much dead wood as I want with no need for a saw. I just pile it up with all the ends lined up, wrap a nylon strap around the ends and drag it back to the shelter/tentsite. A bit of leverage usually will break up any dead wood. The gap between a shelter and the ground makes a good place to break wood into manageable lengths. Just insert the end of the branch under the shelter, lift up and the branch breaks.

  6. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by Franco View Post
    "Just think a bottle of wine walk out of town up to a overlook and a full moon oh yeah"
    I think that there are now plenty of good wines inside screw top bottles..
    besides, do you go back to town to return the bottle ?
    Screw top wines...how nouveau riche!Snooty man 11212022.jpeg

    "To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." - T.S. Eliot

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by Odd Man Out View Post
    I have a Plastic Fresnel Lens (the size, shape, and weight of a credit card). Super handy for the tic thing, as well as reading microscopic print on maps. They cost next to nothing. It my case it was nothing. It was a free handout somewhere.

    I have a Tic Twister for tic removal.

    I carry a small sewing kit with need/thread

    A good nail clipper is essential. I'm prone to toenail infections if they are not trimmed just right.

    Otherwise I use a Victorinox Ambassador. This SAK is identical to the ubiquitous Classic, but just a little larger. It has a small blade and scissors. I find the scissors on the Classic to be too small for my fat fingers. The Ambassador is just big enough for me to find useful. It also has a toothpick and tweezers. Unfortunately the tweezers are not very useful (so I use a sewing needle for picking out splinters) and the tic twister for removing tics. I once e-mailed the company suggesting that pointed tip tweezers would be more useful. Their reply made it clear they were not interested in my input.
    I modified my SAK by filing the small flat screwdriver blade on the end of the can opener to be able to use it on eyeglass screws. You might try filing the tweezers to a point. If you mess it up, you can easily buy replacements for the tweezers and the toothpick, if necessary.

    "To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." - T.S. Eliot

  8. #28

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    I have needed a leather punch a few times, and as yet not found a multi-tool which has one.

  9. #29
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    12-28-2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by psyculman View Post
    I have needed a leather punch a few times, and as yet not found a multi-tool which has one.
    Back home, I've substituted a leather punch tool the following way:
    Take a nail of suitable size (like a 4-inch nail), and file the pointy tip down to a perfectly flat tip with sharp edges.
    Then take a block of wood and use the cross-section face as a bench, and the prepared nail as a punch-tool.

    (you may find a suitable nail near civilisation or a shelter, and most multitools have a file included)

  10. #30
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    Smallest SAK with the scissors and my demo knife that I’ve carried for 50 years now.

    don’t leave home without it, except to fly.
    76 HawkMtn w/Rangers
    14 LHHT
    15 Girard/Quebec/LostTurkey/Saylor/Tuscarora/BlackForest
    16 Kennerdell/Cranberry-Otter/DollyS/WRim-NCT
    17 BearR
    18-19,22 AT NOBO 1562.2
    22 Hadrian's Wall
    23 Cotswold Way

  11. #31
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    03-17-2004
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    Northern Virginia
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    I have carried my mini leatherman squirt ps4 for years. Not sure if it is even made now. It has a knife blade, a file blade, scissors, 2 sizes of screw drivers and folds open with a pair of pliers. Probably have used the scissors and the pliers the most.

    SPECS From the Leatherman site:

    • Weight: 2 oz. | 56.4 g.
    • Closed Length: 2.25 in. | 5.72 cm.
    • Open Length: 3.8 in. | 9.65 cm.
    • Blade Length: 1.6 in. | 4.06 cm.
    • Width: .78 in. | 1.98 cm.
    • Overall Thickness: .5 in. | 1.27 cm.
    Last edited by Furlough; 12-17-2022 at 12:55. Reason: Specs
    "Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen." Louis L’Amour

  12. #32

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    Personal preference depending on many variables including experience. I always ask myself, "Do I really need that?"

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